During World War II, Fort Ontario was the site of the only Jewish refugee camp in the United States.

It is bordered by the towns of Oswego, Minetto, and Scriba to the west, south, and east, respectively; and by Lake Ontario to the north.

In 1782, the British reoccupied Fort Ontario, and didn't forfeit it to the U.S. until 1796, thirteen years after the cessation of hostilities in the Revolution.

During the War of 1812, a weaker American garrison at Fort Ontario was overwhelmed by superior British forces[5] in order to stem the flow of supplies from the interior of New York state, but were later defeated near Oswego later that month.

Major masonry improvements to the forts outer wall were undertaken, but left incomplete when Congress canceled its funding in 1872.

In 1944 amidst World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established a camp at the fort for survivors of the Holocaust.

[11] Approximately 1,000 refugees were transferred to the fort from the Ferramonti di Tarsia, a concentration camp in Cosenza, Calabria, Italy.

The refugees were placed behind barbed wire, and given no official status, having been required to sign papers accepting their eventual return to their home countries in Europe at the end of the war.

In 2007, Oswego gained national attention when approximately 130" (slightly less than 11 feet) of snow fell in a two-week timespan.

As a result of this storm, the school district closed all facilities for a week, effectively shifting the planned winter holiday.

Oswego has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb) bordering on a hot-summer climate (Köppen Dfa) characterized by cold, snowy winters and warm, often humid summers, typical of the Interior Northeast; it experiences four distinct seasons, and is located in USDA hardiness zone 6a (average extreme annual minimum temperature of -10 to -5°F/-23.3 to -20.6°C).

Lake Ontario also provides significant temperature moderation, allowing for slightly warmer winters and cooler summers than locations a few miles inland; during the transitional seasons, these differences can occasionally be dramatic.

[17] During the fall, lake moderation often extends the growing season by days or sometimes even weeks compared to more starkly continental inland locales.

Central New York Regional Transportation Authority provides service within Oswego and connections to Fulton and Syracuse.

Males employed full-time, year-round, had a median income of $50,074 versus $33,211 for similarly situated females.

In September 2005, Oswego Mayor John Gosek was arrested by the FBI and state police in a sting operation outside of a motel near Syracuse after allegedly giving a woman $250 to arrange a sexual encounter with two 14-year-old girls.

The arrest came after a three-year investigation that led to charges of the mayor using his city-issued cell phone to “persuade, induce, entice and coerce an individual under the age of 18 years to engage in sexual activity.” The charge alleged that Gosek used his phone as interstate commerce for the purposes of illegal sex and falls under a federal law that is commonly known as the Mann Act.

[24] In March of 2024, the City of Oswego, prior mayoral administration and recent mayoral administration Rob Corradino and Common council members, voted and overrode the assessment process, raising the City of Oswego residential property assessments to address a budget shortfall.

Properties owners expressed frustration at a council meeting, with some noting that their taxes had doubled or nearly tripled.

[36][37] In September 2024, the Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary was designated in the waters of southeastern Lake Ontario off Oswego to protect historic shipwrecks and areas of cultural, historical, and spiritual significance to Native Americans of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and to preserve them as educational and recreational resources.

Nesbitt, who also founded the Marine Museum and wrote various books about the city's history, died on August 2, 2009, at the age of 84.

Garren Reisweber's goal 12:55 into overtime gave Oswego State a 4-3 win over Middlebury on March 18, 2007.

[44] Pursuant to Section 70 of the Public Service Law, NRG Energy, Inc. (now operating as NRG Power Marketing LLC) officially received ownership of the Oswego generating station from previous owners Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation and Rochester Gas and Electric in 1999.

Since the plant does not produce much electric energy on an annual basis, it is fair to assume that most of its revenue comes from the NYISO's capacity market.

For example, at 1.0 ($/kW - Month), the plant would receive annual revenue of $21.6 million from the capacity market without accounting for actual energy production.

[45][46][47][48] According to the New York State Public Service Commission's database management system, DMM, there was a whistle blower complaint filed against the facility (case no.

As of November 2018, there are 5 orders on the DMM case number 92-M-0016 website, none of which have to do with a whistle blower complaint against Oswego generating station.