MILESTONES: March 19, birthdays for Hector Bellerin, Garrett Clayton, Clayton Kershaw

Brooklyn Today

March 19, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Hector Bellerin. Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 78th day of the year.

On this day in 1867, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle featured three reports of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, as if to underscore that Brooklynites were better behaved and had more fun. The first report was on a “disgraceful riot” that broke out at the Manhattan St. Patrick’s Parade. The Eagle editors wrote, “We cannot, for the life of us, see why these societies cannot celebrate the day in Brooklyn instead of joining a procession in New York which swells into unwieldly and troublesome proportions.” The story beneath that one described another celebration of St. Patrick and Irish heritage in Brooklyn that had “unusual spirt.” The third story was a report on the “brilliant” St. Patrick Society Dinner at the Pierrepont House.

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On this day in 1937, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle gave extensive coverage on its front and inside pages to the explosion that destroyed a school and killed an estimated 500. A gas leak was blamed on the explosion, which demolished the well-built fireproof school situated in an oil field in New London, Texas, in the eastern part of the state. At the time, about 1,100 people were in the building, including a group of mothers who had just concluded a PTA meeting. One of the mothers who had left the building moments before, returned just in time to see the body of her youngest son being carried out. The inside pages carried stories of the survivors. Following this tragedy, Texas passed laws requiring natural gas to be mixed with a malodorant, so that leaks would give an early warning of any leak. Other states quickly adopted similar laws, so that the malodorant requirement became nationwide.

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On this day in 1911, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page carried a photo and caption of the U.S. Army’s test of airplanes in San Antonio. The tests took place just eight years after the Wright Brothers’ first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (although the Eagle never covered that particular milestone). Army officials were pleased with the flight tests in San Antonio. Today, that city is home to Lackland Air Force Base, and is part of the Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA), an entity which manages support functions for many of the Department of Defense installations that are near each other.

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The Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s front page reported that President Woodrow Wilson signed the U.S. Standard Time Act into practice on March 19, 1918, and it was scheduled to take effect on Sunday, March 31, at 2 a.m. For a while, the dates for turning the clocks forward and then back an hour were moved to the first Sunday in April and last Sunday in October, respectively. Another revision was made to the law in 2007. Currently, Daylight Saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. (See below).

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On this day in 1954, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that Roman Catholics in Brooklyn were not included in a special Papal Dispensation from the strict Lenten fasts that Francis Cardinal Spellman had granted to his flock in the Archdiocese of New York, for the observance of St. Joseph’s Day. While New York’s Irish Catholics celebrate St. Patrick two days earlier, the Feast of St. Joseph is popular among Italians. Callers to the Eagle were asking if they could be dispensed from the usual Friday fast. The Brooklyn Chancery, in denying the request, did say that “meat could be eaten if they dined across the bridge” (in Manhattan).

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actress URSULA ANDRESS, who was born in 1936; international soccer star HECTOR BELLERIN, who was born in 1995; actor MICHAEL BERGIN, who was born in 1969; actor GARRETT CLAYTON, who was born in 1991; Tony Award-winning actress GLENN CLOSE, who was born in 1947; Major League Baseball player CLAYTON KERSHAW, who was born in 1988; author PHILIP ROTH, who was born in 1933; business executive and consultant BRENT SCOWCROFT, who was born in 1925; actress RENEE TAYLOR, who was born in 1933; basketball player HEDO TURKOGLU, who was born in 1979; and actor BRUCE WILLIS, who was born in 1955.

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JOHN JOSEPH SIRICA WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1904. During two years of trials and hearings, “The Watergate Judge” relentlessly pushed for the names of those responsible for the 1972 Watergate scandal. Sirica’s unwavering search for the truth ultimately resulted in the toppling of the Nixon administration. He died in 1992 in Washington, D.C.

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THIS WEEK IS WORLD FOLK TALES AND FABLES WEEK. It is a week to encourage children and adults to explore the cultural background and lessons learned from folk tales, fables, myths and legends from around the world.

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ALBERT PINKHAM RYDER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1847. The American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he gained a great love for the sea, the subject of many of his works. Ryder was a misanthrope and recluse. He dedicated himself to his painting, working slowly and piling layer after layer of paint on his canvases until he achieved the look he was after. In his lifetime, Ryder created only 150 paintings. Three of his best-known works are “The Race Track,” “Toilers of the Sea” and “Siegfried and the Rhine Maidens.” Ryder died in New York in 1917. Because of his method of painting, many of his works have deteriorated since their creation.

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THE U.S. STANDARD TIME ACT WAS PASSED ON THIS DAY IN 1918. The act authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to establish standard time zones for the U.S. It also established “daylight saving time,” to save fuel and to promote other economies in a country at war. Daylight saving time first went into operation on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1918. The Uniform Time Act of 1966, as amended in 1986 and again in 2005, now governs standard time in the U.S.

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THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (BHS) will host “Book Talk: ‘Consider It Pure Joy’” tonight at 7 p.m. A fourth-generation leader of faith and social justice, Jennifer Jones Austin was the picture of good health until she found herself burdened by a fever she could not shake. Doctors insisted it was merely viral and told her to sleep it off, but just days later she lay comatose with a 99 percent probability of imminent death. Suddenly stricken with an acute form of leukemia that required a bone marrow transplant to increase her chances of survival, Austin and her family were in a race against time as she fought cancer and together they searched for a donor. “Consider It Pure Joy” is the account of one woman’s battle with a life-threatening illness, and the power of faith and community to transform desperation into joy. The author will be joined in conversation by Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson, executive pastor of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ. For more information, visit brooklynhistory.org.

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

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“The artist needs but a roof, a crust of bread, and his easel, and all the rest God gives him in abundance. He must live to paint and not paint to live.” — painter Albert Pinkham Ryder, who was born on this day in 1847