September 10: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 10, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1879, a Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorial said, “The British have a very serious task before them in Afghanistan. They are not in a position to deal promptly where promptitude is all important, and it is difficult to see how, after subduing the existing revolt, they are to avoid doing that which Gladstone and Disraeli have alike looked upon as at variance with good policy. Unless the accounts given by all the correspondents of the present ineffective condition of the army on the frontier are overdrawn to an incredible degree, two months must elapse before any formidable force can be forwarded to Kabul, and by that time the mutineers will probably have established themselves firmly in other parts of the country.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (A.P.) — Wave after wave of German air invaders sent harried Londoners underground four times in daylight today, but up to early evening there had been no renewal of the devastating Nazi bombardments. The fourth alarm wailed at 5:55 p.m. as the gathering dusk brought anew the threat of deadly nightlong raids which have kept this city’s millions huddled in shelters each night since Saturday. This alarm, like its predecessors of today, was brief, the all-clear signal coming 31 minutes later. The German planes over England today were believed to be scouts sent over to determine the havoc done in the preceding three nights of unprecedented attack. British fighter planes, however, were said to have turned them back. Other Nazi planes were reported over Wales late today. The fourth alarm came only 14 minutes after the all-clear signal had ended the third at 5:41 p.m. Those who had scurried for shelter barely had time to reach the surface before plunging below ground again.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “New York battened down the hatches today and braced itself in the path of Hurricane Edna, whipping up the Atlantic Coast with 115-mile winds. Storm alerts were flashed at 6 a.m. all the way up to Portland, Me., as Edna, fifth hurricane of the season, was placed at a point in the Atlantic 275 miles south of Cape Hatteras, N.C. If it hits New York, it will arrive late tonight or early tomorrow. ‘If it continues on its present course, it will hit New York,’ the local Weather Bureau reported. ‘We won’t know for sure until later today. The whole area is under alert.’ Barely emerged from the debris of Edna’s older sister, Carol, which hit the metropolitan area nine days ago, the Long Island sector — along with the weatherman — prepared for the worst. ‘It’s not like Carol,’ the forecaster said wryly. ‘We’re not going to be caught on this one.’ … Small craft were warned to remain in port all the way northward from the Carolinas as Edna moved up at a rate of about 10 miles per hour. [The] greatest fear of meteorologists was that the big blow would pick up speed as it passed Hatteras, a frequent occurrence with the late-summer blasts. Some of them have pushed northward from that point at speeds up to 100 miles an hour, carrying winds of even greater velocity.”

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ON SEPT. 11, 1948, the Eagle reported, “A huge flight of migratory birds, flying over Manhattan, was felled mysteriously today and for hours the bodies of the dead and injured dropped down into the streets surrounding the Empire State Building. Police theorized they apparently crashed into the tower of the building, the world’s tallest skyscraper, in the darkness. Hundreds of bodies were picked up, most of them on 5th Ave., by the Department of Sanitation workers and officials of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Hundreds more rained down onto the parapets of the building. But police said most of them were only stunned and revived a few minutes later. Police said the birds began falling about midnight and the ‘shower’ continued for more than four hours. Police said the flight apparently contained thousands of birds, and office workers in skyscrapers near the Empire State Building could hear them chirping plainly above the hubbub of downtown Manhattan.”

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Misty Copeland
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Hard Eight” star Philip Baker Hall, who was born in 1931; Oscar-winning screenwriter Bo Goldman, who was born in 1932; “Feliz Navidad” singer Jose Feliciano, who was born in 1945; sprinter and Olympic gold medalist Jim Hines, who was born in 1946; Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Lanier, who was born in 1948; author and journalist Bill O’Reilly, who was born in 1949; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Joe Perry (Aerosmith), who was born in 1950; “Carrie” star Amy Irving, who was born in 1953; kickboxing legend Don Wilson, who was born in 1954; “Home Alone” director Chris Columbus, who was born in 1958; Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth, who was born in 1960; Baseball Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, who was born in 1963; rapper and actor Big Daddy Kane, who was born in Brooklyn in 1968; “Aladdin” director Guy Ritchie, who was born in 1968; “Cruel Intentions” star Ryan Phillippe, who was born in 1974; and ballet dancer Misty Copeland, who was born in 1982.

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BEST WESTERN: “Gunsmoke” premiered on this day in 1955. TV’s longest-running western starred James Arness as Marshall Matt Dillon. Other regulars included Amanda Blake as saloon owner Kitty Russell; Dennis Weaver as deputy Chester B. Goode and Milburn Stone as Doc Adams. In 1962, Burt Reynolds joined the cast as Quint Asper. The last telecast was Sept. 1, 1975.

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ALIEN NATION: “The X-Files” premiered on this day in 1993. The spooky sci-fi drama starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, who solved cases too weird for the bureau. The series ended in 2002 but returned for limited seasons in 2017 and 2018. It also spawned two feature-length films.

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

Quotable:

“More often than we realize, people see in us what we don’t see in ourselves.”

— ballerina Misty Copeland, who was born on this day in 1982