August 30: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 30, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1933, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Mayor [John P.] O’Brien, victorious by the slimmest of possible margins, succeeded in defeating former Representative Fiorello LaGuardia last night in the hottest ballot battle yet registered by the Eagle poll. Although it consisted of a single vote, the mayor’s lead was the more notable because it was the first time he has been able to eke out an advantage since the poll started, LaGuardia running far ahead in each of the three preceding canvasses. LaGuardia is still, however, maintaining a comfortable lead over O’Brien. For the four daily polls the total is LaGuardia 606; O’Brien 434. Bay Ridge was the section in which this sudden Tammany strength was indicated and the results were as follows: O’Brien, 151; LaGuardia, 150; Hylan, 52; Black, 14; Solomon, 8; Ambro, 4 … In the mayoralty race, former Mayor [John F.] Hylan continued to show approximately the same ratio of strength as he has maintained throughout the poll, but the two other independent candidates, Black and Ambro, received virtually no support whatever … Last night’s canvass was the fourth in the Eagle’s poll of popular sentiment which takes place in a different section of the borough each night except Saturdays.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “In times such as these one should be cautious about calling another person a ‘Hitler,’ Magistrate D’Andrea today warned Mrs. Ray Brodsky of Manhattan, arraigned in Coney Island Court on charges of disorderly conduct and littering the beach at Coney Island. Special Officer Thomas O’Connor of the Park Department testified that Mrs. Brodsky called him ‘a Hitler’ when he warned her against littering the beach with paper Saturday. O’Connor said that she was sitting on a paper, a practice prohibited by Park Department ordinance, and that he issued the summonses after her remarks.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “YOKOHAMA, JAPAN (U.P.) — General Douglas MacArthur set up headquarters in Yokohama today as the first 40,000 troops of his occupation army raised the Stars and Stripes over Japan’s largest naval base, two airfields and a big slice of the Tokyo plain. A half-dozen or more Japanese towns, some within a few miles of the southern outskirts of Tokyo, were occupied by Allied air and seaborne forces in their first few hours ashore. General MacArthur, supreme occupation commander, established his headquarters at Yokohama’s new Grand Hotel with other top American officers less than an hour after landing at Atsugi Airfield from Okinawa. From the top of the hotel, General MacArthur could see Emperor Hirohito’s palace in the heart of Tokyo. Both Hirohito and the Japanese Government now must take their orders from General MacArthur. South of Yokohama, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz — General MacArthur’s partner in the conquest of Japan — and Admiral William F. (Bull) Halsey of 3rd Fleet fame went ashore at the newly occupied Yokosuka naval base, formerly Japan’s No. 1 navy yard. It already had surrendered formally to Admiral Halsey’s deputies.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “The current 90-degree heat wave reached a fifth-day peak yesterday, which turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far and the hottest Aug. 29 on record. The Weather Bureau’s official thermometer recorded a high of 97.3 degrees at 4:10 p.m. and hovered around the 97 level until well after 7 o’clock. And, as if to warn a sweltering citizenry that the end was not yet, the forecaster predicted ‘continued hot and humid’ weather today, with a high temperature again in the 90s. As the mercury climbed and climbed yesterday, more and more city dwellers fled to nearby beaches to cool off in the sea. The city’s aviation police, surveying the beaches from police helicopters, reported: ‘In Coney Island, this was undoubtedly the biggest day of the year and maybe for many years. Looking down, you couldn’t see the sand for the people. This was also true at Brighton Beach and Jacob Riis Park. The Rockaway beaches were similarly jammed.’”

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Cameron Diaz
Christopher Smith/Invision/AP

Michael Chiklis
Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include International Tennis Hall of Famer Vic Seixas, who was born in 1923; Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, who was born in 1930; “The Dukes of Hazzard” star Ben Jones, who was born in 1941; cartoonist Robert Crumb, who was born in 1943; comedian Lewis Black, who was born in 1948; “The Paper Chase” star Timothy Bottoms, who was born in 1951; Basketball Hall of Famer Robert Parish, who was born in 1953; “Mr. Saturday Night” star David Paymer, who was born in 1954; former St. John’s basketball coach Fran Fraschilla, who was born in Brooklyn in 1958; “The Shield” star Michael Chiklis, who was born in 1963; “The Mask” star Cameron Diaz, who was born in 1972; journalist Lisa Ling, who was born in 1973; International Tennis Hall of Famer Andy Roddick, who was born in 1982; singer-songwriter Bebe Rexha, who was born in 1989; and “Underwater” star Jessica Henwick, who was born in 1992.

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EMERGENCY BREAKTHROUGH: The Washington-Moscow hotline went into operation on this day in 1963. Also known as the “red telephone” (though Teletype equipment was used), it linked the Pentagon and the Kremlin. Fax machines took over the task in 1986 and secure email has been used since 2008.

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BENCHMARK: Thurgood Marshall was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court on this day in 1967. Marshall, the founder of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, was the first African-American on the high court. He retired in 1991 and was succeeded by Clarence Thomas. He died in 1993.

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

Quotable:

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

— business magnate Warren Buffett, who was born on this day in 1930