Zohran Mamdani’s Election and the Hidden Number Behind History

When Zohran Mamdani, 34, won the New York City mayoral race last month, he didn’t just claim an office — he marked a turning point in the city’s long political story.
Born in Kampala, Uganda, and raised in Queens, Mamdani will be the first Muslim, the first South Asian, and the first Africa-born mayor in the city’s history. His election symbolizes the evolving identity of a metropolis that has always reflected the wider world — but rarely seen it so clearly in its leadership.

Mamdani is set to be sworn in as New York’s 111th mayor in January 2026.
Yet, a recent archival revelation suggests he may actually be the 112th.

A Historian’s Quiet Discovery
While researching early colonial governance and its links to the slave trade, historian Paul Hortenstine uncovered a centuries-old counting error buried in the city’s earliest records.
According to his findings, Matthias Nicolls, officially listed as the sixth mayor of New York, actually served two non-consecutive terms — in 1672 and again in 1675. By today’s conventions, such split tenures are counted separately, just as American presidents with non-consecutive terms (like Grover Cleveland) are assigned distinct numbers.

But Nicolls’s return to office was never recorded as a separate administration. That single oversight, Hortenstine explains, caused every mayor after him to be misnumbered by one.
He has since contacted the mayor’s office, noting that the mistake likely stemmed from a misinterpreted 17th-century Dutch-English translation in an archival ledger.

An Echo From the Past
This isn’t the first time the issue has surfaced.
In 1989, historian Peter R. Christoph raised similar concerns about the accuracy of the mayoral sequence, though the discrepancy drew little official attention at the time. The numbering system — as with much of civic tradition — simply persisted, uncorrected and unchallenged.

The new evidence doesn’t alter Mamdani’s authority or the legitimacy of his administration. It changes only the ceremonial numbering, adding a layer of historical irony to a moment already steeped in significance.

A City Built on Layers
Whether the city will formally adjust its records remains uncertain. Doing so would require revising public archives, historical plaques, and countless references across municipal and state databases.
But for many, the revelation feels fitting. Mamdani’s election itself is an act of revision — a rewriting of who can belong in the narrative of power.

In a city where immigrant stories, erased names, and forgotten records have always intertwined, even a misplaced number tells a deeper truth: history is never static. It bends, corrects, and reveals itself anew.

As Mamdani prepares to take office, this footnote from the 1600s reminds New Yorkers that every beginning carries echoes of what was overlooked — and that leadership, like the city itself, is strongest when it faces its past without fear.