MILESTONES: October 12, birthdays for Josh Hutcherson, Hugh Jackman, Tyler Blackburn
Brooklyn Today
On this day in 1927, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that actress-turned-aviator Ruth Elder’s plane had not been sighted for 15 hours. Elder, who was 25 years old at the time, had set out to become the first woman to fly to Paris, partly in competition with “Lucky Lindy” Charles E. Lindbergh, who had accomplished the same earlier that year, and partly to prove that women are equal and could do the same. Even though she was urged to wait until spring, time was of the essence for her as she was in competition with other women with the same ambition. So Elder and navigator-pilot George W. Haldeman set out on the evening of Oct. 11, 1927 from Old Orchard, Maine, in their sturdy Stinson Detroiter airplane, christened as “American Girl.” The Brooklyn Eagle and other leading news agencies reported the pilots as missing as of Oct. 12. They were later sighted near the Azores, having crashed after their plane developed an oil leak. As the next day’s banner headline proclaimed, the duo were rescued, and Ruth Elder lived to be 77. While she did not become the first woman to fly to Paris, she did become the first woman to make the attempt.
****
On this day in 1953, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that a mob of Yugoslavs assaulted and beat an American diplomat and destroyed the British Council Reading Room, finishing off their vandalism from the previous Thursday. The Yugoslav mob was reacting to British and U.S. officials’ agreeing to hand off Zone A of Trieste to Italy. The Trieste region (from which NYC Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had ancestry), a port city situated on the strip of land that connects Italy and Slovenia across the Adriatic Sea, had been hotly contested. As one of the oldest parts of the Hapsburg monarchy for centuries, Trieste has influences from Latin, Germanic and Hungarian civilizations. It was annexed to Italy in 1918 and saw fierce destruction during World War II. In 1947, under protection of the newly formed United Nations, Trieste became a free territory, with the British and U.S. jointly administering the region as the Allied Military Government. The Eagle reported Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito warned that while he was trying to resolve the conflict with Italy peacefully, he would not hesitate to move Yugoslav troops in if the Italian armed forces took over Trieste. Today, Trieste is part of Italy.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.