August 5: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 5, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1913, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “On the eve of the convening of the Frawley Senatorial Investigating Committee at City Hall, Manhattan, tomorrow morning to continue the probe into Governor [William] Sulzer’s campaign funds, it became known today that there is a slight possibility that Boss [Charles Francis] Murphy of Tammany Hall will appear as a witness. When the committee is called together by Senator [James] Frawley in the council chamber, it is planned to read Murphy’s recent letter to Governor Sulzer, challenging the latter to produce evidence of any misconduct on the part of the Tammany leader relating to campaign contributions. The program calls for the placing of the letter on the minutes, and the forwarding of a copy to Sulzer in Albany. If the governor intends to accept the challenge of the boss, the most opportune time to do so would be then. In case he does so, which is considered by some who are familiar with the matter, rather doubtful, Murphy will at once offer to go before the committee and attempt to vindicate himself. That the governor will himself appear before the committee is extremely doubtful. If the committee felt that they had that power, it is probable he would be served with a subpoena. According to the committee’s counsel, Eugene Lamb Richards, this would be exceeding their authority.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, the Eagle reported, “BERLIN (A.P.) — Jesse Owens, Ohio State Negro all-around star, today won the 200-meter sprint title, his third championship of the 11th Olympic Games. Thus the tan thunderbolt achieved the first Olympic triple since Paavo Nurmi’s exploits in 1924. Mack Robinson of Pasadena, Cal., also a Negro, was second. Owens won the championship in 20.7 seconds — four-tenths of a second faster than the new Olympic record he set in the trials and quarter-finals yesterday. He beat Robinson by half a meter. Robinson was clocked at 21.1 seconds, duplicating his time in the semi-finals this morning. Martin Osendarp of Holland ran third.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — The United States practically conceded today that China is lost to the Communists, but warned Russia and her Chinese puppets not to carry the Red aggression in the Far East beyond China’s borders. The admission and the warning were contained in a State Department ‘white paper’ reviewing American policy in China, tracing the events leading to the collapse of Nationalist China, and revealing hitherto secret documents — including the long-suppressed Wedemeyer report. The government expressed belief that the Chinese people will rise up in revolt and ‘throw off the foreign yoke.’ And it promised to ‘encourage all developments in China which now and in the future work toward the end.’ But nowhere did it get specific about just how it proposes to do this. In a foreword to the 1,054-page document, Secretary of State Dean Acheson said of the Communist victory in China: ‘Nothing that this county did or could have done within the reasonable limits of its capabilities could have changed that result; nothing that was left undone by this country has contributed to it.’ This apparently was in answer to the repeated charges that the administration’s wait-and-see policy hastened the Communist conquest in China.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “PANMUNJOM (U.P.) — The first group of war prisoners released by the Communists started home today but a dangerously high percentage were reported suffering advanced tuberculosis. Seventy Americans and 322 other United Nations troops gained freedom, some for the first time in three years, in the first exchange of ‘Operation Big Switch.’ … Half of the first 60 United Nations repatriates reaching Freedom Village near Munsan suffered tuberculosis and other lung disorders. Some complained they were starving. Newsmen at Panmunjom could hear the prisoners coughing as they rode to freedom in cheap blue Chinese uniforms on Russian trucks that bore the trademark of the ‘Molotov Motor Plant.’ … At Freedom Village, one American prisoner described the horror of a death march that killed 1,250 Americans and others told of mistreatment in prison camps.”

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Maureen McCormick
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “WKRP in Cincinnati” star Loni Anderson, who was born in 1945; “One Life to Live” star Erika Slezak, who was born in 1946; “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” singer Rick Derringer, who was born in 1947; “The Brady Bunch” star Maureen McCormick, who was born in 1956; “Absolute Power” author David Baldacci, who was born in 1960; Knicks legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing, who was born in 1962; “Brighton Beach Memoirs” star Jonathan Silverman, who was born in 1966; former Mets and Yankees first baseman John Olerud, who was born in 1968; Olympian hurdler and bobsledder Lolo Jones, who was born in 1982; 2010 U.S. Women’s Open golf champion Paula Creamer, who was born in 1986; and “Cloak & Dagger” star Olivia Holt, who was born in 1997.

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IT’S A HIT: “American Bandstand” premiered on this day in 1957. Hosted by Dick Clark, it relied on a simple format: teens dancing, performers doing their latest hits and Clark introducing songs and listing the top 10 songs each week. The show was not only TV’s longest-running musical series but also the first one devoted exclusively to rock and roll. It was canceled in 1989.

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A STAR IS BORN: Neil Armstrong was born on this day in 1930. The first man to walk on the moon flew in a Tin Goose aircraft at age six and could fly a plane before he could drive a car. He was a Navy fighter pilot during the Korean War and later studied aeronautical engineering. He was chosen by NASA to command Apollo 11’s mission to the moon, and on July 20, 1969 he made that “giant leap for mankind.” He died in 2012.

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

Quotable:

“The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.”
— Neil Armstrong, who was born on this day in 1930