October 26: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

October 26, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1932, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (A.P.) — Germ behavior in an electromagnetic field was pictured today as holding the secret of how epidemics come and go and the possibility of checking them. Dr. Edward C. Rosenow of the Mayo Foundation outlined a new discovery to the American Public Health Association. He said the way germs behave in an ‘electric field,’ such as exists between positive and negative poles of a magnet, furnishes a new and comparatively simple way to distinguish between the ‘streptococcus’ germs found alike in cases of colds, sore throats, influenza and infantile paralysis.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Eagle reported, “As the result of an investigation of the registration lists for this year, made at the direction of Attorney General John J. Bennett Jr., evidence will be presented to the Kings County grand jury, beginning today, in more than 100 cases of alleged improper registration. Indictments will be asked against the men accused of registering illegally and police will round them up for arraignment. Bench warrants will be filed at the polling places where those who registered without being entitled to vote will be gathered in if they show up and are not apprehended in the meantime.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, the Eagle published the following letter to the editor: “Please accept hearty congratulations on the completion of a century of publication by the Brooklyn Eagle. This anniversary falls at a critical time in the life of our nation and of the world. Free institutions have been throttled in many lands and are under grave threat in others. It, therefore, behooves all Americans to renew their determination to defend with every resource those freedoms to which we owe all of our happiness as a nation. Not the least of these is freedom of the press — as priceless to us today as when your paper was established a hundred years ago. That freedom must be defended against all attacks. Very sincerely yours, Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Two senators called today for establishment of special armed guards to protect America’s atomic bomb experts against kidnaping and extortion. Acting Chairman Edwin C. Johnson (D., Col.) of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, believed the scientists would ‘let themselves be shot’ before divulging the bomb-producing secrets. Nevertheless, he said, they should be under guard to keep from being exposed to any such danger. Sen. Bourke B. Hickenlooper (R., Iowa) agreed. ‘If there are men who know the entire formula,’ Johnson said, ‘they certainly should be protected. Bandits might get hold of them and extract the secret; enemy agents might get hold of them.’ Other Senate sources familiar with the views of leading bomb scientists revealed that some of them are worried about possible threats to their safety.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Eagle reported, “The Brooklyn Civil Defense is on a 24-hour alert during the Cuban crisis and has set up a control center with a radio room. According to Major Paul Rafferty and Joseph Grimes, both of Civil Defense Headquarters in Brooklyn, CD has a list of several hundred trained volunteers who will be called on in case of emergency. Major Rafferty says CD would prefer not to enlist untrained civilians at present. He feels the staff he has now is adequate. One of the brochures released by CD points out that the central area of the ground floor of a heavily constructed apartment building, with concrete floors, is apt to provide more fallout protection than the ordinary basement of a family dwelling. Usually, areas in apartment houses are designated as Shelter Areas. The brochure also says that a below-ground basement in a private home can cut fallout radiation to one-tenth of the outside level. The safest place is the basement corner least exposed to windows and deepest below ground. Leaflets and pamphlets concerning fallout shelters and containing information on radioactivity can be obtained from the local CD information bureau at Grand Army Plaza and the Office of the Director of Civil Defense in the Municipal Building, in Boro Hall.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include jazz musician Eddie Henderson, who was born in 1940; “Charlie’s Angels” star Jaclyn Smith, who was born in 1945; “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak, who was born in 1946; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was born in 1947; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bootsy Collins (Parliament-Funkadelic), who was born in 1951; artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, who was born in 1951; “Grey’s Anatomy” star James Pickens Jr., who was born in 1954; actress and producer Rita Wilson, who was born in 1956; “The Practice” star Dylan McDermott, who was born in 1961; “The Princess Bride” star Cary Elwes, who was born in 1962; singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant, who was born in 1963; “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane, who was born in 1973; and figure skater and Olympic medalist Sasha Cohen, who was born in 1984.

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OPEN WATER: The Erie Canal opened on this day in 1825. The first major man-made waterway in the U.S. provided a route from Lake Erie to the Hudson River. Construction started July 4, 1817 and the canal cost $7,602,000. Cannons were fired and celebrations were held all along the route for the opening.

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A GIFT FROM GOD: Mahalia Jackson was born on this day in 1911. The most famous gospel singer of her time was born in New Orleans. In 1928 she moved to Chicago and sang with the Johnson Gospel Singers. Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of gospel music, was her adviser and accompanist from 1937 to 1946. By the 1950s, Jackson could be heard in concert halls around the world. She sang at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy and at the 1963 March on Washington. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described her voice as “one heard once in a millennium.” She died in 1972.

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

Quotable:

“Faith and prayer are the vitamins of the soul; man cannot live in health without them.”

— gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was born on this day in 1911