The New York Yankees rewarded their long-suffering fans on Wednesday night by clinching their 27th World Series title. Today they’re celebrating with a ticker-tape parade, complete with a performance by Jay-Z and a cameo by Spike Lee. The last time things were this crazy in the Canyon of Heroes was back in early 2008, in celebration of the Giants’ Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots. After the jump we run through some of the biggest NYC ticker-tape parades of the last century.
We start our list off with Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel back in 1926. Below is video of her parade. New Yorkers loved celebrating female English Channel swimmers so much they had another parade less than a month later for the first mom to swim the English Channel, Amelia Gade Corson.
Jesse Owens was honored in 1936, after he stuck it to Hitler in the ’36 Berlin games. Too bad he was reduced to racing horses for a living only a short time later.
The famous recluse Howard Hughes got a parade after his 3-day flight around the world in July of 1938.
One of the most famous ticker-tape parades: John F. Kennedy Jr.’s in October of 1960, after he secured the Democratic Presidential nomination.
In 1962, after his MA-6 Mission placed a human in orbit around the earth for the first time, John Glenn received his first ticker-tape parade.
He got a second one in November of 1998 as part of the Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 mission.
Other individuals who have been honored more than once: Richard E. Byrd (3), George Fried (2), Bobby Jones (2), Amelia Earhart (2), Wiley Post (2), Dwight D. Eisenhower (2), Charles de Gaulle (2), Haile Selassie (2), John Glenn (2), and Alcide De Gasperi (2).
After the 1960’s, sports teams began taking center stage. No one will forget the 1969 Miracle Mets.
Or more recently, the 1994 Stanley Cup Champion Rangers.
A few notable parades we don’t have images for: the 82nd Airborne division representing the Army for the V-J Parade after WWII; Neil Armstrong, fresh from the moon in 1969; the American hostages freed from Iran in 1981; and Nelson Mandela in 1990.
Who are we forgetting? Enjoy the parade New Yorkers. For the rest of the country, enjoy the absence of thousands of drunk people on your way home from work.