ON THIS DAY IN 1869, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The approach of the national holiday has turned attention to preparations for its celebration. So far as the Government is concerned the demonstration will be limited to the usual flag-flying and cannon-firing. Many people are making arrangements to leave the city until the festival is over. As the Fourth of July will occur on Sunday this year, there seems to be a disagreement here, as elsewhere, as to whether it would be better to celebrate it on Saturday or Monday. Mayor Bowen has received several letters, making suggestions as to having the day celebrated on Monday, and he will recommend that that day be observed.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1895, the Eagle said, “England is much more interesting to America than America is to England. A President’s message seldom gets more than half a column in an English newspaper, while columns in American journals are devoted to a change in the English ministry. The news from Great Britain today is that in the strategic maneuvers for position, that is for fighting position, the liberals have the tories at an apparent disadvantage. The liberal ministers resigned office, but did not dissolve parliament. The tory chiefs must form a cabinet, with a house of commons against them, and cannot dissolve parliament before the financial or the appropriation bills, or, as they are called over there, the estimates, are passed. There must be an informal understanding that the opposition shall not precipitate questions of policy or interpose factious resistance to the passage of the estimates. Nevertheless, considerable indication of public attitudes on dividing questions is often incidentally supplied by the items in the bills of estimates. So when the ad interim conservative ministry does dissolve parliament, the party will go to the country as the party of the ins and not of the outs, as the party in power, not as the party of opposition. Tactically this is undesirable. Preferably the opposition is the best role.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1899, the Eagle reported, “Governor Roosevelt is on his way home from the Far West. Lieutenant-Governor Woodruff is on the ocean, but, we presume that President Pro Tempore of the Senate Timothy R. Ellsworth is somewhere in the state. One of our three possible governors we always have with us. Except to sign extradition papers a governor is not needed, as a rule, in the summer months. Still, Governor Roosevelt will make business when he returns, for events occur around him by an attraction or an attrition not to be denied. This has notably been the case in his trip through Kansas and within New Mexico.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1916, the Eagle reported, “The New York National Guard units will be on the move for the Mexican border tonight. Orders were issued today by Major General Leonard Wood at Governors Island for the entraining of 16,000 men from the States of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts. Under this order the following New York organizations will be shipped to Texas, as fast as the railroads can furnish the necessary trains: Fourteenth Infantry, Forty-seventh Infantry, Seventh Infantry, Seventy-first Infantry, First Cavalry — Troops A, K, L of Brooklyn and M of Avon, N.Y.; one Signal Corps Company (probably B of Brooklyn); one Battalion, Twenty-second Engineers; First Field Hospital Company, Third Ambulance Corps. The orders for the Fourteenth Brooklyn Regiment direct is to report at El Paso, Texas. The orders for the Forty-seventh Brooklyn Regiment direct is to report at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Major General Wood summoned his entire staff into conference this afternoon. It was reported that another urgent call had been received from Washington that all the State militia in the East be prepared as quickly as possible for entrainment toward the border. These number about 128,000.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1942, Eagle columnist Ray Tucker said, “President Roosevelt’s determination to keep New York from falling into Republican hands next November has gummed the political works in his home Commonwealth. The G.O.P., with Thomas E. Dewey as its unnamed standard-bearer, appears to enjoy an edge at the moment. State Chairman James A. Farley is deeply committed to the candidacy of Attorney General John J. Bennett Jr. F.D.R. would like to have Governor Lehman try for re-election but the latter apparently prefers to step out and into the army. After giving a brief but inglorious trial trip to Owen D. Young and Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson, Mr. Roosevelt has advanced Senator Mead as a popular and logical candidate for the Albany chair. The boy from Buffalo would have labor’s backing, and he has demonstrated his vote-getting power for over twenty years. The Senator, however, balks at making the sacrifice. He will run only if he has the wholehearted support of the White House, the Farley organization and the American Labor party, which will hold the balance of power in a close race. But former National Chairman Jim has pledged himself to Mr. Bennett and won’t budge. Many believe that the latter is not an especially strong man in these days. But it seems that the local crowd prefers to lose with him rather than win with a ticket hand-picked by the President.”
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Ariana Grande. Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include 5th Dimension co-founder Billy Davis, Jr., who was born in 1938; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Mick Jones (The Clash), who was born in 1955; “Gung Ho” star Gedde Watanabe, who was born in 1955; “Wicked Game” singer Chris Isaak, who was born in 1956; Scandal singer Patty Smyth, who was born in 1957; “The Kids in the Hall” star Mark McKinney, who was born in 1959; U.S. Bicycling Hall of Famer Greg LeMond, who was born in 1961; “Boogie Nights” director Paul Thomas Anderson, who was born in 1970; “Will & Grace”
Derek Jeter. Photo: Bebeto Matthews/AP
star Sean Hayes, who was born in 1970; “Here for the Party” singer Gretchen Wilson, who was born in 1973; N.Y. Yankees legend and Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter, who was born in 1974; “Parks and Recreation” star Aubrey Plaza, who was born in 1984; and “Wicked” star Ariana Grande, who was born in 1993.
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RAISING THE BAR:The bar code was introduced on this day in 1974. A committee formed in 1970 by U.S. grocers and food manufacturers recommended in 1973 a Universal Product Code for supermarket items that would allow electronic scanning of prices.
Sean Hayes. Photo: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
The first item to be scanned was a pack of Wrigley’s gum. Today bar codes are used to keep track of everything from freight cars to cattle.
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THIS IS US: On this day in 2000, biologists J. Craig Venter and Francis S. Collins announced that their research groups had mapped the human genome, a strand of DNA with three billion parts that spell out our genetic code.
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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.
Quotable:
“I love it when people doubt me. It makes me work harder to prove them wrong.” — N.Y. Yankees legend Derek Jeter, who was born on this day in 1974.
SUNSET PARK — “As a resident of Marine Park, one of the great surprises I found biking around Industry City and visiting Japan Village was to discover Bush Terminal Park. I continue to be amazed at the serene hideaways that the city offers in some of the busiest places — and, still, with an iconic view.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — ‘A miracle that no one was killed …’ That’s what neighbors are saying about the collapse of the Hotel St. George marquee. Shown in this photograph are workmen beginning the removal and repair of the historic, old neon sign at the corner, referencing a relic of Brooklyn Heights’ past: the St. George Hotel.
ATLANTIC AVENUE — Exhausted shopper with cluster of bags and goods from mall at Boerum Place stops to look at huge construction site across the street. “Is that REALLY going to be a jail??” Her male companion is reassuring, “Nothing like Rikers … this is 21st Century.”
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Overheard in line at one of most popular pastry outlets on Montague Street: “Hope I can get them into a camp …” A mother with two pre-schoolers in tow was showing a friend the Dodge Y flyer for Healthy Kids Day on Saturday, April 18.
