History Brooklyn Boro

MILESTONES: June 15, birthdays for Neil Patrick Harris, Courteney Cox, Leah Remini

June 15, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Neil Patrick Harris. Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Neil Patrick Harris. Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
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Greetings, Brooklyn.  Today is the 165th day of the year.

On this day in 1946, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that the majority of the Senate approved the Baruch Atom Plan. The plan was born from a need to resolve a conflict between two groups of leaders with opposing views on whether to share with the Soviet Union (an Allied force during the war) the secrets of the atomic/nuclear bomb technology on which the United States held a monopoly. Bernard Baruch, a trusted presidential adviser for decades, was selected to formulate a proposal and present it to the United Nations. Baruch was among those who feared sharing the secrets with the Soviet Union. The Eagle article reported that most U.S. senators approved, but some reserved their judgment until the other nations had a chance to respond. The story read, “The program was presented yesterday at the first meeting of in New York of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission headed by Bernard M. Baruch. In addition to world atomic controls, the United States proposed to destroy its atomic bombs or hand them over to an international agency.”

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On this day in 1904, the Eagle covered the General Slocum steamship excursion disaster that unfolded in the East River. The page’s key focal point was a picture that an Eagle staff photographer shot of the victims who washed ashore on North Brother Island. Fire originating from a pot in the ship’s kitchen was blamed for the destruction of the Slocum, then positioned off Manhattan near East 138th Street, and killed an estimated 300 people. A paragraph deep into the story read, “One of the survivors, dripping wet and very much excited, took points to tell an Eagle reporter that the musicians had displayed marked heroism at the time of the panic. They played up to the last moment, then, abandoning their instruments, they hurried to the upper deck and began handing out to the frightened women and children the life preservers which they tore from the racks. This they did even when their own lives were in peril.” According to the final death count, more than 1,000 people died in the disaster.

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On June 15, 1936, the Eagle featured an obituary of British author and critic G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton, who had died earlier that day just outside London. “His last work, completed in April, was an autobiography describing the literary achievements of the ‘Prince of Paradoxes,’ a name by which he was often called. Chesterton’s varied career led him from art study to criticism, which he later expanded to include varied forms, including essays, poetry, detective stories and newspaper writing.” He also wrote about nature.

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On Friday and Saturday, June 16-17, 1917, the Eagle ran stories about Americans working at the Eagle’s Paris Bureau who celebrated Gen. John Pershing’s arrival. “The street crowds were wild,” reported one Eagle correspondent who witnessed the occasion. “I stood among the throng at the station and saw the civilians in the Pershing party almost pulled bodily from their autos by Parisians, eager to grab their hands.” The next day’s edition featured a story about the only Brooklyn member of Gen. Pershing’s staff, James S. Wells of St. Mark’s Avenue. Wells, “attached to the engineering division, will assist in the work of preparing the railroads and camps for the reception of the American Army.”

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On June 16, 1900, the Eagle covered the “Impressive Services over the Martyrs Remains,” as the headline read. “Secretary of the Navy John D. Long paid an official visit to the Brooklyn Navy Yard this morning before participating in the services attending the removal of the bones of the prison ship martyrs to Fort Greene Park. The big parade took place this afternoon and was made up of officers, marines and sailors of the United States Navy, detachments of the regular army and local militia.” The service itself took place at Plymouth Church. Eight years later, a monument to the Prison Ship Martyrs was dedicated in Ft. Greene Park, with President William Howard Taft officiating.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor JIM BELUSHI, who was born in 1954; Hall of Fame baseball player WADE BOGGS, who was born in 1958; actor SIMON CALLOW, who was born in 1949; actress COURTENEY COX, who was born in 1964; actress JULIE HAGERTY, who was born in 1955; Tony Award-winning actor NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, who was born in 1973; football executive and former coach MIKE HOLMGREN, who was born in 1948; Oscar Award-winning actress HELEN HUNT, who was born in 1963; golfer JUSTIN LEONARD, who was born in 1972; actress NICOLA PAGETT, who was born in 1945; actress LEAH REMINI, who was born in Brooklyn in 1970; actress ANNA TORV, who was born in 1978; and People’s Republic of China President XI JINPING, who was born in 1953.

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TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST FATAL AVIATION ACCIDENT.  In 1785, French aeronauts Jean François Pilatre de Rozier and Pierre de Romain who were attempting to cross the English Channel from France to England in a balloon, were killed when their balloon caught fire and crashed to the ground. Pilatre de Rozier was the first man to fly.

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THE MAGNA CARTA WAS SEALED ON THIS DAY IN 1215. King John of England sealed the document that would influence the rise of England’s constitutional monarchy and lend historical weight to 18th-century ideas about inalienable natural laws. It is still invoked popularly and in jurisprudence as a symbol of the written law’s power to subdue tyranny. Four original copies of the 1215 charter survive.

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TODAY IS NATIVE AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP DAY. It commemorates the day in 1924 when the U.S. Congress passed legislation recognizing the citizenship of Native Americans.

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SAUL STEINBERG WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1914. The artist is most famous for his illustrations for the New Yorker, for which he completed 90 covers and 1,200 drawings. Steinberg died in New York in 1999.

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MOUNT PINATUBO ERUPTED ON THIS DAY IN 1991. Dormant for almost 500 years, the mountain in the Philippines erupted with a violent explosion, spewing ash and gases that could be seen for more than 60 miles. The surrounding areas were covered with ash and mud created by rainstorms. It was the second-largest eruption of the 20th century, killing nearly 1,000 people.

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EDVARD GRIEG WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1843. The Norwegian pianist, composer, conductor and teacher was the first Scandinavian to compose nationalistic music. He died in Norway in 1907. Special celebrations at Lofthus on the Hardanger fjord where Grieg’s cabin still stands are held annually to commemorate his birth.

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

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“I have not the least doubt that school developed in me nothing but what was evil and left the good untouched.” — composer Edvard Grieg, who was born on this day in 1843

 


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