August 24: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1913, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “ALBANY, AUG. 23 — To the historian of the future and to the novelist of tomorrow there can be no more fruitful field for a psychological character study than William Sulzer, the first governor of New York State to bear the ignominy of being impeached. If anyone thinks that an adequate elucidation of the workings of the Sulzerian mind is an easy task, he is greatly mistaken. Whether Sulzer is the good, trusting, generous-minded but gullible person that his friends claim him to be, or the unscrupulous demagogue, poseur and untrustworthy prevaricator that his enemies paint him, there is something colossal about William Sulzer. He would need a [Francois] Rabelais to describe him fully. The impeachment trial may bring many facts to light that are as yet hidden, or at least that is what both factions predict, though having a different set of facts in mind. Governor Sulzer himself appears to be confident of clearing himself and of emerging the triumphant tribune of the people, whom the oligarchs and patricians of Tammany Hall would crush in the dust. Once in possession of those facts, whichever side they may favor, his biographers may have a clear road ahead of them, but for the present Sulzer is a tantalizing puzzle.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Eagle reported, “SHANGHAI — Led by suicide detachments of the ‘White Band of Death,’ Japanese reinforcements were landed by the thousands at Woosung today for a concerted assault against the Chinese defenders of Shanghai. Through the very center of the battle, 212 American refugees were evacuated aboard the liner President Pierce for Manila. So desperate was the fighting that for the first time United States authorities convoyed the fleeing Americans to safety with a warship guard. The destroyer Edsall hovered close by the Dollar Line tender down the Whangpoo River to Woosung and, after the Americans were transferred to the President Pierce, the Edsall moved alongside, uncovered her guns and escorted the American vessel safely to sea through the raging naval and land battle. The battle developed into the most terrible fighting of the war when the Japanese army units began pouring ashore from the transports anchored off the Woosung area. Flanked by their warships, the Japanese transports crept up to the Woosung wharves in the pitch darkness just before dawn. The Chinese positions were ominously silent until the first launch was lowered. Then, as though at a signal, the still blackness became a living inferno of flame and noise.”
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’.