August 16: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 16, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1913, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “BAY SHORE, L.I. — Governor [William] Sulzer is not without hearty well wishers and sympathizers in this locality. Captain H.P. Witherstine, a factor in local Democratic circles, has broadcast his views on the governor’s impeachment, declaring that Mr. Sulzer was ordered ‘crucified’ because the stampede for his direct primary bills was so great that Tammany’s boss rule would soon be placed in jeopardy if the governor were not discredited. Captain Witherstine declares that Tammany is prepared and willing to spend $1,000,000 to discredit the governor. He questions whether the judges of the Court of Appeals will sit in a court of impeachment when they know the ‘Court is not within the Constitution of the state.’ He declares the impeachment illegal because a special session of the Legislature was not called.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1923, the Eagle reported, “PARIS — Troubled Europe is not too busy with its own difficulties to have discovered what is pronounced a ‘new Japan,’ far over in the interior of Asia, and to have set about with all speed to reap the benefits of the discovery. As a name this new country, Afghanistan, is relatively old. But as a rich, diplomatic, political, commercial prize, it dates from the end of the World War. Germans and Englishmen are already installed there, busy with engineering and mining projects, and the French are hurrying thither post-haste. For the news is out that this thus far primitive country, which has only two newspapers, no railroads and other roads expect pack trails, is ready for a phenomenal spurt. Rich prizes in railroad concessions, other prizes in copper, lead, iron and gold mines, and any amount of trade, lie ready for men who are willing to take chances. They are all the more attractive because Afghanistan is not in immediate danger of a war with anybody and suffers from the burden of no recent conflict.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1932, the Eagle reported, “EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, ALBANY — Mayor [Jimmy] Walker created a sensation at his hearing before Governor [Franklin] Roosevelt this afternoon when he identified the now famous ‘unnamed person’ as a woman with a half dozen bank accounts who could, in his opinion, afford to buy her own letters of credit or anything else that she wanted. Roosevelt was questioning the mayor once again about the letters of credit to this person by Russell T. Sherwood, the missing Walker financial agent, and the check paid to her from the Paul Block fund. Then Walker whipped off his glasses and sprang out of his chair. ‘I do know that Mr. Sherwood did make out income tax returns for her and that an examination of those returns would show that she had accounts in a half dozen banks in the city containing large sums of money.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “The age of leniency for loiterers and loud-mouths who infest the streets at night was at an end today as magistrates throughout the city cracked down in the anti-hoodlum police drive with stiff jail sentences. Following a pattern set Saturday by Magistrate David L. Malbin, who dished out 30-day jail sentences to a group of youths who created a disturbance on a Bedford-Stuyvesant corner, judges in Manhattan and the Bronx yesterday cracked down on 158 persons picked up over Saturday night. Meanwhile, three self-styled ‘Brooklyn cop-fighters,’ who threatened to show their talents to New Jersey police, were tossed in jail in East Keansburg to await arraignment on disorderly conduct charges later today. In Harlem, police questioned young hoodlums in an effort to track down the killer of a 16-year-old boy, shot in the back in an apparent clash between teenage gangs. In Manhattan Weekend Court, Magistrate Hyman Bushel, who last week suggested horsewhipping as an interim punishment for a woman who beat her child to death, told prisoners seized in the anti-hoodlum drive that there would be no more leniency.”

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Angela Bassett
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Mildred Pierce” star Ann Blyth, who was born in 1928; “Batman” star Julie Newmar, who was born in 1933; “Little House on the Prairie” star Ketty Lester, who was born in 1934; “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” star Bob Balaban, who was born in 1945; ballerina Suzanne Farrell, who was born in 1945; former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, who was born in 1947; NRBQ co-founder Joey Spampinato, who was born in 1948; TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford, who was born in 1953; Kool and the Gang singer James “J.T.” Taylor, who was born in 1953; Oscar-winning filmmaker James Cameron, who was born in 1954; “ER” star Laura Innes, who was born in 1957; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Madonna, who was born in 1958; “Black Panther” star Angela Bassett, who was born in 1958; “The Office” star Steve Carell, who was born in 1962; WNBA star Candice Dupree, who was born in 1984; and swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel, who was born in 1996.

Caeleb Dressel
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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RUSH HOUR: Gold was discovered in the Klondike on this day in 1896. According to the oral tradition of the Tagish First Nations People, Skookum Jim, Dawson Charlie and George Carmack found gold in Rabbit Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River, lying “thick between the flaky slabs like cheese sandwiches.’ This event, which led to the great Klondike Gold Rush, is celebrated in the Yukon each year as Discovery Day.

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THE KING IS DEAD: Elvis Presley died on this day in 1977 at age 42. The anniversary of the death of one of America’s most popular singers is an occasion for pilgrimages to Graceland, his home and gravesite in Memphis, Tenn.

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

Quotable:

“I’m tough, I’m ambitious and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, OK.”

— Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Madonna, who was born on this day in 1958