March 1: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

March 1, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “HELSINKI (A.P.) — Russia’s Red Army closed in on shell-shattered, deserted Viipuri from three sides today, locking the city tighter in a pincer-like land grip while swarms of warplanes supported it with the greatest aerial offensive in days. The Finnish Command’s own communique showed the Russians moving in from the southwest over the islands and ice of Viipuri Bay and from the south and east along three railway lines, forcing the Finns to make their stands ever closer to the city. Soviet military experts forecast the fall of Viipuri today, the United Press said, and indicated that afterward the Red army will split, one unit attempting to turn the Mannerheim line northward and the other pushing up the Viipuri-Helsinki Railroad with the Finnish capital as its objective. Only a little over a mile separated the Russian vanguard from Viipuri, said the Russian communique. The Russians and Finns, according to today’s high command communique, fought ‘fierce air battles’ in which the defenders shot down 14 Russian planes and lost four themselves.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “Russia today had indirect but strong warning that the United States, despite its desire to remain on friendly terms, stands ready ‘to act to prevent aggression’ as defined in the United Nations Charter. Without mentioning Russia by name, Secretary of State James F. Byrnes warned that nation against removing property from Manchuria as reparations and imposing troops ‘upon small and impoverished states.’ Addressing a dinner of the Overseas Press Club in the Waldorf-Astoria last night, Mr. Byrnes assailed aggression by political infiltration, maneuvering for strategic advantages or seizure of enemy properties before the conclusion of a reparations agreement as a violation of the United Nations Charter, which, he said firmly, the United States ‘intends to defend.’ Mr. Byrnes then implied that such defense would be by force if force were called for, when, warning that America must not be the only nation to disarm, he said: ‘The United States must be able and ready to provide armed contingents that may be required upon short notice.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (U.P.) — Dr. Klaus Fuchs, brilliant British atomic scientist, pleaded guilty today to delivering Anglo-American atomic secrets to Russia and was given the heaviest possible sentence of 14 years in prison. Lord Chief Justice Goddard said, in sentencing the German-born scientist and confessed Soviet agent, that he would have been shot for the same offense in wartime. Fuchs, 38, went on trial in the historic Old Bailey Court on charges that twice in the United States and twice in Britain he handed to the Russians information likely to be of the highest possible value to a potential enemy. Justice Goddard accepted the guilty plea and, denouncing Fuchs as a man who had ‘imperiled American and British friendship,’ gave him the maximum sentence. The justice thundered that the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde had admitted a crime only ‘technically different from high treason. The technicality is that Britain is now at peace.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “TAPEH, FORMOSA — Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek tonight called for mobilization of all manpower and material resources of Formosa [Taiwan] during 1953 for a Chinese Nationalist invasion of Communist China. The Nationalist leader told Formosa’s 8,000,000 people that preparations for an invasion must be completed this year, but he made no promise when such an assault might begin. ‘We must mobilize all manpower and material resources and present a united front in order to attain the expected objectives,’ Chiang said in a ‘state of the nation’ report. He said 1953 is the ‘most important, most pressing year of our work of destroying the Chinese Reds and resisting the Russians.’ Chiang called for a general mobilization of all able-bodied men on Formosa. He announced that National Guard reservists would be called to active duty for training starting next month.”

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Lupita Nyong’o
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Hogan’s Heroes” star Robert Clary, who was born in 1926; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Roger Daltrey (The Who), who was born in 1944; “The A-Team” star Dirk Benedict, who was born in 1945; “The Dukes of Hazzard” star Catherine Bach, who was born in 1954; Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, who was born in 1954; “Wings” star Tim Daly, who was born in 1956; Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem, who was born in 1969; “NYPD Blue” star Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who was born in 1974; “Supernatural” star Jensen Ackles, who was born in 1978; Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o, who was born in 1983; “Tik Tok” singer Kesha, who was born in 1987; and “Love Yourself” singer Justin Bieber, who was born in 1994.

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THE FUNNY PAGES: William Gaines was born 100 years ago today. The Bronx native was the publisher of Mad, the humor magazine he co-founded with editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952. The magazine, known for its parodies of movies, comic strips and celebrities as well as its satire of politics and social mores, greatly influenced dozens of humorists. Gaines died in 1992.

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HELP IS ON THE WAY: The Peace Corps was established on this day in 1961 by an executive order of President John F. Kennedy. The Corps has sent more than 220,000 volunteers to 140 countries to help people help themselves. The volunteers assist in projects related to health, education, water sanitation, agriculture, nutrition and forestry.

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

Quotable:

“What? Me worry?”

— Mad magazine publisher William Gaines, who was born on this day in 1922