On today's date in 1939, the King and Queen of England were in New York City. Despite the perilous situation back home in Europe, their royal majesties George and Elizabeth Windsor crossed the Atlantic to take in some of the British exhibits at the 1939 World's Fair, and sample exotic native delights such as a hot dog picnic with President Franklin Roosevelt. The previous evening at Carnegie Hall, the New York Philharmonic had given the world premiere of the Seventh Symphony of Arnold Bax, a work commissioned by the British Council and dedicated to the American people. On the evening of June 10, the same performers presented two additional premieres: a virtuoso Piano Concerto by Arthur Bliss (with the British pianist Cuthbert Solomon as the soloist) and Ralph Vaughan Williams' set of variations for strings and harp on the old English carol, "Dives and Lazarus." The music critic for The New Yorker, covering the premieres, wrote: "The symphony wandered, as Bax symphonies seem to do, yet wandered into many characteristic eloquences. The variations were soundly charming, and the piano concerto was a roaring triumph for Mr. Solomon." There seems to be no documentation on the quality of the hot dogs served to their royal majesties, but we're willing to bet they, too, were top-notch.