MILESTONES: April 12, birthdays for Brendon Urie, Jennifer Morrison, Shannen Doherty

Brooklyn Today

April 12, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brendon Urie. Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 102nd day of the year.

On this day in 1916, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that baseball fans would see fine weather on opening day for the Brooklyn Superbas at Ebbets Field. That day, the Superbas were scheduled to play Boston. The reporter wrote, “President Ebbets and [team] Vice President Ed McKeever said the advance sale of box seats was larger than in 1914, when the Superbas opened at home, and they expected a crowd that would fill all of the 24,000 seats in the park.”

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On this day in 1861, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle commented on the outbreak of the American Civil War. Titled “The Vox Populi,” the piece began, “The changeableness of the American people is unchangeable.” The essay continues, “The people of this country are a fighting people. Every previous war has been popular, though opposed by the party now at the head of affairs. This time the contest adds to the usual repulsive feature of war the unnatural condition dependent upon the relations of the combatants. Still, we shall not be surprised to see a war spirit spring up at the North sufficiently strong to embolden the government to carry the contest to the extremities of a general war between the two sections. The reaction will be as sure and complete, and will be intensified by horror and remorse.”

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On this day in 1912, the Eagle ran the obituary of Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross Society and a nurse who served in several wars. She was near 80 and had been ill with pneumonia for about a year. Born of Puritan stock, with a father who had served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, Barton apparently had a Brooklyn connection: The Eagle reported that “she often visited Brooklyn, where she had many intimate friends. In 1899 she was the guest of honor at a reception and dinner in the Congregational Club.”

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On this day in 1924, the Eagle reported that both branches of Congress were set to vote on a bill that would essentially ban immigration of Japanese persons. “An international issue of grave importance confronted both the Senate and the House today when they took up with expectations of action the pending immigration proposals, which would, in effect, exclude Japanese from the United States.” A later paragraph read, “Japan’s formal protest against its exclusion from the list of nations allotted immigration quotas overshadowed the discussion, having loomed yesterday in the note from Ambassador Hanihara, warning of ‘grave consequences’ enactment of the Japanese provisions “would inevitably bring.”

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On this day in 1937, Eagle’s front page headline proclaimed that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Wagner Act, which set rights and protections for labor. The act “guarantees collective bargaining to workmen in negotiation with employers on wages, hours of work and other labor conditions,” the Eagle reported. “The Supreme Court gave the government a major victory today by upholding constitutionality of the Wagner Labor Relations Act as applied to all business engaged in interstate commerce.” The SCOTUS was split 5-4 on four rulings. They held that “the Wagner Act did not violate freedom of the press and could be applied to the Associated Press.”

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On this day in 1945, the Eagle’s front page featured a dispatch from Paris by Boyd E. Lewis that “American Ninth Army tanks raced across the Elbe River into the 50-mile ‘home stretch’ before Berlin today and U.S. Third Army columns broke into the Germans’ East Front supply bases with a 46-mile dash for Leipzig and Halle.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Newbery Medal-winning author Beverly Cleary, who was born in 1916; actress Claire Danes, who was born in 1979; actress Shannen Doherty, who was born in 1971; actor Andy Garcia, who was born in 1956; musician Herbie Hancock, who was born in 1940; actor Dan Lauria, who was born in Brooklyn in 1947; comedian and former talk show host David Letterman, who was born in 1947; actress Sarah Jane Morris, who was born in 1977; actress Jennifer Morrison, who was born in 1979; actor Ed O’Neil, who was born in 1946; actress Saoirse Ronan, who was born in 1994; and singer Brandon Urie, who was born in 1987.

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TODAY IS NATIONAL LICORICE DAY. It is a day to celebrate black licorice, including its history and health benefits.

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FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT DIED ON THIS DAY 1945. With the end of WWII only months away, the nation and the world were stunned by the sudden death of the president shortly into his fourth term of office. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the U.S., was the only president to serve more than two terms — he was elected to four consecutive terms. Roosevelt died in Georgia.

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HENRY CLAY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1777. The statesman served as the speaker of the House of Representatives and later became the leader of the new Whig Party. He was defeated for the presidency three times. Clay died in Washington, D.C., in 1852.

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TODAY IS WALK ON YOUR WILD SIDE DAY. Time’s wasting, friends. It’s high time you went out and did some things no one expects you to do. Be unpredictable for once. Go to work dressed like a gorilla, get a master’s degree — do something “they” said you’d never ever do.

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THE POLIO VACCINE WAS ANNOUNCED SAFE TO USE ON THIS DAY IN 1955. It was announced that the polio vaccine developed by American physician Dr. Jonas E. Salk was “safe, potent and effective.”

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THE TRUANCY LAW WAS ENACTED ON THIS DAY IN 1853. First enacted in New York, a $50 fine was charged against parents whose children between the ages of 5 and 15 were absent from school.

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THE TV SHOW “21 JUMP STREET” PREMIERED ON THIS DAY IN 1987. Youthful big-city cops busted crime in the local schools and colleges in the FOX police drama that starred Johnny Depp as Tom Hanson, Holly Robinson Peete as Judy Hoffs, Dustin Nguyen as H.T. Loki, Peter DeLuise as Doug Penhall, Frederic Forrest as Captain Jenko, Steven Williams as Capt. Adam Fuller and Richard Grieco as Dennis Booker. It was one of the network’s early hits.

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

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“If it wasn’t for the coffee, I’d have no identifiable personality whatsoever.” — David Letterman, who was born on this day in 1947