January 27: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

January 27, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “ALBANY — Two members of Brooklyn’s legislative delegation here, aroused by the abrupt stoppage of gas for heating 1,200 borough homes, called on Governor [Thomas] Dewey today to proclaim a state of emergency and seize control of the distribution of fuel oil supplies. Senator William Rosenblatt and Assemblyman Lawrence P. Murphy, representing the district where 1,000 veterans’ families in temporary housing projects were affected by the shutdown, asserted state action must be taken because of the fuel oil shortage, to prevent another breakdown in public utility services. Their demands for the issuance of an emergency proclamation by Mr. Dewey followed sharp speeches on the floor of the Legislature last night. Meanwhile, two bills broadening the Public Service Commission’s powers to act in the emergency caused by the rising demands for gas heating were placed before the Legislature by Chairman Floyd E. Anderson (Rep., Binghamton) of the Senate Public Service Committee.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “Another important step forward in the search for disease-conquering agents has been attained by the discovery and development of a potent new anti-biotic, terramycin, by Charles Pfizer & Co., Inc., 11 Bartlett St. According to John E. McKeen, Pfizer president, terramycin is the result of an intensive research program involving the testing of more than 100,000 soil samples. The new antimicrobial substance was first isolated in the Pfizer Research Laboratories in 1949, the 100th anniversary of the company’s founding. Terramycin, grown from the newly discovered actinomycete, Streptomyces rimosus, was so named because of its terrene origin. … On the basis of experimental data now available, terramycin offers great promise in the treatment of numerous infectious diseases. Until clinical studies have been completed, however, it must be emphasized that the true value of terramycin as a chemotherapeutic agent will not be known.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Atomic officials were flabbergasted today by a report that former President Harry S. Truman is still ‘not convinced’ that Russia has a workable atomic bomb. They said the doubts attributed to Mr. Truman in a published interview are in direct conflict with official statements issued from his own White House office and repeated public declarations by high officials of his own administration in the past two years. Atomic Energy Commission chairman Gordon E. Dean, in Akron, Ohio, for a speech, summed up the general reaction. ‘The president must have been misunderstood,’ he said. ‘We have announced on various occasions that Russia has exploded three atomic bombs.’ Dean and other experts were doubly baffled because Mr. Truman was also quoted that he knew of no nuclear explosions in Russia since the first two which he announced. Actually, the White House announced three Soviet atomic explosions during Mr. Truman’s administration — the first on Sept. 23, 1949; a second on Oct. 3, 1951, and the third on Oct. 22, 1951.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1955, the Eagle reported, “Borough President [John] Cashmore today proclaimed next Monday as ‘Dazzy Vance Day’ in Brooklyn, when the ex-Dodger righthander, the first local modern player ever elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame, will be honored at Borough Hall at 11:45 a.m. Vance was voted into the Cooperstown, N.Y., shrine yesterday along with ex-Dodger coach Ted Lyons, Joe DiMaggio and Gabby Hartnett. Informed of the honor by Dodger president Walter O’Malley on the long-distance phone, the Dazzler was invited to be the Dodgers’ guest at the Baseball Writers’ Dinner Sunday and the Long Island Dodger Boosters Dinner Monday in Garden City. A Dodger from 1922 until 1935 except for two season with the Cardinals and Reds, Vance’s lifetime record was 197-140. Arriving in the major leagues at the late age of 29, Dazzy won the National League’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1924 and led the league in strikeouts for seven straight years, 1922 to 1928. Vance, 62 in March, now runs a hunting-and-fishing lodge in Homosassa Springs, Fla. Fans desiring to wire or mail their congratulations may send them there or to the Dodger office, 215 Montague St.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Babe” star James Cromwell, who was born in 1940; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), who was born in 1944; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Nedra Talley (The Ronettes), who was born in 1946; dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov, who was born in 1948; former “Saturday Night Live” bandleader G.E. Smith, who was born in 1952; Chief Justice of the U.S. John Roberts, who was born in 1955; “The Rapture” star Mimi Rogers, who was born in 1956; Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers, who was born in 1957; comic book writer and film director Frank Miller, who was born in 1957; sportscaster Cris Collinsworth, who was born in 1959; “Single White Female” star Bridget Fonda, who was born in 1964; “Cabaret” star Alan Cumming, who was born in 1965; Faith No More singer Mike Patton, who was born in 1968; former NFL running back Fred Taylor, who was born in 1976; and “Gone Girl” star Rosamund Pike, who was born in 1979.

James Cromwell
Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP

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ROCK ME AMADEUS: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on this day in 1756. The native of Salzburg, Austria, was born into a gifted musical family and began composing at age 5. His most famous works include the operas “Marriage of Figaro,” “Don Giovanni” and “The Magic Flute.” He died in 1791.

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COMING HOME: The Paris Peace Accords were signed on this day in 1973, ending America’s combat role in the Vietnam War. It was the longest war in U.S. history and cost the lives of more than 58,000 military personnel. Weeks after the U.S. pulled out, the fighting between North and South Vietnam began again, and the South fell to the Communist forces in April 1975.

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

Quotable:

“Anytime you get nine people together, whether it’s at a party or it’s in the conference room of the Supreme Court, you do have to maintain some order, or it does kind of degenerate into squabbling.”

— Chief Justice John Roberts, who was born on this day in 1955