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- MILESTONES, Page 77
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- DIED. Robert Wagner, 80, influential mayor of New York City
- from 1954 to 1965; in New York City. His three terms in office
- were equaled in modern times only by Fiorello La Guardia and
- Edward Koch. Wagner was widely regarded as one of the best
- mayors in the city's history. During his tenure, as large
- numbers of Southern blacks and poor Puerto Ricans moved into
- the city and the middle classes headed for the suburbs, Wagner
- secured state and federal funds to clear slums and construct
- public housing. He granted collective-bargaining rights to
- municipal labor unions and included greater numbers of
- minorities as officials in high positions in his
- administration. Admired for his soft-spoken integrity, Wagner
- saved Carnegie Hall from the wrecker's ball and managed to
- defeat Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party machine that
- influenced city and state politics for 150 years. After leaving
- office, he was U.S. ambassador to Spain and presidential envoy
- to the Vatican.
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