February 6: ON THIS DAY in 1952, King George VI dead

February 6, 2019 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Share this:

ON THIS DAY IN 1861, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “It is probable that the fire alarm telegraph will soon be introduced into the city, the object being to sound an alarm of fire simultaneously on all the bells, or to so arrange the wires as to strike in the district only where the fire originates. The fire alarm telegraph has been in operation in Boston for some years, and although it is imperfect, answers the purpose very well. It has also been introduced in a number of other cities, the last of which is New Orleans, where it has been brought to such a state of advancement that little more is desired to make it as perfect as human ingenuity can accomplish. The cost will be about $80,000. If one is introduced in New York and found to answer all the purposes claimed for it, there can be no doubt that Brooklyn will follow the example.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1873, the Eagle reported, “Mark Twain will lecture on the Sandwich Islands at the Academy [of Music] on Friday night. His lecture is not to be commended at all. It is painful in its treatment of facts. He has compelled the belief that he is an historical fraud, or that the encyclopedias must all be re-written. This wretched being actually displays no accountability to truth as misunderstood by the Historical Society. He thinks that a ton of fun and not the least scruple of fact is a mixture he can serve up with impunity and dispatch. As to the Sandwich Islands, he was there six months six years ago, and while there suffered incarceration for debt in a live volcano. The painful results are now set at large in an hour’s talk which has compelled him when delivered to leave one place for some other place, there to deliver it as soon as possible. We have no confidence in Mark Twain. He makes people laugh so much that they are precluded from thoughtful attention to the grave themes that might be but are not put into his lecture.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1906, the Eagle reported, “The large, imposing and costly bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin, which for the past nine months has been in course of construction at the Roman Bronze Works, on Greene Street, near Provost, Greenpoint, is finished, and will be ready for shipment to Paris tomorrow … The statue is to be placed on the Rue Franklin, Paris, in the immediate vicinity of where Franklin made his home while he was ambassador to France.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “Leaders in the world of the theater, art, society, music, civic life and the screen will attend the world premiere of Walt Disney’s ‘Pinocchio’ at the Center Theater in Radio City tomorrow night. This will be the first gala opening on the new 6th Ave. Plainclothesmen will be inside the theater guarding the exhibit in the lower lounge of Walt Disney originals. ‘Pinocchio,’ Disney’s first full-length feature after ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,’ was three years in production. An approximate total of 1,200 persons worked on the film at the Disney studios and more than 500,000 drawings went into the film.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “London, Feb. 6 (UP) — King George VI died peacefully in his sleep early today and 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth became reigning sovereign of the British Commonwealth and empire. The new queen, who will reign over one-quarter of the world’s surface and population, was vacationing in Nairobi, Kenya, an African colony, when the death of her 56-year-old father suddenly elevated her to the throne. She departed for London at once with her husband and prince consort, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. They had been scheduled to sail from Africa tomorrow for a royal tour of Ceylon, Australia and New Zealand … Death came to the King at the same estate where he was born Dec. 14, 1895. He had reigned through 15 of Britain’s most momentous years. He succeeded to the throne Dec. 11, 1936, when his brother, Edward VIII, abdicated for the ‘woman I love.’ Edward became the Duke of Windsor.”