Brooklyn Boro

June 22: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

June 22, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History
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ON THIS DAY IN 1865, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The celebration of the coming anniversary of American independence in this city will, from all appearances, be the grandest ever had in Brooklyn. The committee appointed by the Common Council for the purpose of making preparation for the celebration have been almost every day in session, and so far as they have completed the arrangements, the programme will consist of a grand procession in the morning of the entire Fire Department, the militia and returned veterans, whom his honor Mayor Wood and the Common Council will review. All the returned soldiers of this city, who have received an honorable discharge, are to be presented with medals, commemorative of their services, but as the time is insufficient to get them ready, each of the veterans will receive a certificate, which will entitle him to the medal as soon as it is struck off. The returned soldiers at the conclusion of the parade will be entertained at Fort Greene. In the evening there will be a grand display of fireworks in the City Hall Park, Fort Greene, and in the Eastern District, besides a general illumination.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Eagle reported, “President Roosevelt’s nomination of Marion Allen as internal revenue collector for Georgia was the first White House reprisal for opposition in the Senate to the court packing bill — and the president has apparently got away with it without any backfire. Allen was the choice of Senator Richard B. Russell Jr., the junior senator from the state in which the president makes his ‘second home’ — at Warm Springs. Russell is a firm advocate of the court bill. The president, in nominating Allen, defied a Senate custom giving the senior senator the last word on federal appointments in his state. The senior senator from Georgia happens to be Walter F. George, who occupies the seat next to Senator [Royal] Copeland of New York and shares Copeland’s strong antipathy toward the court-enlargement proposal, as well as a lot of other New Dealisms.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “Derailment of a Manhattan-bound Brighton Beach B.M.T. train between the Atlantic Ave. and DeKalb Ave. stations during the morning rush hour today delayed thousands of Brooklynites for work and stuck thousands of others underground in sweltering heat. Transit Authority officials reported that the truck of the last car of an eight-car train left the tracks at 7:36 a.m. The result was that all Manhattan-bound trains were turned back at the Prospect Park station, and all Brooklyn-bound trains were turned back at Whitehall St. in Manhattan. There were scenes of wild confusion at the Prospect Park station as thousands poured out into the street, jammed buses and taxis, and formed queues before telephone booths. ‘This is worse than the crowd at a Dodger-Giant doubleheader on Sunday,’ one veteran cop at Flatbush Ave. and Empire Boulevard volunteered. Transit Authority emergency crews rushed to the scene and started efforts to get the car back on the track. At a late hour this morning they were still working on it, and an authority spokesman said that the trouble would not be straightened out until afternoon.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “The time to fight against increased taxes and for economy in government is not a time and place specified by the politician, as has been the practice, but at election time, T.R. Dryer, vice president and general manager, Brooklyn operations, American Machine & Foundry Company, told the board of directors of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Reporting on the efforts of businessmen to deter the city from increasing the sales and cigarette taxes and imposing an occupancy tax, Dryer said: ‘We documented our story very carefully, and told the city administration what we thought would happen if the tax program was enacted. Our warnings went unheeded. The taxes were railroaded through and are now the law of the land. Perhaps we should feel humiliated. Certainly we have every reason to believe that as far as the government of the City of New York is concerned, business and industry is a negligible quantity hardly worthy of consideration beyond certain statutory requirements which call for public hearings before the enactment of damaging legislation.”

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Meryl Streep
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Cyndi Lauper
Chris Pizzello/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who was born in 1933; singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson, who was born in 1936; journalist and author Brit Hume, who was born in 1943; The Turtles founder Howard Kaylan, who was born in 1947; “Hello it’s Me” singer Todd Rundgren, who was born in 1948; Oscar-winner Meryl Streep, who was born in 1949; “The Bionic Woman” star Lindsay Wagner, who was born in 1949; U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was born in 1949; “True Colors” singer Cyndi Lauper, who was born in 1953; “Star Trek: Voyager” star Tim Russ, who was born in 1956; “Evil Dead” star Bruce Campbell, who was born in 1958; Basketball Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler, who was born in 1962; “Judging Amy” star Amy Brenneman, who was born in 1964; and “The DaVinci Code” author Dan Brown, who was born in 1964.

Clyde Drexler
Rich Schultz/AP

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LAW OF THE LAND: The Department of Justice was established by an act of Congress on this day in 1870. The department is headed by the attorney general. Prior to 1870, the attorney general, whose office was created in 1789, was a member of the president’s cabinet but not the head of a department.

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ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE: Joseph Papp was born in Brooklyn 100 years ago today. At the helm of the New York Public Theatre, Papp produced a wide range of works from the classical to that of the newest American dramatists, including “Hair,” “The Pirates of Penzance,” “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and “A Chorus Line.” He won three Pulitzer Prizes, six New York Critics Circle Awards and 28 Tonys. He died in 1991.

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

Quotable:

“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”
— comedian George Carlin, who died on this day in 2008

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