History Brooklyn Boro

October 18, ON THIS DAY in 1950, Allied armies rip into Pyongyang

October 18, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Eagle file photo
Eagle file photo
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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Tokyo, Oct. 18 (U.P.) — The vanguard of on-rushing Allied armies was reported tonight to have smashed through a flurry of Communist resistance and entered the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Dispatches from the fast-shifting zone of the climactic action in the Korean war said the fall of Pyongyang seemed imminent. The Communist government leaders were believed to have fled to Manchuria. The Pyongyang radio fell silent. United Nations forces captured the Pyongyang Airport, 4 miles east of the city proper, according to field reports broadcast from Pusan. The Korean Republican 1st Division apparently surged westward from the airport and won the dayslong race to be the first of the three main Allied columns racing for the capital, to enter the city.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1843, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Some remarkable experiments have been made with Morse’s Electro-magnetic Telegraph arrangements, and they have demonstrated surprising facts. Wires extending in length 158 miles were laid down, the battery etc. prepared and matters communicated that distance in almost a second of time! In experiments to ascertain the resistance to the passage of the electric current, it was proved that the ‘resistance increases rapidly with the first few miles, and less rapidly afterwards, until for very great lengths no sensible difference can be observed. This is a most unfortunate circumstance in the employment of electro-magnetism for telegraphic purposes, since, contrary to all other modes of communicating intelligence, the difficulty to overcome decreases in proportion to the distance!’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1867, the Eagle reported, “While there is yet time to enjoy some of the pleasures Prospect Park is expected to afford, and the beautiful Indian summer weather invites us out of doors, the Park Commissioners have decided to throw open tomorrow to the public a section of Prospect Park, embracing about one hundred acres of grounds. This will enable the people to see what work has been done, and what they are to get for their money. Sufficient progress has been made to reveal the design of the park and gives some idea of what it will be when the work is completed. Among the finished portion of the work is a mile of the Telford Gravel Road, which will be opened for travel, affording a splendid drive from the Flatbush Avenue to the Coney Island Road … If the fine weather we are now enjoying shall hold out for a little while longer, our citizens shall have an opportunity of enjoying a foretaste of our great park.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1903, the Eagle reported, “The registration this year shows a marked increase over the registration of the year 1901, when Fusion defeated Tammany and Mayor [Seth] Low was elected. In 1901 the total registration in the borough of Brooklyn was 219,857, while this year, according to the best figures obtainable last night the grand total was 222,239 … Yesterday’s figures were taken, of necessity, from police headquarters, where they were sent by telephone from the various precincts. The total registration yesterday, according to the records, was 51,072, as against 41,859 on the fourth day of registration in 1901.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1931, the Eagle reported, “Chicago, Oct. 17 (AP) — Al Capone’s income tax suit went to the jury this afternoon. Federal Judge James H. Wilkerson took an hour and ten minutes to instruct the jury. He said it was not necessary to prove the exact amount of income ($1,035,000 in six years) charged in the indictment against the gang leader, but that if the jurors believed the evidence proved he had a gross income large enough so that under the law he was liable to file a return and pay a tax (about $5,000 a year) and that he had evaded such tax, they should find him guilty.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Eagle reported, “London, Oct. 18 (U.P.) — Joseph Bruce Ismay, 74, former owner of the White Star Line and president of the International Mercantile Marine Company, who survived the Titanic disaster, died Sunday. Ismay, as head of the line, was the target for bitter abuse following the sinking of the liner with the loss of 1,635 lives because he had left her in one of the lifeboats, though there were not enough places in the boats for hundreds of passengers. Public opinion blamed the disaster on Ismay, saying that Capt. E. J. Smith had obeyed his orders in speeding the ship through waters filled with icebergs. A U.S. Senate investigating committee did not place the blame on anyone, although it agreed that the Titanic was traveling too fast through ice fields after having received three ice warnings which went unheeded.”

 


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