February 13: ON THIS DAY in 1953, Polish Reds strike at Vatican

February 13, 2020 Brooklyn Eagle History

Share this:

ON THIS DAY IN 1852, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “A fugitive slave named Tasker was arrested in New York on Wednesday, under the new slave act, and taken before a commissioner where he acknowledged that he belonged to Mr. Pinckney of Maryland, and was accordingly sent back to servitude under the charge of the U.S. Marshall. He escaped in 1844, and has three children which he was very anxious to take with him.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1916, the Eagle reported, “Staten Island, before the end of the year, will be physically linked up with the Borough of Brooklyn, across the Narrows. Not by a subway connection, but by another sort of a river tunnel, which will be used to introduce the new Catskill water system into the Borough of Richmond. The subway tunnel, which is intended to give the Borough of Richmond a share in the rapid transit system of the city, may come in later years, as an extension to the present Fourth Avenue subway at Sixty-Seventh street. But for the present, Staten Island will have to be satisfied with its physical connection with the Catskills watershed, which should not be scorned when the fact is considered that just now, the Borough of Richmond is completely dominated by private water companies and this would not be possible were it not for the geographical position of Brooklyn and Queens.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Eagle reported, “Influenza and pneumonia cases and deaths in Brooklyn for the 24 hours ended with 10 a.m. today showed a material decrease as compared with the figures for the previous 24 hours. There were 227 cases of influenza, 138 of pneumonia, 24 influenza deaths and 18 deaths from pneumonia. The decrease in the number of deaths is particularly impressive. Dr. Peck said at the Brooklyn Headquarters of the Health Department that whereas part of this may be due to the fact that complete returns were not made yesterday because it was a holiday, the whole situation is very satisfactory.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (UP) — The Polish Communist government has seized control of the entire hierarchy and administration of the Polish Roman Catholic Church, it was announced today. The move announced by the official Polish news agency in a broadcast received here, apparently was in response to the action of Pope Pius XII in making Archbishop Stefan Wyszynski of Warsaw a cardinal at the recent papal consistory … Archbishop Wyszynski was made a cardinal at the Jan. 12 consistory in Vatican City. The Pope noted that Cardinal Wyszynski could not himself attend the consistory — ‘that he could not reach this beloved city as he so ardently wished to do.’ The reason, it was understood at the time, was that Wyszynski feared if he left Poland, the Reds might not let him return. The Pope called Wyszynski’s case ‘still another great sorrow which afflicts our soul.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “BEIRUT, LEBANON (UPI) — The new government of Iraq wiped out traces of the overthrown regime of Abdel Karim Kassem in Baghdad yesterday while cleaning up stubborn pockets of Communist resistance in the outskirts. Thousands of photographs of Kassem, who was executed by a firing squad last week, were torn from walls in offices and homes to be replaced by pictures of new President Abdul Salam Aref. Photographs of U.A.R. President Gamel Abdul Nasser also blossomed throughout the Iraqi capital. In the first report by a UPI reporter from Baghdad itself, correspondent James Howard said sporadic gunfire echoed in the outskirts of Baghdad yesterday but otherwise the capital was returning to normal. Howard reported that tanks and armored cars rumbled through the city as soldiers kept the population under careful scrutiny. But crowds filled the streets, and they seemed to be in a happy mood. Torn pictures of Kassem, who ruled the country for five years, were trampled.”