April 23: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

ON THIS DAY IN 1905, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Charles Hawtrey will come to Broadway on Monday with that charming fantasy, ‘A Message from Mars,’ which has been the backbone of the English actor’s success for four seasons in this country. He has played the piece over 1,000 times, according to managerial count, and the dainty and unusual allegory has by no means lost its relish. The play is handsomely mounted with novel mechanical and electrical effects.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1917, the Eagle reported, “Charley Stengel hurt his leg early in the season; and while he is not laid up by the injured member it is bothering him at times.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1923, the Eagle reported, “Invading the camp of the enemy at Olympic Park, Clifton, N.J., yesterday, the Brooklyn Wanderers played their return game with the Paterson Football Club in the series of the American Socker League. A week earlier, in Brooklyn, the national champions had barely won from the Wanderers by 2-1 and the latter’s showing was regarded as very fine. Yesterday, however, they did even better and this time they held the famous Jerseymen to a tie at 2-2 for each side. With the wind in their favor, the Patersons established a 2-1 lead by half-time, but after that they had to be content to be onlookers so far as further scoring was concerned.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1933, the Eagle reported, “All other conditions were overshadowed, in fact submerged, in all the markets last week by United States suspension of the gold standard and the country’s embarkation upon a policy of deliberate but limited inflation. Improving trade reports, the mixed movements of various industrial factors, the crop prospects, and even the debt negotiations impending with Prime Minister MacDonald, received little market consideration. The shadow of the declining dollar obscured all other lights. Chronologically, the experiment with inflation was foretold last Monday by the unexpected strength of Senate sentiment in favor of silver monetization. It became plain that temporizing was at an end. Reimposition of the full gold embargo followed. Export of some $7,000,000 in gold during the previous week had not succeeded in checking the downturn in dollars which had taken place. Inflation sentiment in Congress naturally had the effect of increasing offerings of dollars, and sterling and the gold currencies went skyrocketing. Introduction of the Thomas inflation bill, involving grant of dictatorial currency and inflation powers to the President, within the limits of a $3,000,000 greenback issue, on Thursday, was followed on Friday by general recession in all the markets and by relative strength in dollars. The decline amounted to little more than the ending of the inflation honeymoon, and the getting down to the hard practicalities the situation still presents. It was probable, too, that quite a little ‘managing’ came into the exchange markets. There seems little reason to question the quite general view held in financial quarters, that suspension of gold and the inflation bill were chosen by the National Administration as the lesser of the evils predicated by Congress.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1935, the Eagle reported, “LOUISVILLE, KY. (AP) — When the barrier is sprung for the 61st running of the Kentucky Derby May 4, and the roar of ‘They’re off!’ swells up from the crowd, a large portion of those attending the classic will be Kentucky colonels. In fact, whether it is the Kentucky Derby, a Harvard-Yale football game, a Baer-Carnera prize fight, a Giant-St. Louis baseball game, the Olympics, or just a crowd, a large number of those present will be Kentucky colonels. So rapidly has the army of persons bearing that title grown that it now has a total of close to 6,000 members from every State and many foreign countries. The list is still growing at the rate of approximately 400 per month, and Gov. Ruby Laffoon, who has dispensed this honorary title so freely, has seven months longer to stay before a new Governor is inaugurated. The Governor’s private military force, however, is not limited to colonels. He has appointed generals, majors, admirals and captains. His naval staff is composed almost entirely of commodores and admirals, and after naming one or two admirals for almost every river and creek in Kentucky he extended the titles to include admirals of the Atlantic Ocean, the Great Lakes and other bodies of water. However, the rank of Kentucky colonel is the most sought after — and the most widely dispensed.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “The Six Million Dollar Man” star Lee Majors, who was born in 1939; “Fringe” star Blair Brown, who was born in 1946; “One Day at a Time” star Valerie Bertinelli, who was born in 1960; actor and comedian George Lopez, who was born in 1961; windsurfing legend Robby Naish, who was born in 1963; “Providence” star Melina Kanakaredes, who was born in 1967; former N.Y. Yankees outfielder and incoming Baseball Hall of

Famer Andruw Jones, who was born in 1977; “House” star Kal Penn, who was born in 1977; “Hart of Dixie” star Jaime King, who was born in 1979; “Slumdog Millionaire” star Dev Patel, who was born in 1990; “American Idol” winner Caleb Johnson, was born in 1991; and supermodel Gigi Hadid, who was born in 1995.

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THE WHEEL IS COME FULL CIRCLE: William Shakespeare was born on this day in 1564 — and died on this day in 1616. In between, he wrote some of the world’s greatest literature, including “Hamlet,” “Henry V,” “Othello,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Tempest.” He contributed thousands of words to the English language and expanded the dramatic possibilities

of blank verse, making it mimic the rhythm of speech even as he elevated speech to poetry.

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ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE: The first movie theater opened on this day in 1896 when a screen was installed in Koster and Bials Music Hall in Manhattan. Up until this time, people saw films individually by looking into a kinescope, a boxlike “peep show.”

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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.

Quotable:

“I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.” — actress Shirley Temple, who was born on this day in 1928.