February 1: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1933, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The Weather Bureau calculated its calculations today and found — what your ordinary citizen had suspected all along — that the month of January, which ended at midnight, was fairly warm as Januarys go. The average temperature was 40.4 or 9 1/2 degrees above the normal for the month. Only one January on the bureau’s records had a higher average. That was a year ago, when the average was 42.8. The January rain and snow amounted to 1.53 inches as against a normal of 3.66. The highest single temperature was 62 on the 23rd day and the lowest 14 on New Year’s Day. As to the weather for the next six weeks, forecaster James H. Scarr said he didn’t know what it would be, but he suggested maybe the groundhog would tell tomorrow, which is Groundhog Day.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, the Eagle reported, “Climaxing plans which first took definite form as far back as 1899, the new Brooklyn Central Library at Grand Army Plaza officially opens to the public today following a brief ceremony yesterday during which Borough President [John] Cashmore envisioned the institution as ‘the number one library of the United States in 1951.’ The borough president, as an ex-officio member of the Brooklyn Public Library board, delivered the principal address at exercises accompanying a preview of the library’s children’s room. Guests at the preview included city and library officials, educators, leaders in child welfare work and others interested in children’s books, among whom were authors, artists, reviewers and editors of books and magazines for children. One of the most keenly interested spectators was Jennifer Pyne, 11-year-old daughter of Mrs. Mabel Pyne, who, as the only youngster on hand, made the most of enjoying the distinction of being the first of the borough’s hundreds of thousands of boys and girls to inspect the facilities of the mecca for juvenile readers.”