MILESTONES: September 14, birthdays for Nas, Logan Henderson, Dmitry Medvedev
Brooklyn Today
On this day in 1941, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that the American steamship Arkansan had been bombed in the Suez Canal, a man-made waterway connecting the Red and Mediterranean seas. The Arkansan became the second American ship to be bombed in the conflict between the United States and Germany over freedom of the seas. At this point, the U.S. had not entered World War II. The same front page announced that New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had named First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt as assistant director of civil defense, calling her the “No. 1 U.S. Volunteer.” LaGuardia was also the United States Director of Civil Defense, which essentially made him Roosevelt’s boss.
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On this day in 1946, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that a deadlock with CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) was killing hope that the shipping and trucking and maritime strike of 1946 could end. Meanwhile, violence broke out when men with the American Federation of Labor refused to respect CIO’s picket lines and returned to work. The pawns of this strike were people who depended on the stores for their food supplies. The same front page showed a photo of neighbors reading the signs at the A&P at 173 Atlantic Ave. (which is now a Key Food, at the same site on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights). Reports said 740 stores closed and 11,000 employees, as well as customers, were affected by the walkout.