MILESTONES: October 16, birthdays for John Mayer, Bryce Harper, Bob Weir

Brooklyn Today

October 16, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

John Mayer. Photo by Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP

Share this:

Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 291st day of the year.

On this day in 1912, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on the continued recovery of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who had survived an assassination attempt by New York resident John Flammank Schrank while campaigning in Milwaukee for another presidential election as a member of the new Bull Moose Party. Doctors at Mercy Hospital in nearby Chicago, where Roosevelt was being treated, were amazed at his recovery, especially because they determined that “the wound was serious.” The medical team decided that the bullet should remain, as it was not causing any problems and as they wanted to wait to observe whether it would dislodge itself naturally from adjoining tissues. Roosevelt attributed his robust health to a physical fitness regimen his father had imposed on him as a child to help him overcome frailty and asthma.

****

On this day in 1946, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on the Nuremberg trials and the executions of the top 10 Nazis who had committed war crimes and atrocities during the Holocaust. Ten were hanged. The eleventh Nazi, Hermann Goering himself, having learned of the execution date, “cheated the noose by 2 hours” by taking his own life. He swallowed a vial of cyanide of potassium, which he had hidden in a copper cartridge … Meanwhile in Brooklyn, the borough received more $14.6 million in property condemnations, provided for by eminent domain to create public improvement projects, such as low-income housing, veterans’ administration service and parks. This amount topped the previous year’s condemnation receipts by almost $3 million. And the price of meat kept rising to over $1 per cut, with price control lifted because demand overwhelmed supply. The GOP blamed President Harry Truman for the crisis, which was caused when meat packers retaliated when he set price controls after the war.

****

On this day in 1954, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on Hurricane Hazel’s smash into Brooklyn, and the destruction it left behind: three deaths, uprooted trees and untold property damage. Two of the deaths were of a couple, Peter and Catherine Sanin, who were electrocuted when their shopping cart hit a downed electrical wire at Atlantic Avenue and Crescent Street.

****

NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Olympic swimmer MELISSA LOUISE BELOTE, who was born in 1956; actor BARRY CORBIN, who was born in 1940; former baseball player JUAN GONZALEZ, who was born in 1969; author GUNTER GRASS, who was born in 1927; hockey player PAUL KARIYA, who was born in 1974; five-time Tony Award-winning actress ANGELA LANSBURY, who was born in 1925; actress KELLIE MARTIN, who was born in 1975; singer JOHN MAYER, who was born in 1977; Oscar Award-winning actor TIM ROBBINS, who was born in 1958; actress SUZANNE SOMERS, who was born in 1946; Grateful Dead member BOB WEIR, who was born in 1947; and writer and producer DAVID ZUCKER, who was born in 1947.

****

OSCAR WILDE WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1854. Wilde is best known for his novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and his play “The Importance of Being Earnest.” He wrote in “Lady Windermere’s Fan,” “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Wilde died in Paris on Nov. 30, 1900.

****

NOAH WEBSTER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1758. The American teacher and journalist’s name became synonymous with the word dictionary after his compilations of the earliest American dictionaries of the English language. He died in 1843 in Connecticut.

****

MARIE ANTOINETTE WAS EXECUTED ON THIS DAY IN 1793. French Queen Marie Antoinette, whose extravagance and “let them eat cake” attitude toward the starving French underclass made her a target of the French Revolution, was beheaded on this day.

****

WILLIAM ORVILLE DOUGLAS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1898. The American jurist, world traveler, conservationist, outdoorsman and author served as a U.S. justice longer than any other (36 years). Douglas died in Washington, D.C. in 1980.

****

AMERICA’S FIRST DEPARTMENT STORE OPENED ON THIS DAY IN 1868. ZCMI (Zion’s Co-Operative Mercantile Institution) opened in Salt Lake City and is still in operation, though under a new name and new ownership. It was founded under the direction of Brigham Young.

****

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

****

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” — Oscar Wilde