February 4: ON THIS DAY in 1924, Ex-President Wilson to be buried

February 4, 2020 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1911, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Manila — The earthquakes which have continued for several days coincident with the eruptions from Mount Taal are decreasing in intensity and frequency. At noon today a total of 913 quakes have been recorded at the observatory.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1913, the Eagle published an ad which stated, “The main Grand Central Terminal Building in New York is now open to the public. This vast improvement is more than a great railway Terminal — it is a Terminal City, complete in itself, providing every detail essential to comfort and convenience. It will embrace convention, amusement and exhibition halls, hotels, clubs and restaurants; post office, express offices, modern apartment and office buildings, and numerous stores and specialty shops. Grand Central Terminal is the Heart of New York at Forty-second Street and Park Avenue (4th Avenue), one block from Fifth Avenue and convenient to Broadway. It is the only Terminal on all lines of local traffic — subway, surface and elevated. More than 7,000 cars pass through its doors every day, affording easy transit facilities to any part of New York. Around it, within a radius of a few blocks, are forty-nine hotels, fifty-eight clubs and thirty-five theaters.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1924, the Eagle reported, “In every nook and corner of New York City today is felt the blow that has removed from life the man who led America in the war of the ages. Wednesday, which has been set aside as the day of Woodrow Wilson’s funeral, will be observed generally as a day of reverence. The schools are planning to close; courts, state, federal and city offices, as well as many department stores and other industrial concerns, will also observe the day, the whole city being united in its preparations to make Wednesday the solemn occasion for a huge tribute of appreciation. Churches and parochial schools will join in the general occasion of sorrow, each hour bringing a new announcement of the exercises to be held. A deluge of eulogy accompanies the news of events and from every home and busy mart is heard the breath of prayer for him who is departed.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1925, the Eagle reported, “Seattle, Wash. — An additional 1,000,000 units of diphtheria antitoxin were ready for shipment on the steamship Admiral Watson today to Nome, Alaska, via Seward and Nenana, to supplement 300,000 units of serum received Monday from Nenana and 1,100,000 units now en route to the northern town. The death toll from diphtheria in Nome remained at five and the total number of cases at twenty-nine, according to cables from the North. A description of Gunnar Kasson, the musher who arrived in Nome at daybreak Monday with the last relay team carrying the serum from Nenana, after plodding through a blizzard for seven and one-half hours, was given by his brother, P.I. Kasson … ‘I know some of the difficulties my brother Gunnar encountered,’ said P.I. Kasson. ‘It’s a wonder he got through at all in the blizzard when four of the dogs froze. But Gunnar is strong. He weighs more than 200 pounds and is six feet tall. He knows the country and his dogs. That big black dog, Balto, the leader of the team, is a wonder.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “Louisville, Ky. (AP) — Theodore Roosevelt 3rd, grandson and namesake of the late President, took a Kentucky belle for a wife today — Miss Anne Babcock, Junior Leaguer and talented horsewoman. Col. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., parents of the bridegroom, and others of the Roosevelt family were present as the couple repeated vows spoken by the Rev. Teunis E. Gouwens in the Second Presbyterian Church. Cornelius Roosevelt, mining engineer in Mexico and brother of the bridegroom, was best man. Another brother, Quentin, Harvard University student, was an usher.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “Washington, Feb. 3 (U.P.) — The Commerce Department reported tonight that the national birthrate, which rose 30 percent above prewar levels in the year after Pearl Harbor, is declining and will continue declining until the end of hostilities precipitates another baby boom. The department’s Census Bureau reported 9,000,000 births during the past three years.”