July 12: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

July 12, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1921, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Brooklyn will probably get a complement of voting machines to facilitate the counting of the vote in the coming municipal elections. The Assembly districts will be equipped with them serially. Commissioners Livingston and Heydt of the Board of Elections voted in favor of equipping the Assembly districts with the machines. The Democratic members voted against it. The matter was then referred to the secretary of state, who broke the deadlock by deciding for the machines. The first three Assembly districts will be the first to get the machines. Brooklyn will probably get 300 in all. The Committee on Finance and Budget of the Board of Estimate passed a resolution yesterday recommending to the full board the issuance of serial bonds to the amount of $340,000 for the purchase by the Board of Elections of 328 machines to be used in the coming municipal elections in conformance with a bill passed by the last Legislature.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, the Eagle reported, “Jesse Owens of Ohio State won the 100-meter and broad jump preliminaries in the final Olympic track tryouts in Randalls Island Stadium.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, Eagle editor Cleveland Rogers wrote, “Yesterday’s speeches at the opening of Triborough Bridge were marked by a lot of repetition, but they were not boring. It is always a good thing when men who differ widely in their views come to think and say the same thing on any subject. Those familiar with the controversies that have accompanied the building of Triborough Bridge must have marveled at the great hatchet-burying ceremony. It was a kind of public confessional, with several distinguished personages saying, in effect, that they had been wrong. What was not said, but plainly implied, was that it is the function of government to get things done for the people which they cannot do for themselves. This means that personalities and petty politics should not enter into such undertakings. This has been the attitude of the Eagle ever since Triborough Bridge was started. And since the opening of the bridge has been the occasion for a lot of ego-patting, this newspaper feels justified in taking a little credit to itself.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Senate investigators summoned three New York area builders today to tell whether links with Federal Housing officials permitted them to pyramid small investments into multimillion-dollar profits. Delving deeper into alleged housing scandals, the Senate Banking Committee also called Thomas G. Grace of Brooklyn, whose law firm was accused of handling government-insured loan applications when he was New York State director of the Federal Housing Administration. The committee resumed public hearings after chairman Homer E. Capehart (R.-Ind.) and Senator Burnet R. Maybank (D.-S.C.) disclosed that Congress is under heavy pressure to kill a provision designed to prevent apartment builders from pocketing ‘windfall’ profits. The provision, tacked on to the administration’s housing bill, would permit the FHA to insure loans only on the actual cost of a project. Builders allegedly have obtained $500,000,000 by getting loans far above construction costs and dividing up the difference as dividends. Capehart and Maybank, senior committee Democrat, said they have no intention of watering down the amendment. It is the only way, Maybank said, ‘to put an end to the racket.’ The apartment builders asked to explain how they got FHA-backed loans were: Gustave M. Berne, builder of the Rockaway Crest Apartments, Far Rockaway, N.Y.; Fred C. Trump of the Beach Haven Apartments, Brooklyn; and Sidney Sarner, who build Linwood Park in Teaneck, N.J.”

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Kristi Yamaguchi
The Heart Truth/Wikimedia Commons

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include sprinter and Olympic gold medalist Otis Davis, who was born in 1932; rower and Olympic gold medalist Thomas Charlton, who was born in 1934; singer-songwriter Swamp Dogg, who was born in 1942; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Christine McVie (Fleetwood Mac), who was born in 1943; fitness trainer Richard Simmons, who was born in 1948; Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer, who was born in 1951; “Charlie’s Angels” star Cheryl Ladd, who was born in 1951; “The Stand” star Jamey Sheridan, who was born in 1951; Gin Blossoms singer Robin Wilson, who was born in 1965; Dream Theater founder John Petrucci, who was born in 1967; “Ally McBeal” star Lisa Nicole Carson, who was born in Brooklyn in 1969; figure skater and Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi, who was born in 1971; “Pushing Daisies” star Anna Friel, who was born in 1976; “That ’70s Show” star Topher Grace, who was born in 1978; “The Fast and the Furious” star Michelle Rodriguez, who was born in 1978; “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” star Rachel Brosnahan, who was born in 1990; and education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was born in 1997.

Rachel Brosnahan
Mingle Media TV/Wikimedia Commons

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HEROIC MEASURE: On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed into law a measure creating the U.S. Army Medal of Honor, to be awarded “to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other solider-like qualities during the present insurrection.”

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POPULARITY CONTEST: “Family Feud” premiered on this day in 1976. Created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, the game show sets two families against each other to accumulate the greatest number of points. The contestants have to predict the most common answers to a given survey question.

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

Quotable:

“We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced.”
— education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was born on this day in 1997