October 21: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

October 21, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1845, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “A Great Match at Base Ball. — This afternoon, at 2 o’clock, the New York Base Ball Club play a match at ball with the Brooklyn Club at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken. The interest attached to this match will attract large numbers from this and the neighboring city.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1918, an Eagle editorial said, “The figures of yesterday strengthen the hope aroused last week that New York has seen the worst of the influenza. The number of new cases decreased yesterday in every borough of the city except Manhattan, the total lessening being 345, while of cases of the closely related pneumonia there was an increase of only 30. There was a decrease in deaths also of 121. Bad as the situation is, it is growing less so, and the most pressing demand is for workers to give adequate care to the sick. Trained nurses are so few that the Health Department is eager to use workers of any experience in sickness, and it needs houseworkers quite as badly as it needs nurses. In both fields, large pay is offered, but the appeal is primarily to humanity and not to cupidity. Also, Commissioner [Royal S] Copeland is determined that the situation shall not be made worse by lack of heat. All coal restrictions will be waived in cases of sickness, and landlords will be prosecuted if they fail to furnish heat in cases where their leases provide for it.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Adolphe Menjou said today that Hollywood was a hot bed of ‘Un-American, anti-capitalistic, anti-free enterprise’ activities. He asserted the movie colony is honeycombed with Communists who ‘rigidly’ follow the Moscow party line. The fashionably dressed portrayer of debonair male movie roles told the House Un-American Activities Committee in the second day of public hearings on Communism in Hollywood that the movie capital is a hot bed of Un-American influences … Menjou listed what he called Communist-front organizations active in Hollywood. These included, he said, the Independent Citizens Committee of Arts, Sciences and Professions, the Political Action Committee, and American Youth for Democracy. Menjou described as an example of Communist activities in Hollywood a jurisdictional strike of painters, carpenters and set erectors which has been going on for more than a year … The debonair movie star told the committee he was an expert on communism … ‘I believe the Communist party in the United States should be outlawed by Congress,’ Menjou said. ‘It is not a political party but a conspiracy to overthrow the Government.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “Irving T. Bush, 79, founder and president of the Bush Terminal Company, died today in St. Luke’s Hospital, Manhattan, after a brief illness. He lived at 280 Park Ave., Manhattan, and formerly resided for many years in Brooklyn. Regarded as an authority on transportation problems, he did more than any other one man to develop South Brooklyn into an important industrial center.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “President [Dwight D.] Eisenhower today urged 3,000 Republican campaign workers to put more ‘heart’ into their efforts, then made a surprise hand-waving motor tour that took him through parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. It was Mr. Eisenhower’s first visit to Brooklyn since his election to the Presidency. Obviously out to steam up the local G.O.P. drive, the President told cheering party followers at Republican State campaign headquarters in the Hotel Roosevelt that ‘heart is the one basic ingredient in battle, the thing within a man or an organization that will not accept defeat.’ He warned that the ‘task’ of creating ‘honest, efficient government’ at home and ‘security for the whole free world’ has ‘only just begun.’ Then he set off, at 9:30 a.m., on the unscheduled whirlwind tour of housing projects and other major improvements in the three boroughs, arriving in Brooklyn at 11:30 a.m. At Farragut Houses, the President spent 20 minutes, much of it spent chatting with children and social workers … Photographers yelled so many requests and directions at the President that what he said to the children was lost.”

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Kim Kardashian Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “The Honeymooners” star Joyce Randolph, who was born in 1924; guitarist and singer Manfred Mann, who was born in 1940; U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer and N.Y Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello, who was born in 1942; judge and TV host Judy Sheindlin, who was born in Brooklyn in 1942; former N.Y. Rangers coach Mike Keenan, who was born in 1949; former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was born in 1949; Go-Go’s guitarist Charlotte Caffey, who was born in 1953; Toto co-founder Steve Lukather, who was born in 1957; former N.Y. Jets linebacker Mo Lewis, who was born in 1969; “Growing Pains” star Jeremy Miller, who was born in 1976; TV personality Kim Kardashian, who was born in 1980; Houston Astros pitcher Zack Greinke, who was born in 1983; and Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Ricky Rubio, who was born in 1990.

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LET THERE BE LIGHT: On this day in 1879, Thomas Alva Edison demonstrated the first incandescent lamp that could be used economically for domestic purposes. This prototype, developed at Edison’s Menlo Park, N.J., laboratory, could burn for 13 1/2 hours.

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HOLLYWOOD PRINCESS: Carrie Fisher was born on this day in 1956. The actress and writer found overnight stardom as the intrepid and wisecracking Princess Leia in the 1977 film “Star Wars.” As she built an admired body of work with films like “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986) and “When Harry Met Sally” (1989), she also battled bipolar disorder, substance abuse and a sometimes rocky relationship with her famous mother, Debbie Reynolds, all inspirations for later works: her semi-autobiographical novel “Postcards from the Edge” and the memoirs “Wishful Drinking” and “Shockaholic.” She died in 2016.

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

Quotable:

“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

— actress and author Carrie Fisher, who was born on this day in 1956