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January 7: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

January 7, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History
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ON THIS DAY IN 1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Mayor [Fiorello] LaGuardia announced at City Hall last night that he has replied to Governor [Herbert] Lehman’s letter in which the governor expressed in strong language his disapproval of the plan to give the mayor dictatorial powers for one year. The mayor did not make public the text of the letter but the notion prevailed that a compromise is likely since the bill requires a limited amount of support to pass the Legislature and in no instance could get by the governor. Meanwhile, the controversy over how much or how little power the new mayor should have took on a national flavor when Senator [William] Borah, Republican of Idaho, telegraphed Lehman congratulating him on his stand. ‘It was timely, it was patriotic, it was statesman-like,’ said Borah. Offering Lehman ‘my most sincere congratulations,’ Borah continued: ‘It is distinctly a matter of congratulations to the whole country that the governor of a great state in these days of wild grasping for power and the utter disregard of personal rights should say once and for all that such things are essentially un-American.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “MOSCOW (U.P.) — The government organ Izvestia reported today that the Red Army had broken the German defenses along a continuous 200-mile line now looping a dozen miles into pre-war Poland, and said the Nazi command had lost control of disorderly fleeing men in some sectors. West of Olevs’k in the northwest Ukraine, the Soviets smashed the boundary line and swampy, roadless terrain, beating down fierce German resistance, and captured Rokitno, a large station on the Kiev-Warsaw line and a fortified stronghold. While maintaining the westward pressure beyond Rokitno, Gen. Nikolai F. Vatutin’s forces mopped up along a line 30 miles southeastward as far as Gorodnitsa, bastion of the powerful Sluch River fortifications. Some 200 miles to the southeast, Vatutin’s left wing, which in three days had pushed 36 miles south of Belaya Tserkov, was within shelling distance of the railroad running westward from Cherkassy.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1955, the Eagle reported, “The Italian Historical Society of America has requested the New York Port Authority to name the bridge which will connect Brooklyn and Staten Island in honor of Giovanni Da Verrazano, the Italian navigator who discovered what is today the harbor of New York on April 17, 1524, 85 years before Henry Hudson. Last April, Mayor [Robert] Wagner proclaimed April 17 Verrazano Day as a tribute to the man who opened the doors to millions of immigrants who have since passed through these portals to add to the development and upbuilding of this great land of liberty and opportunity. The society now seeks this opportunity to perpetuate the name of Verrazano for all time. The Encyclopedia Britannica (1951 Edition) flatly credits Verrazano with discovery of both Manhattan Island and the Hudson River in 1524. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, a massive, six-volume, authoritative work by L.N. Phelps Stokes (1915), says Verrazano discovered and explored both New York’s lower and upper bays.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — The last ‘pride of Boston’ nicknamed Ted who came to Washington was Williams and he played in Griffith Stadium against the Senators. The newest Ted is a Kennedy and a senator. Like his illustrious baseball counterpart, he will be closely watched to see whether he strikes out or hits homers. His career will start Wednesday, when the 88th Congress convenes. Williams wore No. 9. Kennedy bears no actual mark but he is numbered just the same. In terms of his 30 years of age, he is No. 100, the youngest of the whole body of U.S. senators. More importantly, he is No. 3 among the Kennedy brothers, after the president and the attorney general. But despite the heights attained by his brothers, the Kennedys themselves have tagged Ted as the ‘best politician’ of the three. And the gregarious, fun-loving senator probably will have the capital’s females squealing — as he did during the campaign — every time he utters ‘How are ya? Glad to see ya,’ in typical Kennedy fashion.”

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Lauren Cohan
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
Jeremy Renner
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Mighty Joe Young” star Terry Moore, who was born in 1929; Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, who was born in 1946; “Footloose” singer Kenny Loggins, who was born in 1948; painter and sculptor Robert Longo, who was born in Brooklyn in 1953; “CSI: Miami” star David Caruso, who was born in 1956; TV journalist Katie Couric, who was born in 1957; Go-Go’s bassist and songwriter Kathy Valentine, who was born in 1959; U.S. Sen. John Thune, who was born in 1961; Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage, who was born in 1964; “Avengers” star Jeremy Renner, who was born in 1971; former N.Y. Yankees second baseman Alfonso Soriano, who was born in 1976; “The Walking Dead” star Lauren Cohan, who was born in 1982; and “Nikita” star Lyndsy Fonseca, who was born in 1987.

Katie Couric
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

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BY THE SEAT OF THEIR PANTS: The first balloon flight across the English Channel took place on this day in 1785. Dr. John Jeffries, a Boston physician, and Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard, a French aeronaut, crossed the channel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, landing in a forest after being forced to throw overboard all ballast, equipment and even most of their clothing to avoid a forced landing in the channel’s icy waters. Blanchard’s trousers are said to have been the last article thrown overboard.

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NET WORTH: The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game on this day in 1927. Basketball promoter Abe Saperstein’s “New York Globetrotters” took the floor in Hinckley, Ill. Despite the “New York” in their name, the team hailed from Chicago’s South Side. The talented African-American players — unable to play in white professional leagues — barnstormed the nation in serious basketball promotional events. They changed their name to “Harlem Globetrotters” in the 1930s and added humor to their games in the 1940s.

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

 

Quotable:

“Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom.”

— former U.S. President Millard Fillmore, who was born on this day in 1800

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