August 7: ON THIS DAY in 1945, Japan base devastated by atom bomb blast

August 7, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1892, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Fall River, Mass. — The latest development in the Borden murder, relating particularly to the theory of poisoning, has given way to discussion among the people today to talk of the funerals, which took place this morning. As early as 9 o’clock the house was surrounded by a great crowd of curiosity seekers. Reporters, artists, photographers and policemen were active among them. Shortly after 10:30, Mr. Morse came from the house and talked freely with a group of reporters. He said it was a terrible thing to be suspected and shadowed as he has been, but he courts the fullest investigation and is anxious and willing to do all that he can to trace the perpetrators of the great crimes. He said Miss Lizzie Borden’s health was in about the same condition as it was last Thursday afternoon. She did not mingle with the family to any great extent.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1916, the Eagle reported, “Microscopic examination of various sorts of insects that may be found in the city at this season will be made by a corps of thirty or forty naturalists to determine, if possible, if infantile paralysis is being spread by insect carriers. Health Commissioner Emerson, in announcing today that this work would be undertaken, said that the naturalists would be secured by federal health officers. Flies, mosquitoes, bugs and all kinds of winged and crawling insects will be subjected to microscopic and other tests in the hope of finding what insects, if any, are carriers of the infantile paralysis germ. No recovered infantile paralysis patients have answered the appeal of the Board of Health for blood as the basis of a serum to fight the disease, according to a statement issued by Dr. Emerson at noon today. Cooperating with the federal health authorities, the local board is preparing to visit homes for crippled and deformed persons outside New York which may be visited by patients suffering from the after-effects of the disease in the hope of securing the necessary blood for the new serum.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “Washington, Aug. 7 (U.P.) — For good or ill, man has unlocked the incalculable power of the atom. He has entered upon the atomic age. His first use of this power — the same that energizes the sun and the stars — has been to make a bomb. It is the most terrible engine of destruction ever conceived. It may end the Japanese war soon. If the Japanese decide to fight on, it will demolish their homeland. But when the bomb’s work is done, its makers hope to convert its power to the arts of peace and to the enforcement of peace. Upon realization of this hope hangs the fate of humanity. Atomic power could remake the world; it also could destroy it. Its power to destroy has been made manifest to the Japanese … Yesterday President Truman gave the enemy another chance to accept the surrender-or-be-destroyed ultimatum of Potsdam. ‘If they do not accept our terms,’ he said, ‘they may expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this earth.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “Boston, Aug. 7 (U.P.) — John F. Kennedy, handsome, blue-eyed son of the former Ambassador to Britain, revived a family tradition when he ran for nomination for Congress — and won. Though his father never held an elective post, Kennedy’s two grandfathers — former Mayor John F. Fitzgerald and the late U.S. Senator Patrick J. Kennedy — were men of winning ways, both in and out of politics. Kennedy, 29 and a Harvard graduate, decided to enter politics while lying on a hospital bed, recovering from wounds suffered as a PT boat skipper during the war. ‘It was either politics or the newspaper business,’ he said. ‘And the Kennedys always have been interested in politics. That probably tipped the scales.’ Kennedy won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Representative from the 11th Massachusetts District, and since nomination is tantamount to election, he undoubtedly will succeed 71-year-old James M. Curley in Congress.”