July 29: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

July 29, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1915, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — The French Consulate at Camp Haitien, Haiti, is menaced by revolutionists, and a guard from the United States auxiliary cruiser Eagle has been landed to protect it. This information was cabled early today to the State Department by American Consul Livingston. Rear Admiral Caperton, in a cablegram sent last night from Port au Prince and received at the Navy Department today, said: ‘The landing force entered Port au Prince and bivouacked for the night at the market place in the northern part of the city. A guard was placed at the French Legation. No serious disturbance. This action was decided on after consultation with the American charge d’affaires. The French warship Descartes is expected tonight. Two companies of marines and two companies of seamen were landed at 5:50 p.m. Have information from commander of the U.S.S. Eagle reporting conditions at Cape Haitien quiet, but Eagle landed twenty men at Cape Haitien to protect French Consulate for fear of attack on refugees there.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1932, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (A.P.) — At the direction of President [Herbert] Hoover, Attorney General [William D.] Mitchell today requested the District of Columbia Supreme Court to order a federal grand jury investigation of the disorders incident to the dispossessing of the bonus marchers yesterday. The Department of Justice issued this statement: ‘In response to the president’s direction to the attorney general to inquire into the recent disorders in the city, the Supreme Court of the district has been requested to lay the subject forthwith before the grand jury now in session.’ President Hoover discussed the affairs of yesterday with his cabinet. The consensus across the cabinet table at the White House was that the Army had handled its duties well after being placed in charge of the situation. Secretary of War [Patrick J.] Hurley disclosed later that the Red Cross had offered to transport to their homes not only women and children in the bonus camp, but also the husbands of such families. Hurley reiterated a statement by the president that the leaders of the riot were ‘not even ex-servicemen.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Mysterious objects swooped over the nation’s capital again early today and the Air Force called in top scientists to find out what the ‘flying saucers’ are. The Civil Aeronautics Administration traffic control center reported that its radar picked up the objects for about six straight hours early this morning. The objects, a CAA official said, were traveling about 100 to 120 miles an hour in a 10-mile arc around the capital, between Herndon, Va., and Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. It was in this same area that radar screens recorded the strange ‘targets’ the past two Saturday nights, setting off a new rash of ‘flying saucer’ rumors in the capital. Top Air Force brass has decided to get to the bottom of the mystery. Forsaking an earlier attitude that ‘there ain’t no such animal,’ they are enlisting top scientists in a major new saucer study, it was learned today.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “The city’s juvenile delinquency rate is increasing with growing speed, according to new figures made public by Mayor [Robert] Wagner. In the first six months of this year, the mayor said, delinquency jumped 17.2 percent over the same six months last year. The figure last year, he added, was an increase of 13.2 percent over the first six months of the previous year. Despite the big jump in New York, the mayor added, the increase has been even more marked in some other parts of the state and nation. Speaking at the concluding dinner of the annual New York State Association of Chiefs of Police in the Hotel New Yorker, he said only an overall community-supported program could cure the growing evil. He declared the rise in juvenile crime might be related to ‘the inadequate support, judicially, psychiatrically and in terms of existing law’ given the police in meeting the problem. Necessary tools, he said, are parental education, slum clearance, religious education, trained probationary and psychiatric personnel and adequately staffed and compensated police forces.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Emergency!” star Robert Fuller, who was born in 1933; former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who was born in 1936; “Police Academy” star Leslie Easterbrook, who was born in 1949; documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who was born in Brooklyn in 1953; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Geddy Lee (Rush), who was born in 1953; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Patti Scialfa (E Street Band), who was born in 1953; boxing trainer and commentator Teddy Atlas, who was born in 1956; “Baywatch” star Alexandra Paul, who was born in 1963; “Stand by Me” star Wil Wheaton, who was born in 1972; Wimbledon mixed-doubles champion Nicole Melichar, who was born in 1993; and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who was born in 1993.

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A VIEW FROM ABROAD: Alexis de Tocqueville was born on this day in 1805. The French politician and author’s 1831 trip the U.S. inspired “Democracy in America,” one of the most insightful books written about the U.S. “America is a land of wonders,” he wrote, “in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement.” He died in 1859.

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LOST AND FOUND: The USS Indianapolis was sunk on this day in 1945. After delivering the atomic bomb to Tinian Island, the American cruiser was headed for Okinawa to train for the invasion of Japan when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. More than 350 of the 1,196 crew members were immediately killed in the explosion or went down with the ship. The survivors endured the next 84 hours in ocean waters. By the time rescue arrived on Aug. 2, only 318 sailors were still alive, the rest having drowned or been eaten by sharks. In 2017, a search group financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen found the wreck of the Indianapolis in the Philippine sea at a depth of 18,000 feet.

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

Quotable:

“History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.”

— Alexis de Tocqueville, who was born on this day in 1805