MILESTONES: March 12, birthdays for Mitt Romney, Jake Tapper, Jaimie Alexander

Brooklyn Today

March 12, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Mitt Romney. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 71st day of the year.

On this day in 1912, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that Col. and former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was turned down for jury duty. He had arrived eager to serve in a case in which the plaintiff, a 21-year-old male, was suing a railroad company for loss of his limbs. However, plaintiff’s attorney approached him, saying, “You’re a busy man,” pointing out that Roosevelt should not have to spend his time in the courtroom. A disappointed Roosevelt said he would have given the young man “a square deal.”

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On this day in 1940, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on what a prominently-placed front page editorial called “A Great Victory for this Borough.” The victory was the start of construction for the $80 million Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, after a protracted fight in which officials battled over whether this new connection between Brooklyn and Manhattan should be a bridge or tunnel. The Reconstruction Finance Corp. (a federal government corporation that provided financing to state and local governments) granted a $57 million loan for the construction of the tube itself. The Triborough Bridge Authority would provide $11,000 for the Brooklyn approach to the Belt Parkway, and the City of New York would provide the remaining funds. The first tube sinking, from Hamilton Avenue on the Brooklyn side, was promised to take place within 40 days. The project, which was born in Brooklyn, was said to be “in high gear.”

Also, on this day, the Most Rev. Francis J. Spellman was invested as archbishop of New York. Dennis Cardinal Dougherty, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia, presided at the investiture liturgy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, with what was described as one of the “greatest gatherings of church men and laity in the history of the cathedral.”

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On this day in 1888, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page carried coverage of the “Storm King” — the Great Blizzard of 1888. The Eagle reported on the “Arctic snow drifts” and offered an extensive report of “vigorous” efforts to clear the railway lines, including the hiring of ethnic crews. The mail delivery men began their routes as usual but found their access to local streets and individual homes was blocked, and therefore no mail could be delivered. At the city hall, only a skeletal crew of staff arrived at work in downtown offices.

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On this day in 1938, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that Adolf Hitler, entering his native Austria in triumphant manner, coldly rejected a letter of protest that France and Great Britain had sent him about the Nazi occupation of that land. Hitler called their protests at this “Nazification,” to be “unwarranted” and that no force had been used in their entry with Austria.

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On this day in 1946, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that Gen. Omar Bradley, Veterans Administration director, assured Brooklyn Congressmen that the much-needed Veterans Hospital “absolutely” would be built at Fort Hamilton, near the army base bearing that name also. Some of the doctors and other officials had wanted the medical center built closer to neighborhoods with larger populations; Bradley and Congressman Donald L. O’Toole, a Democrat, asked why doctors would object to driving a bit farther out on the Belt Parkway. Today, the Veterans Hospital on Poly Place is neighbors with Poly Prep and Dyker Beach Golf Course, and near the Fort Hamilton Army Base.

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On this day in 1933 the Brooklyn Daily Eagle featured an announcement that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, just a week after his inauguration, would address the nation via radio on his decision to close the banks to avoid “runs” or mass withdrawals. Roosevelt’s talk would become the first of much loved “Fireside Chats,” that gathered families around their radios (see below).

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actress JAMIE ALEXANDER, who was born in 1984; actor JASON BEGHE, who was born in 1960; producer and director ROB COHEN, who was born in 1949; opera singer DAVID DANIELS, who was born in 1966; actor AARON ECKHART, who was born in 1968; actress BARBARA FELDON, who was born in 1941; singer MARLON JACKSON, who was born in 1957; singer and songwriter AL JARREAU, who was born in 1940; singer and Oscar Award-winning actress LIZA MINNELLI, who was born in 1946; former baseball player RAUL MONDESI, who was born in 1971; former baseball player DALE MURPHY, who was born in 1956; 2012 presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. MITT ROMNEY, who was born in 1947; former baseball player DARRYL STRAWBERRY, who was born in 1962; journalist and anchor JAKE TAPPER, who was born in 1969; singer and musician JAMES TAYLOR, who was born in 1948; actor COURTNEY B. VANCE, who was born in 1960; and civil rights leader ANDREW YOUNG, who was born in 1932.

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JACK KEROUAC WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1922. The American poet and novelist, leader and spokesman for the Beat movement is best known for his 1957 novel “On the Road,” which celebrates the Beat ideal of nonconformity. Kerouac published “The Dharma Bums” in 1958, followed by “The Subterraneans” the same year, “Doctor Sax” and its sequel “Maggie Cassidy” in 1959, “Lonesome Traveler” in 1960, “Big Sur” in 1962 and “Desolation Angels” in 1965. Kerouac died in Florfia in 1969. A previously unpublished part of “On the Road” called “Visions of Cody” was published posthumously in 1972.

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TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF FDR’S FIRST FIRESIDE CHAT. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the first of his Sunday evening “fireside chats” to the American people on this day in 1933. Speaking by radio from the White House, he reported rather informally on the economic problems of the nation and on his actions to deal with them.

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WALLY SCHIRRA WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1923. One of the original seven Mercury astronauts, a U.S. Navy pilot during WWII and the Korean conflict, Schirra entered the U.S. space program in 1959. He was the only man to fly all three of the first manned space missions (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo), logging a total of 295 hours and 15 minutes in space. He won an Emmy Award for the footage he sent back from Apollo 7, the first televised pictures from space, and later worked with Walter Cronkite on broadcasts of other NASA missions. Schirra died in 2007 in California.

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SIMON NEWCOMB WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1835. Newcomb investigated the orbits of Uranus, Neptune and the inner planets and devised planetary tables that were used universally by observatories. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1909.

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THE GIRL SCOUTS OF THE USA WERE FOUNDED ON THIS DAY IN 1912. Juliette Low founded the organization in Savannah, Georgia.

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

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“It is a blessing to die for a cause, because you can so easily die for nothing.” — civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was born on this day in 1932