March 5: ON THIS DAY in 1949, boro girl seized in theft of U.S. secret data

March 5, 2019 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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ON THIS DAY IN 1861, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The character of Mr. Lincoln’s inaugural address is such as to forestall criticism. It is so perfectly in accordance with the intimations thrown out in his speeches delivered on his circuitous route to Washington that it creates no new impression. It is what everybody seemed to expect, and nobody is disappointed, while no agreeable surprise was held in reserve for those who hoped he would announce sentiments different from those he promulgated. In reviewing this enunciation of the principles that are to guide his administration in the most important matters that are likely to engage his attention, we must remember the influences which must necessarily surround him, and make those allowances for the circumstances by which he is environed which he seems incapable of making in the case of his southern fellow countrymen. He had to guard against the appearance of yielding to secession, while he has also acknowledged that he is but an agent in the hands of the people, and only the instrument for carrying their will into effect.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1917, the Eagle reported, “George Washington, who celebrates his name by getting in trouble annually around February 22, when patriotic but misguided acquaintances treat him to many drinks, will celebrate the next four birthdays of his illustrious namesake in jail. George was convicted of burglary again and Judge Fawcett, in the County Court today, sent him to Sing Sing for five years. ‘For years you have been disgracing that great name which you have taken unto yourself,’ said Judge Fawcett to G.W. ‘You need only one more conviction to be sent away for life. Let your sentence be a warning to men who think they can commit burglaries without being caught.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “Washington, March 5 (U.P.) – The Justice Department announced early today that FBI agents had arrested a Justice Department employee and a member of the Soviet delegation to the United Nations for conspiring to remove official United States government records. Attorney General Tom Clark identified the department employee as Judith Coplon, 27, and the Russian as Valentine A. Gubitchev, 32, third secretary of the U.S.S.R. Secretariat of the United Nations. Miss Coplon is employed in the Justice Department’s criminal division. Miss Coplon’s brother, Bertram G. Coplon [of New York City] said she had been employed by the Justice Department ever since her graduation from Barnard College five years ago. He declined comment on her arrest but said she came home from Washington every weekend to visit her parents [on Ocean Parkway] … The section in which Miss Coplon is employed has charge of the registration of agents of foreign countries and companies.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “Moscow, March 5 (UP) – Stricken Premier Josef Stalin took another turn for the worse today and the Communist Party newspaper Pravda, in a rallying call to the Russian people, told them to unite behind their ‘experienced leadership.’ Stalin entered his fourth day of deep coma and his nine attending physicians used oxygen, drugs and blood-drawing leeches in a desperate effort to keep him alive … Thousands of anxious Moscowites gathered early at newsstands, despite the cold and snow which fell throughout the night. They had learned of Stalin’s illness only yesterday, 48 hours after he was stricken. Pravda and Izvestia, also a government newspaper, published the second bulletin on Stalin’s health on their front pages. ‘Medical measures taken during the fourth of March consisted of introducing oxygen, introduction of camphor compounds, caffeine and glucose,’ the bulletin said. ‘For a second time, leeches were used to draw blood.’”