February 14: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

February 14, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1846, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Everybody knows and therefore need not be informed that this is the day appointed for billing, cooing, and billet-doux-ing, generally denominated as St. Valentine’s Day. It is about the most pleasant carnival of the year, and fraught with darts and smarts and twittering hearts. Postmen are scouring the streets like locomotives, to deliver the great conglomeration of missives with which the post office is crowded. The postmaster of this city has put on eight extra hands to accomplish this momentous and pithy business.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1861, the Eagle reported, “Yesterday it was officially announced that Abraham Lincoln has been elected President of the United States for four years from the 4th of March next. This was pretty generally expected throughout the country; our own mind was pretty well satisfied of the fact by reading an ‘extra’ in the grey twilight of a cool and crisp morning about the 7th of November last. There were rumors in the party papers of all sorts of plots to prevent the counting of the electoral vote, but the event proved they were altogether groundless. The ceremony was performed in the usual way, and no improper manifestations were indulged in.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Eagle reported, “MOSCOW (U.P.) — War with ‘bourgeois’ countries is inevitable, Josef Stalin, Russian dictator, declared today, reaffirming at the same time the doctrine of world revolution and calling for the cooperation of the working classes of all nations. ‘We must keep all the people in a state of mobilization in readiness for an attack so that no ‘accident’ and no tricks from external enemies can catch us unawares,’ Stalin said in a letter to the communist organ Pravda. He called for powerful increase in the strength of ‘our Red army, the Red fleet and aviation’ and urged that the working classes of the bourgeois countries be ‘organized’ to help the working classes of Russia in the event of conflict. Stalin said that Leninism teaches that ‘final victory of socialism, in the sense of complete guarantee from the restoration of bourgeois relations, is possible only on an international scale. ‘This means that the serious help of the international proletariat is the force which is lacking, the problem of final victory without which socialism in one country cannot be solved. This does not mean that we will sit with folded hands and wait for help outside. On the contrary, help from the international proletariat must be combined in the work for strengthening the defense of our country, strengthening the Red army and the Red fleet and mobilization of the entire country for a struggle against military attack and attempts at restoration of the bourgeois economy.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “ALBANY, FEB. 13 — Mayor [Robert] Wagner’s administration jumped into the campaign against switchblade knives today with a demand that the Legislature pass a law making mere possession of the deadly weapons a crime in itself. A letter to the mayor from Police Commissioner Francis W.H. Adams was filed with Republican and Democratic legislative leaders and members of the codes committees considering switchblade measures. It urged support of a tough bill sponsored by Assemblyman Thomas A. Dwyer, Flatbush Democrat. Adams’ position was revealed by Victor F. Condello of Brooklyn, the city’s legislative representative, who said in an accompanying memorandum: ‘This recommendation to outlaw a weapon which has been aptly described as ‘the toy that kills’ has the full endorsement of Mayor Robert F. Wagner.’ The Dwyer bill, one of six dealing with the switchblade menace currently under consideration, classes the pushbutton knives in the same category as blackjacks, brass knuckles, slingshots and similar dangerous instruments which it is already unlawful to carry or possess. The police commissioner asserted that, of all the bills being considered, only the Dwyer proposal ‘deals comprehensively with the problem.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, who was born in 1941; former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was born in 1942; “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” actor Andrew Robinson, who was born in 1942; journalist Carl Bernstein, who was born in 1944; sportscaster Pat O’Brien, who was born in 1948; magician Teller, who was born in 1948; motivational speaker and former baseball player Dave Dravecky, who was born in 1956; opera star Renee Fleming, who was born in 1959; Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly, who was born in 1960; “Just Shoot Me!” star Enrico Colantoni, who was born in 1963; “Shaun of the Dead” star Simon Pegg, who was born in 1970; former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who was born in 1972; Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas, who was born in 1972; and “The Good Doctor” star Freddie Highmore, who was born in 1992.

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THE CIRCLE OF LIFE: George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. was born on this day in 1859. In response to a challenge to American engineers to create a monument that would dwarf the new Eiffel Tower, he built the Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. When the exposition opened, 38,000 people a day had their ups and downs. Ferris died in 1896.

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YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: James Bond died on this day in 1989. The noted ornithologist, with an expertise in birds of the Caribbean, wrote the influential “Birds of the West Indies” in 1936. In 1953, while searching for a name for the protagonist of his novel “Casino Royale,” author Ian Fleming, who enjoyed birdwatching, chose the name Bond … James Bond.

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

Quotable:

“No place epitomizes the American experience and the American spirit more than New York City.”

— former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was born on this day in 1942