January 26: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

January 26, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “New evidence that favored prisoners on Welfare Island have been accustomed to receiving regular supplies of narcotics burst out on two sides today as Commissioner of Correction Austin H. MacCormick was spending his third day turning chaos and scandal into order at the penal reservation. The first demonstration that the dethroned Joe Rao-Eddie Cleary regime in the prison trafficked in dope and privileges came when seven of the 40 prisoners assigned to the prison bakeshop went on strike this forenoon. The seven complained that their ‘regular’ supplies of drugs had been cut off by the MacCormick raids. Commissioner MacCormick had trusted keepers march the strikers into the warden’s office where he dropped his other labors to question them on the source of their former supplies. The seven, it was learned, had not been listed as among the prison’s drug addicts. Meanwhile, on the south end of the sorry island, 20 of the 107 segregated drug addicts raised an uproar and displayed other signs of violent temper. Dr. Louis Berg, who took charge of the situation, said that their symptoms proved that they had been regularly receiving dope prior to Wednesday’s raid.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “Take it from Dr. James R. Randolph, rocket expert and professor of mechanical engineering at Pratt Institute, life can be beautiful — on Mars. Convinced that a life higher than that on earth exists on our neighboring planet, Randolph based his theory on new studies of the so-called ‘canals’ which have been observed on the surface of Mars. These canals, he said, may be strips from 10 to 30 miles wide ‘in which more vegetation grows than in the country farther away.’ The even, symmetrical design of the canals indicate the Martians know how to get along together, he said. Unlike the earth, there seem to be no places on Mars where people suffer from economic or social handicaps. Mars probably has one government, he added, and this may very well have been in existence for 1,000 years.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1955, the Eagle reported, “TAIPEI, FORMOSA (U.P.) — Jet fighters and fighter-bombers from the powerful U.S. 7th Fleet patrolled the skies north of Formosa [Taiwan] today in a warning to Red China against interfering with American defense strategy in this tense Far Eastern area. The American war planes — some 300 strong — are on hand to cover and assure the success of the planned withdrawal of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s 10,000 Nationalist troops and 20,000 Chinese civilians from the invasion-threatened Tachen Islands. A formal decision by the Chinese Nationalist government to proceed with the Tachens evacuation, tightening Formosa’s lines of defense, was expected momentarily. Authoritative sources here said the Nationalist government has agreed with the Americans that the Tachens must be evacuated, but the formal decision is awaiting Chiang’s approval. Waves of Nationalist heavy bombers smashed at Red Chinese invasion fleets north of the main Tachen island. Nationalist pilots reported sinking one 1,500-ton Communist warship and said a fourth, unsuccessful Communist attempt to invade Matsu Island — 10 miles off the China mainland coast — had been beaten back.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (UPI) — Several senators said today after a top intelligence briefing that Russia has built a powerful military and political machine in Cuba over the past six months. Another who heard the testimony by Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Intelligence Chief John A. McCone said they took the position that there had been no ‘significant’ new military buildup by the Soviets on Fidel Castro’s island. Rusk and McCone testified behind closed doors at a special session by the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Latin America. They were questioned about reports of a new Russian arms buildup in Cuba, the abortive 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, and other foreign affairs. At the same time, diplomatic sources reported that Rusk had advised Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos M. Muniz that action to counter Communist subversion in Latin America may be recommended soon to the Organization of American States.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer, who was born in 1929; R&B musician Huey “Piano” Smith, who was born in 1934; baseball broadcaster Bob Uecker, who was born in 1934; comic book artist Sal Buscema, who was born in Brooklyn in 1936; “Eight Men Out” star David Strathairn, who was born in 1949; singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, who was born in 1953; “Sweet Love” singer Anita Baker, who was born in 1958; talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who was born in 1958; Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, who was born in 1961; Cinderella singer Tom Keifer, who was born in 1961; former Nets shooting guard Vince Carter, who was born in 1977; former Nets shooting guard MarShon Brooks, who was born in 1989; and figure skater Emily Hughes, who was born in 1989.

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WORDS ABOUT BIRDS: On this day in 1784, founding father Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter expressing his unhappiness over the choice of the eagle as the symbol of America. Franklin preferred the turkey.

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PHANTASTIC: “The Phantom of the Opera” premiered on Broadway on this day in 1988. The multiple-award-winning musical, based on the Gaston Leroux novel about a tortured soul haunting the Paris Opera House, premiered in London on Oct. 9, 1986. Its music and lyrics are by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart, with book by Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe. In January 2006 it became the longest-running show in Broadway history.

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

Quotable:

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”

— Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, who was born on this day in 1961