October 22: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1932, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Police headquarters and the office of Mayor [Joseph] McKee were informed just before noon today that a riot of dangerous proportions had broken out on Welfare Island, on which the City Prison is located. The mayor was informed that one man had been killed in the rioting. Fifty detectives were promptly rushed to Welfare Island, as well as 25 patrolmen, four emergency squads and four ambulances. Inspector Vincent Sweeney also notified all squad commanders to rush additional detectives to Welfare Island. An extra detail of detectives and patrolmen was rushed to the Tombs as a precautionary measure against the breaking out of a ‘sympathetic’ riot there. Within a few minutes after word of the riot had been received at police headquarters, there was a rush of telephone inquiries, none of which was answered. After the first assignment of police to the island, 100 more patrolmen were dispatched to it. All police commanding officers were ordered to report on Welfare Island at once. Three police airplanes, under command of Capt. Arthur Wallender, were ordered to fly over the island for observation, so as to direct the fight against the prison rioters from the air. In Brooklyn, 25 detectives armed with sawed-off shotguns were thrown around Raymond Street Jail, as a similar precaution.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “The honor of planting the first American flag in the Philippine Islands since the courageous fighters on Bataan and Corregidor had to lower theirs went to a Brooklyn soldier, his family was informed yesterday. A veteran of some of the toughest fighting in the Admiralties, Tech. Sgt. Michael J. Ryan [of New York Ave.] clambered up the Leyte Island beachhead with a ‘dismounted cavalry’ unit of General [Douglas] MacArthur’s 6th Army after sweating out special training for the invasion for seven months. Sergeant Ryan, who trained with the cavalry and who owned a riding academy at Avenue W and Brown St. before he went into the army, expected to land in the Philippines, his wife, Frances, said. ‘After the Admiralty campaign,’ she said, ‘Mike and his unit rested and trained. They got steaks three times a week and special training for what was ahead. He knew where he was going.’”
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’.