Ellis Island marks centennial of busiest day of immigrant arrivals

New York's Ellis Island, a former U.S. flagship immigration point, on Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of the record-breaking day when 11,747 immigrants were processed on the island.

Four outstanding Americans, namely, Morgan Stanley's John Mack, fashion designer Josie Natori, AARP's Bill Novelli and Duke University's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who was appointed U.S. national basketball head coach for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, were honored with 2007 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards on Tuesday by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. for their contributions to the American experience.

The Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards, given annually to a select number of Port of New York and Ellis Island immigrants or their descendants, were presented by U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in a ceremony hosted by Lynn Sherr of ABC News at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

Kempthorne lauded Ellis Island as the symbol of the national journey and urged people to continue to build the legacy of the island.

Among the four honorees, three are descendants of Ellis Island immigrants. John Mack's grandfather entered America through Ellis Island in 1903, Bill Novelli's grandfather arrived at Ellis Island in 1897 and Mike Krzyzewski's grandfather came to America by way of Ellis Island in 1906.

Josie Natori received the Peopling of America Award, which honors an immigrant to the United States who cannot trace roots to Ellis Island but arrived at another time or through another port of entry.

Born in the Philippines, she came to America in 1964 to study economics, later becoming an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. In 1976, ready to move onto something more creative, she boldly quit her job and ultimately reconfigured the lingerie industry as CEO of Natori Company.

The Ellis Island honorees received a framed copy of the original ship's passenger manifest documenting the arrival of their family in America, obtained from the database of the American Family Immigration History Center at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

More than 100 million Americans can trace their roots back to at least one ancestor who arrived through Ellis Island, which processed 17 million immigrants from 1892-1954.

Tuesday marks the centennial of the busiest day in Ellis Island's history, when 11,747 individuals arrived on April 17, 1907. A usual day saw some 5,000 immigrants processed. It was the highpoint of 1907 when 1,285,349 immigrants entered the United States, with Ellis Island processing nearly 80 percent of those new arrivals.

Source: Xinhua