July 25: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

ON THIS DAY IN 1909, Brooklyn Daily Eagle columnist Frederick Boyd Stevenson said, “The opening of the southern tubes of the McAdoo tunnel system connecting Manhattan and New Jersey last week is the strongest argument that could be made for building the Fourth Avenue Subway and other tubes and other subways in Brooklyn. It furnishes a convincing object lesson as to the necessity for extending transportation facilities of all sorts between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. The moment the electric button was pressed, putting in motion the machinery that started the first train under the North River, hundreds of thousands of dollars were turned from Brooklyn, with the streams of passengers, to flow into New Jersey. Look along the lines of the steam railroads on the west side of the Hudson, dotted with booming towns. See the houses going up in groups of ten, twenty, thirty; see the farm lands springing up, almost overnight, into villages filled with life; talk with the real estate men and learn how realty values have mounted 50 percent, 75 percent, and, in many instances, have doubled and trebled in the last few months and are still mounting. And more houses, and still more houses, are a-building. There are hundreds of them; there will be thousands of them. You can almost hear the echo of the hammers over here. For a distance of thirty to forty miles from Jersey City the boom is on, and New Jersey is in a golden glow of prosperity.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1917, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — All aliens in the United States who have taken out their first naturalization papers are liable to military service under the selective draft. This decision has been reached by the Government. During the period of the war there has been a great rush on the part of aliens in this country to file declarations of their intention to become American citizens. In the month of June, according to incomplete reports, 56,000 aliens secured first papers. When the complete figures are in they are expected to reach the 60,000 mark. Federal officials say there are two reasons for the increase in the number of first papers issued. The first is that a number of German-American citizens did not concern themselves with securing first papers until confronted with the possibility of being placed in internment camps. The second has been due to the propaganda going on to have Congress permit our Allies to recruit among their people in the United States. The last reason is chiefly responsible for the great increase.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1926, the Eagle said, “When Gabby Street caught a baseball thrown from the top of the Washington Monument the world went back to its work content. Once again man had proved the possibility of the impossible. All was well. Recently things have not been going so well in this world of ours. Content has changed to discontent. Mr. Mellon and Winston Churchill politely and indirectly are proving each other mistaken, to put it mildly. France has only $1,200,000 in the treasury, which is breaking the hearts of the deputies, who are public philanthropists, just like our Congressmen. The heat is something terrible and newspaper editors getting after public scoundrels run the risk of being sent to jail for contempt of court or going to Kingdom Come. Everything has been going to the dogs. But as the world staggers upon its axis let us console ourselves that once again the impossible has been made possible, again by a baseball player, if you please. ‘Babe’ Ruth succeeded in catching the seventh ball thrown from an airplane at Mitchel Field after missing three cold and being knocked down by three more. If this doesn’t prove something, why not? Let us return with renewed content to prosperity, the President’s fish and Senator Borah’s dryness. After all, they are the things that matter.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “TEHRAN (U.P.) — A crowd of Nationalists staged an anti-British demonstration today and tore down a marble plaque which named a street in honor of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Truckloads of police were rushed to the area in front of the British embassy to prevent possible incidents there as the crowd of supporters of Premier Mohammed Mossadegh shouted ‘Down with the British and Churchill’ and ‘Long live Mossadegh.’ A group of about 300 smashed and tore down the plaque designating ‘Churchill street,’ located between the British and Soviet embassies, and replaced it with another sign calling it ‘Mossadegh street.’ The street was named after Churchill just after the Tehran conference during World War II. Other streets were named after Soviet Premier Josef Stalin and the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jim McCarty (The Yardbirds), who was born in 1943; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Verdine White (Earth, Wind & Fire), who was born in 1951; Red Rider cofounder Ken Greer, who was born in 1954; model and actress Iman, who was born in 1955; Sonic Youth cofounder Thurston Moore, who was born in 1958; celebrity chef Geoffrey Zakarian, who was born in 1959; former N.Y. Yankees pitcher Doug

Drabek, who was born in 1962; former N.Y Rangers left winger Tony Granato, who was born in 1964; “Friends” star Matt LeBlanc, who was born in 1967; “24” star D.B. Woodside, who was born in 1969; Baseball Hall of Famer Billy Wagner, who was born in 1971; former N.Y. Yankees pitcher Javier Vazquez, who was born in 1976; former NBA forward Kenny Thomas, who was born in 1977; and “One Tree Hill” star James Lafferty, who was born in 1985.

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WINGING IT: On this day in 1909, aviator Louis Bleriot — after asking from the cockpit, “Where is England?” — took off from Les Baraques, France, and landed on English soil at Northfall Meadow, near Dover. This, the world’s first international airplane flight,

was accomplished in a 28-horsepower monoplane with a wingspan of 23 feet.

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POWER PLAY: On this day in 1965, folk star Bob Dylan rocked the Newport Folk Festival by playing an electric set. Audience members responded with catcalls or silence. Dylan had previously played at Newport as a solo troubadour, but this time he brought along the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and blasted out “Maggie’s Farm” and “Like a Rolling Stone.”

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

Quotable:

“Life is too short not to have pasta, steak and butter.” — model and actress Iman, who was born on this day in 1955.