April 1: ON THIS DAY in 1954, city preps for H-bomb attack

April 1, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle

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ON THIS DAY IN 1842, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “APRIL FOOL. – The lawyers and insurers in a neighboring building were for a time smoked out this morning. Their fires were kindled, as usual, but the smoke puffed out and filled their office till they were almost strangled. They ran about from room to room with streaming eyes to ascertain the cause, and remedy the evil, but in vain, till one bethought him to go to the top of the house and examine the chimney, where he found a piece of board laid over the flue in such a manner as completely to shut it up. This may be a good April fool joke, but it is no fool of a joke to have one’s eyes put out.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1913, the Eagle reported, “Rome, April 1 – The body of the late J. Pierpont Morgan, after it had been embalmed and dressed, was today enclosed in a walnut coffin, lined with white brocade. This was then placed in a leaden casket, and finally in a third case of heavy walnut, with gold and silver fittings. Flowers continued to be sent to the hotel throughout the day, and the apartment is now filled with them. The United States ambassador has offered to hold a funeral service at the embassy, in pursuance of instructions received from Secretary of State [William Jennings] Bryan … Speculation as to the size of the fortune left by J. Pierpont Morgan and the manner of its disposition has thus far brought out nothing on which a definite estimate could be made. The only indication of the vastness of Mr. Morgan’s wealth is reflected in his ownership of what is said to be the greatest art collection in the world, which is supposed to be worth from $50,000,000 to $75,000,000.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1931, the Eagle reported, “Chicago, April 1 (AP) – Knute Rockne will be remembered first for his football accomplishments as ‘the Wizard of Notre Dame,’ but of all the figures in the athletic world he was by far the most entertaining. His fund of stories, told about himself and about his players, was inexhaustible and they were part of the tradition that has been built up around him. He never was backward about asserting his opinions about football and its conduct. He was involved in more controversies over rule making than any other coach in America. Although only 43 years old, premature baldness, combined with his recent illness, made many think he was much older. Rockne was kidded quite a bit because of the absence of hair on his head. He stopped the wisecrackers with this remark: ‘Well, Demosthenes didn’t have any hair either.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “Herbert R. O’Brien, director of New York City’s Civil Defense, today was trying to figure out how to evacuate 8,000,000 men, women and children in the event the city is threatened by an H-bomb attack. ‘We hardly know where to start,’ he said. ‘If this new bomb is what they say it is, our system of going to shelters is ancient history.’ The only answer, O’Brien said, is total evacuation, and he estimated at least three days would be needed to accomplish that. It is ‘unlikely,’ he pointed out, that the city would get much warning. But advance studies of evacuation problems have already been made, he revealed. They show mass evacuation must be directed northward through Westchester County, he said. Mass movements to the west would be impossible because of bridge and tunnel bottlenecks and the fact that New Jersey’s industrial areas would also be a prime target.”