November 29, ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

November 29, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1918, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A special cable dispatch to the Normanden in this city from Christiania indicates that the Nobel Peace Prize for 1918 may be awarded to President [Woodrow] Wilson, who, according to the dispatch, probably will be invited to visit the Norwegian capital in order to accept the prize. The Danish and Swedish governments also are said to consider extending an invitation to the president.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, the Eagle reported, “Bearing the last of the returning American World War dead — 75 doughboys who gave their lives for their country in far-off Russia — the United States liner President Roosevelt docked in Hoboken at 8:30 this morning. By 10 o’clock the flag-wrapped coffins of the soldiers who had spent 10 years in lonely graves in the ice-covered Russian tundra, and who had then been brought half-way around the world, were taken from the hold of the ship and the first of two services for the dead was conducted. Fifty-six of the bodies will be placed in a mausoleum in White Hill Chapel, Detroit, and others will be sent throughout the country. The body of Roy D. Cheeney, a corporal of Company C, 337th Ambulance Company, a former resident of Brooklyn, will be buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery. A special room had been set aside for the coffins at the pier and soldiers of the 16th Infantry stood guard. The Rev. Wallace Hayes of Rutland, Vt., national chaplain of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, through whose efforts the bodies were brought back to this country, was in charge of the memorial service.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “Six of New York City’s major newspapers were shut down yesterday when 400 photo-engravers went on strike, idling nearly 20,000 other newspaper employees, most of whom refused to cross the photo-engravers’ picket lines. Despite the walkout, the four struck papers which have Sunday editions managed to distribute copies of their Sunday papers which had been printed in advance — before the strike hit at 7 a.m. yesterday. Not affected by the strike were the Brooklyn Eagle, not a member of the New York City Publishers Association, which is the bargaining agent for the struck papers; the New York Herald Tribune, which has its photo-engraving done by a commercial firm not involved in the negotiations, and papers in Queens, Long Island and other parts of the metropolitan area. Shut down by the strike were the New York Times, Daily News, Daily Mirror, Journal-American, Post and World-Telegram and Sun.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (UPI) — Postmaster-General J. Edward Day has announced plans to speed up delivery of out-of-town mail by as much as 24 hours. Speedier delivery will be made possible by a zone improvement plant code called ZIP, designed for use by large-volume mailers. They produce 75 percent of the first-class mail. The ZIP code is tailored for use in electronic data processing equipment capable of handling mail addressing and processing at great speed. Large volume mailers also can use their own punch card equipment to pre-sort outgoing first-class mail more extensively than at present. The ZIP code will speed mail handling by hand in post offices — and eventually eliminate much of it. Day told a meeting of automatic data processing specialists from electric and gas utilities that the address on a piece of mail which has had no pre-sorting by the mailer often must be read as many as eight or 10 times by postal employees. But he said, ‘With ZIP coding, any clerk will be able to sort non-local mail merely by looking at the numbers.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include former Brooklyn Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, who was born in 1927; Blues Hall of Famer John Mayall, who was born in 1933; “Rambling Rose” star Diane Ladd, who was born in 1935; trumpeter and composer Chuck Mangione, who was born in 1940; Young Rascals singer Felix Cavaliere, who was born in 1942; National Ski Hall of Famer Suzy Chaffee, who was born in 1946; “Lost” star Jeff Fahey, who was born in 1952; “St. Elsewhere” star Howie Mandel, who was born in 1955; former N.Y. Mets third baseman Howard Johnson, who was born in 1960; “Raging Bull” star Cathy Moriarty, who was born in 1960; “NYPD Blue” star Kim Delaney, who was born in 1961; “St. Elmo’s Fire” star Andrew McCarthy, who was born in 1962; “Iron Man” star Don Cheadle, who was born in 1964; former “Saturday Night Live” star Ellen Cleghorne, who was born in 1965; Baseball Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera, who was born in 1969; “Scary Movie” star Anna Faris, who was born in 1976; and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who was born in 1988.

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FOR THE RECORD: Charles Thomson was born on this day in 1729. The Ireland native was America’s first official record keeper and was chosen as secretary of the First Continental Congress on Sept. 5, 1774. Thomson recorded proceedings for 15 years and delivered his journals together with tens of thousands of records to the federal government in 1789. It was Thomson who notified George Washington of his election as president. He died in 1824.

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FIELD OF BATTLE: The first Army-Navy football game took place on this day in 1890. Navy won 24-0. Red Emrich scored four touchdowns (worth four points each) and kicked two field goals (worth two points each), and Moulton Johnson added the other touchdown to account for all the scoring.

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

Quotable:

“Losing feels worse than winning feels good.”

— former Brooklyn Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, who was born on this day in 1927