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August 22: ON THIS DAY in 1953, Brooklyn POW freed in Operation Big Switch

August 22, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Eagle file photo
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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Tehran, Aug. 22 (UP) – Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi today returns in triumph to his capital to receive a hysterical and weeping welcome from his jubilant subjects. Overjoyed Iranians wept, shouted, flung themselves to the ground and slaughtered whole herds of sheep in a wild orgy of welcome. The 33-year-old ruler, wearing a trim military uniform and gold-braided cap, flew his own twin-engined plane from Baghdad, Iraq … One of the ruler’s first actions upon arriving was to ask officials about the condition of former Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, whose more than two years of iron-handed rule of Iran was ended by Royalist forces in Wednesday’s bloody fighting. Reza Pahlevi told new Premier Gen. Fazollah Zahedi he hoped the aged Mossadegh was being kept comfortable and his health was good.”

The Eagle also reported, “The first Brooklyn prisoner-of-war freed in ‘Operation Big Switch’ at Panmunjom to reach the United States was scheduled to arrive aboard a troop transport in San Francisco tomorrow. Sgt. Calvin Royal of 136 Sumpter St., a prisoner for two and one-half years, crossed the line to freedom on Aug. 8. At their Brooklyn home, the former prisoner’s mother, Mrs. Annabelle Royal, and his sister, Mrs. Mildred Marshall, joyously prepared for the homecoming expected in a matter of hours after debarkation at San Francisco. The Department of Defense has announced that within six hours after the freed PW’s debark, they will be winging their way home on civilian airline planes.

 

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ON THIS DAY IN 1911, the Eagle reported, “’La Jaconde,’ the masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci, has disappeared from the Salon Carre of the Louvre, where it occupied the place of honor. The great museum has been searched from cellars to attics in vain … Just a year and a month ago, the Cri de Paris announced that ‘La Jaconde’ had been stolen from the gallery of the Louvre one night in June through the complicity of an official of the museum and that a copy had been substituted in the frame for the original, which, the paper asserted, had been taken to New York and sold to an American collector. This report was repeatedly denied later.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1849, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported. “The St. Louis Reveille says that the whole number of wagons en route across the plains to California will make a train of 55 miles in length. The same paper estimates the number of men now on their way to California, by this route, at 36,000.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1922, the Eagle reported, “The master minds of the police departments of the United States, Great Britain and Continental Europe at present are engaged in stacking the cards against the criminals of the world, and some time in the near future crooks will find that when they start matching wits against the constituted authorities they will be up against a stiffer game than the one to which they have been accustomed. The radio, whereby pictures of individuals, fingerprints, records and checks can be reproduced, will soon be fighting against them. The apparatus for transmitting photos, etc., was perfected by Professor Arthur Korn.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1969, a few days after the end of the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York, Brooklyn Spectator columnist “Uncle Walt” wrote, “Couldn’t help thinking the other day, it’s bad enough to look at even one of those hippies — or hippie types. Can you imagine 400,000 of them — all at one time?? It is frightening though to think that so many of our young people are like that. They’re escapists, in our book. But there seems to be enough of them to start another political party. Can you imagine them running the country? We blame our involvement in the Vietnam War for a lot of these conditions. The only hope is that once that thing is settled and out of the way, a lot of these other conditions will fade away and die.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “For the first time in history a Negro will be competing for a national grass courts tennis championship next Monday when the United States women’s singles play begins at the famous West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens. That was revealed by the United States Lawn Tennis Association when it was announced that 22-year-old Althea Gibson of New York was included among the 52 entrants accepted for title play. ‘Miss Gibson was accepted on her ability,’ Executive Secretary Edwin S. Baker of the U.S.L.T.A. said. ‘Her name came up for consideration by the selection committee in the normal process and the committee considered her record strong enough for her to compete for the national title.”

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