April 30: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

April 30, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1861, a Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorial said, “The Southern newspapers are very interesting reading about this time. The more judicious of them look with seriousness, if not with alarm, at the unparalleled change in Northern feeling; they do not affect to despise the resources at our command, and have a lively sense of the shock the South is destined to encounter. It will put to the test the question so often mooted, as to the danger to the South of the servile population within her borders. Southern men have declared that the Negroes may be relied upon to stand by their owners to the death, while a large class at the North believe that nothing is wanting but an invading army in the Southern States to cause a general Negro stampede, if not an insurrection, either of which will dissipate in the air hundreds of millions worth of property, and completely overturn the industrial system on which the prosperity of the South is based.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1915, the Eagle reported, “JULFA, TRANSCAUCASIA, April 29 (via Petrograd and London, April 30) — A renewal of the recent massacres of Christians in Armenia is now in progress in the whole district of Lake Van. Conflicts between the Armenians and the Kurds are daily becoming more obdurate. An exceptionally fierce engagement is occurring today at Shattasch.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, the Eagle reported, “Steeplechase Park, the oldest and largest amusement park in Coney Island, will begin its 45th season on Sunday at 1 p.m. Founded in 1896, the giant fun center is expected to have its greatest season as the park has acquired the gem of the late World’s Fair midway, the parachute jump.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “PARIS (U.P.) — The notorious Dachau concentration camp seven miles north of Munich — the first and blackest of the political death camps established in the early days of the Hitler regime — was overrun by the 7th Army yesterday. There the Yanks killed or captured 300 SS guards and liberated 32,000 political and religious prisoners who greeted their rescuers with hysterical joy. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of Dachau’s other inmates the Americans came too late. Fifty boxcars were found on a nearby railroad siding, loaded with bodies, torture chambers, gas boxes and other paraphernalia of terror that the Nazi guards were attempting to remove.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “JERUSALEM (U.P.) — The showdown battle of Jerusalem blazed up today, and the Jewish militia Hagana scored sharp successes in the first round. Hagana forces seized the Jerusalem general post office building, which controls the center of the city. They forced the Arab defenders of the Katamon quarter to sue for a truce to evacuate their dead and wounded after bloody fighting throughout the night. Still other Jewish and Arab forces were locked in the battle around the Mah Millah Cemetery in the heart of the city, and the Jews struck in force against an Arab stronghold on Mt. Zion. The Jews claimed to have seized control of the telephone exchange, the last department of the postal service still working in Jerusalem. The other services had broken down as most of the British pulled out of the city and left it to the warring Jews and Arabs. The outbreak of fighting at the scattered strategic quarters of Jerusalem convinced most of the jittery population that this was the long-awaited fight for the richest prize in the war of Palestine.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, Eagle columnist Harold Stern wrote, “Of the three acts currently on view at the Bitter End (147 Bleecker St.), two are most enjoyable and the third escapes me. Number one is Bill Cosby, a Negro comic who’s terribly witty and who doesn’t seem to be afflicted with the bitterness that has turned Dick Gregory from a funny man into a spokesman. Cosby has a lot of good routines, but I particularly enjoyed his graphic demonstration of karate and his wild re-enactment of the story of Noah’s Ark.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Ringworld” author Larry Niven, who was born in 1938; baseball player and manager Phil Garner, who was born in 1949; Oscar-winner Jane Campion, who was born in 1954; “The Big Bang Theory” star Johnny Galecki,

Johnny Galecki
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

who was born in 1975; The Dresden Dolls founder Amanda Palmer, who was born in 1976; “Spider-Man” star Kirsten Dunst, who was born in 1982; actor and singer Drew Seeley, who was born in 1982; “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot, who was born in 1985; and “Glee” star Dianna Agron, who was born in 1986.

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HARE APPARENT: Bugs Bunny debuted on this day in 1938. The “wascally wabbit” first appeared on screen in the theatrical short “Porky’s Hare Hunt,” directed by Ben “Bugs” Hardaway. Chuck Jones and Tex Avery further developed him into the character we know now. In “A Wild Hare” (1940), Bugs asks, “What’s up, Doc?” for the first time. The rabbit’s noisy carrot munching was based on Clark Gable’s performance in “It Happened One Night” (1934).

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LIVE FROM NEW YORK: Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first TV president on this day in 1939. FDR was televised in New York, where he attended the opening ceremonies of the World’s Fair. However, the appearance was beamed to only 200 TV sets in a 40-mile radius.

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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.

Quotable:

“I like the lasso of truth. There is something so beautiful about the fact that people have to tell the truth when they have the lasso around them.”
— “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot, who was born on this day in 1985