[7] Unlike all other towns in the region, the charter of Flushing allowed residents freedom of religion as practiced in Holland "without the disturbance of any magistrate or ecclesiastical minister".

This petition contained religious arguments even mentioning freedom for "Jews, Turks, and Egyptians," but ended with a forceful declaration that any infringement of the town charter would not be tolerated.

The Remonstrance was signed at a house on the site of the former State Armory, now a police facility, on the south side Northern Boulevard between Linden Place and Union Street.

Flushing was a seat of power as the Province of New York up to the American Revolution was led by Governor Cadwallader Colden, based at his Spring Hill estate.

Following the Battle of Long Island, Zackary Perrine, an officer in the Continental Army, was apprehended near Flushing Bay while on what was probably an intelligence gathering mission and was later hanged.

[25] With the opening of Pennsylvania Station the next year, the Port Washington Branch, now part of the Long Island Rail Road, started running to midtown Manhattan.

Decades later, the RKO Keith's movie palace would host vaudeville acts and appearances by the likes of Mickey Rooney, the Marx Brothers and Bob Hope.

In the 1970s, immigrants from Taiwan established a foothold in Flushing, whose demographic constituency had been predominantly non-Hispanic white, interspersed with a small Japanese community.

Many Taiwanese immigrants were additionally Hokkien and had relatives or connections to Fujian province in China, which led to large influxes of Fuzhounese Americans.

[citation needed] Over the years, many new non-Cantonese ethnic Chinese immigrants from different regions and provinces of China started to arrive in New York City and settled in Flushing through word of mouth.

[35][36] In the 21st century, Flushing has cemented its status as an international "melting pot", predominantly attracting immigrants from Asia, particularly from throughout the various provinces of China, but including newcomers from all over the world.

High rates of both legal[51][52] and illegal[53] immigration from Mainland China continue to spur the ongoing rise of the ethnic Chinese population in Flushing.

[61] Numerous other Chinese- and English-language publications are available in Flushing, including SinoVision, one of North America's largest Chinese language television networks.

[68][69][70] There is a Koreatown that originated in Flushing, but has since spread eastward to Murray Hill, Bayside, Douglaston, and Little Neck in Queens, and also into Nassau County.

[72] They established a foothold on Union Street in Flushing between 35th and 41st Avenues,[72] featuring restaurants and karaoke (noraebang) bars, grocery markets, education centers and bookstores, banking institutions, offices, consumer electronics vendors, apparel boutiques, and other commercial enterprises.

[71] As the community grew in wealth and population and rose in socioeconomic status, Koreans expanded their presence eastward along Northern Boulevard, buying homes in more affluent and less dense neighborhoods in Queens and Nassau County.

Korean is spoken frequently alongside English and Chinese varieties, and retail signs employing the Hangul alphabet are ubiquitous.

The Sri Maha Vallabha Ganapati Devasthanam (Sanskrit: श्री महावल्लभ गणपति देवस्थानम्, Tamil: ஸ்ரீ மகா வல்லப கணபதி தேவஸ்தானம்) at 45–57 Bowne Street in Flushing was the very first of the traditional Hindu temple organized in North America.

[84] Gerace and Castagna with architects Samuel Paul and Seymour Jarmul subsequently developed the larger Linden Towers several years after this.

[88] Comic strip artist Richard F. Outcault, the creator of The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown, lived on 147th Street in Murray Hill.

Starting in the 1980s, homes in Waldheim were destroyed by the Korean American Presbyterian Church of Queens, one of the area's largest land owners.

As with the Broadway neighborhood, preservationists have been unable to secure designation as an Historic District by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, and as of 2017[update], structures in Waldheim were still being torn down.

These include the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of Flushing,[109] the Fitzgerald/Ginsberg Mansion,[110] on Bayside Avenue and the Voelker Orth Museum, Bird Sanctuary and Victorian Garden.

[115] The Botanical Garden carries on Flushing's horticultural tradition that dates back to the area's 18th-century tree nurseries and seed farms.

One of the most prominent is the Unisphere, the iconic 12-story-high stainless steel globe that served as the centerpiece for the 1964 New York World's Fair, which was made a city landmark.

[122] Additionally, there is a stone marker for the two 5,000-year Westinghouse Time Capsules made of special alloys buried in the park, chronicling 20th-century life in the United States, dedicated both in 1938 and 1965.

[43]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Flushing and Whitestone is 0.0073 milligrams per cubic metre (7.3×10−9 oz/cu ft), less than the city average.

The 113-prefixed area extends west to Elmhurst and Jackson Heights; southwest to Ridgewood; south to Forest Hills; southeast to Fresh Meadows; and east to Bayside and Little Neck.

The City University of New York School of Law was founded in 1983 adjacent to the Queens College campus, and was located at 65–21 Main Street in Kew Gardens Hills until 2012.

Northern Boulevard (part of New York State Route 25A) extends from the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City through Flushing into Nassau County.