July 15: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1909, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “An important step in the unifying of the Bell telephone system of the country was announced today. This new development is also of considerable local interest, as it means the wiping out of the corporate existence of the New York and New Jersey Telephone Company through a merger with the parent concern, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which has its headquarters in Boston. There is no question but that the growing aggressiveness and large combinations among the independent telephone companies has inspired the adoption of the policy of a closer combination of the Bell system, of which the absorption of the Brooklyn company is believed to be but the first step. For several years the Brooklyn company has been dominated by the New York Telephone Company, which operates in Manhattan Island and in which the Boston parent company also has a controlling or dominating interest. It is believed that ultimately the New York Telephone Company will be absorbed by the American ‘Tel. & Tel.,’ as it is known in Wall Street parlance.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, the Eagle reported, “Another American athletic argosy, 330 strong, sailed aboard the liner Manhattan today for Berlin and the 11th Olympic games. While spectators cheered and hundreds of whistles shrieked, the big liner got away from its pier at the foot of W. 19th St., Manhattan, at 12:16 a.m., headed down the Hudson to the bay and then to the open sea. Forgotten, at least for the moment, were past worries over the frenzied last-minute financing necessary to assure a full squad, as the athletes lined the ship rails and waved farewell to the spectators. The 330 who sailed today, together with those already in Europe or sailing later, form an American Olympic team of 382, by far the largest that ever represented this country in competition abroad. Previously the 1928 team of 325, which competed at Amsterdam, had been the largest which ever sailed out of New York Harbor. The political dispute engendered by Nazi policies in Germany which, for a time, threatened to cause this country’s withdrawal from the Berlin games, was recalled only faintly as the ship got away.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.