January 29: ON THIS DAY in 1942, Knox declares ‘superiority on the seas‘

January 29, 2019 Meaghan McGoldrick

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ON THIS DAY IN 1842, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “It was formerly the practice among physicians to use a cane with a hollow head, the top of which was gold, pierced with holes like a pepper box. This top contained a small quantity of aromatic powder or snuff; and on entering a house or room where a disease supposed to be infectious prevailed, the doctor would strike the cane on the floor to agitate the powder, and then apply it to his nose. Hence all the old prints of physicians represent them with canes at their noses.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1851, the Eagle reported, “John James Audubon, the distinguished ornithologist, died at his residence, on the banks of the Hudson, on Monday morning last. The deceased was in the 76th year of his age, and in the department of science to which he particularly devoted himself, he has left no equal behind him. He was the son of an admiral in the French navy, and was born in Louisiana. As a man, he was beloved by all who knew him; and as an author, his fame is world-wide, and destined to endure.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1861, the Eagle reported, “The Position of the President-Elect. — A dispatch from the residence of Mr. [Abraham] Lincoln states that Mr. [Richard] Yates, the governor of Illinois, has received telegraphic advices from the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, and other northern states, suggesting the propriety of joining in a convention, to be held at Washington in February, to devise proper remedies for the adjustment of the present difficulties. The appointment of five commissioners from each state is recommended. Gov. Yates has finally decided to join in the movement. In this, it is supposed he has acted upon the advice of Mr. Lincoln. If this news be authentic and ‘Old Abe’ will preserve the Union, in the only way it can be preserved, by reasonable compromise, he will do more to establish his administration on a firm basis than if he could prop it with a million bayonets.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1898, the Eagle reported from Washington, D.C., that “the resolutions for the erection of a monument to the prison ship martyrs at Fort Greene, N.Y., the library committee has recommended to the House a substitute appropriating $100,000 as a part contribution, conditioned on an additional $100,000 to be raised otherwise. The report estimates that there were 20,000 of these victims now sought to be commemorated. Mrs. S.V. White, who has been especially identified with the monument movement from the beginning, was asked this morning by an Eagle reporter what she thought of the action of the library committee and replied: ‘Just what I expected. As was said the other day by the regents of Fort Greene Chapter, D.A.R., all that was needed was to turn the searchlight on and call attention to the martyrs. The people are patriotic.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1921, the Eagle reported, “Paris, Jan. 29 — Word has been received here from Budapest that the famous dancer, [Vaslav] Nijinsky, former star of the Russian ballet, is hopelessly insane and confined in a Budapest asylum. Details of his malady are that he believes he is a horse and always walks on all fours. During the war Nijinsky was a prisoner of the Austrians. Intervention from the highest quarters obtained his exchange for an Austrian general in the hands of the Allies, and he was permitted to embark for America.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1942, the Eagle reported, “Washington, Jan. 29 (U.P.) — Secretary of Navy [Frank] Knox declared today that completion of the ship construction program now under way will give this nation ‘superiority on the seas all over the world. Knox told reporters that every dollar of the $19,977,965,474 naval supply bill, approved by the House and under consideration by Senate Appropriations Subcommittee, must be utilized if the effort to give the nation preponderance in sea lanes covering every possible battle sector in the world. The secretary declared himself ‘very proud’ of the performance of the Asiatic fleet in the Straits of Macassar, adding ‘they are doing a damned fine job.’”