June 12: ON THIS DAY in 1963, GIs force Wallace to submit

June 12, 2020 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1843, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The Board of Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company have given permission to Professor [Samuel] Morse to use the track of the Washington road for the purpose of carrying out the intentions of the Act of Congress in reference to his important invention of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph. One station of the Telegraph will be at some appropriate place in the city of Washington and the other in the city of Baltimore, and the communication between them will be effected by properly prepared wires laid along the line of the railroad. The object of this arrangement is to prove what Professor M. has already most satisfactorily shown on a less extended scale, that the length of the line of communication presents no obstacle whatever to the instant transmission of intelligence between the two extremes.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1871, the Eagle reported, “It has been well remarked that of all the great inventions of this century, that of the telegraph is the greatest, because it is the simplest. It is the nearest approach man has made to the simplicity and majesty of the works of the Deity. It subordinates one of the great forces of nature to the will and uses of man, and enables the insignificant beings, incapable of traveling by their own strength more than forty miles a day, or by any mechanical aid over five hundred miles a day, to instantaneously hold converse while separated by half the globe’s circumference.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1923, the Eagle reported, “A cold chill is running up and down the spines of followers of the New York Yankees. The Yanks returned home in glory less than two weeks ago with a record of 17 games won and three lost on the road. In their last ten games at home, the Yanks have lost seven and today stand only four games ahead of the ploughing Philadelphia Athletics … Babe Ruth, becoming less apt to hit home runs, is getting nearer to being an all-around dangerous man, and so frequent has been his short hitting when a real blow is needed that he is being passed almost into oblivion. Yesterday he hit the first time up and was passed the next four times by Sherrod Smith, the former Brooklyn southpaw. Manager Miller Huggins, emulating the methods of the shrewd Connie Mack, has taken three stars from college diamonds to bolster his team. Lou Gehrig, Columbia first baseman, began working out with the Yanks yesterday, and today Mike Gazella, the flashy Lafayette infielder, will get into uniform, and Ed Vanderbeck, the Fordham catcher, soon will follow.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “WEST ORANGE, N.J. (U.P.) — Police Sgt. Benjamin Dangler offered his parrot for sale today. During the war, when alarm clocks were scarce, Dangler taught the parrot to awaken him each morning by screaming, ‘Are you up yet, Sarge?’ The parrot called him earlier each morning, until now he starts screaming about midnight.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “TUSCALOOSA, ALA. (UPI) — Gov. George C. Wallace, defiant to the end, bowed yesterday in the face of troops sent by President Kennedy and admitted two Negroes to the all-white University of Alabama. Wallace stood aside — after waiting for five hours for the troops to arrive — and permitted Negroes Vivian Malone and James A. Hood to enter Foster Auditorium to register for the summer term. Earlier, Wallace flatly defied Kennedy’s order to ‘cease and desist’ interfering with the court-ordered enrollment of the two students. Standing in the blazing Alabama sunshine, Wallace read a proclamation denying them admission. Then, shortly after the first contingent of 100 battle-equipped guardsmen rolled onto the campus, Wallace appeared again in front of Foster Auditorium to capitulate. Wallace described the presence of the troops, and the admission of the Negroes, as a ‘bitter pill to swallow.’ He urged again that there be no violence. Kennedy signed an executive order federalizing about 17,000 Alabama National Guardsmen and authorizing the use of army troops if necessary to enroll the two Negroes.”