March 22: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

March 22, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle

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ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The evolution of television as a boon to the teaching of surgery was hailed today following an experiment at Israel Zion Hospital in which 75 doctors, nurses and students, seated in a room 500 feet away, witnessed the performance of an operation. The experiment, conducted yesterday with the cooperation of a patient suffering from a hernia, was the first of its kind in medical history and met with the unqualified approval of the operating surgeon, technical engineers and the onlookers. ‘It proved,’ said Boris Fingerhood, superintendent of the hospital, ‘that students need no longer crowd into operating-room galleries. They will not have to resort to blackboard notes and textbook illustrations because they now can see every move in clearest detail.’ The movements of the surgeon’s hands and his explanatory comments were picked up by a television camera and microphone and transmitted through cables to the receiving room, where the witnesses, in groups of 20 to 30, saw the operating-room scene on small screens. The images, in black and white, were visible also to the operating surgeon on an additional screen on the television monitor, the instrument that changes the pictures into electrical impulses for transmission.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1943, the Eagle reported, “The Yankees, Dodgers and Giants will pool their talents in a benefit, pre-season doubleheader at a date to be decided shortly. Final details have still to be arranged, Mayor LaGuardia, who is in charge of the arrangements, said today, but receipts will be turned over to the fund for the Civilian Defense Volunteer Office. Officials of the club who agreed to the program were Branch Rickey of the Dodgers, Leo Bondy of the Giants and Charley McManus of the Yankees.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (U.P.) — Generalissimo Josef Stalin threw his full support today behind the United Nations Organization in a statement that appeared to make plain Russia is prepared to settle her disputes within the framework of the UNO. In the strongest statement he has ever made in support of the UNO principles, he blamed fears of war on the propaganda of ‘certain political groups’ which he charged with deliberately seeking to incite a new war. The Stalin declaration characterized the UNO as ‘a valuable instrument’ for preserving peace and security. He expressed belief that it will ‘play a great and positive role’ in this connection. His statement was couched in terms which appeared to leave little possibility that Russia might, as has often been suggested, quit the UNO due to the dispute regarding Iran and other issues which have embroiled Russia and the Western Powers. In what appeared to be an oblique thrust at Winston Churchill, who yesterday continued his international debate with Premier Stalin through the medium of a United Press interview, the Soviet leader urged against ‘abuse (of) freedom of speech against the interests of peace.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. (UPI) — A mighty Titan-2 rocket, carrying the largest nose cone ever built for a United States military missile, soared more than 6,700 miles across the Atlantic Ocean yesterday. The 103-foot Titan-2, America’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile, blasted from its launching pad at 10:23 a.m. Within 30 minutes, the giant nose cone — twice as heavy as any other in the country’s ballistic arsenal — dived back through the earth’s atmosphere into a target area in the Atlantic off the west coast of South Africa. The success was the eighth in 12 firings for the Titan-2, slated to become the ‘workhorse’ of America’s future manned space flights. The two-stage rocket will loft two-man teams of Gemini astronauts into earth orbits starting next year.”

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Reese Witherspoon
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Andrew Lloyd Webber
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Star Trek” star William Shatner, who was born in 1931; singer-songwriter George Benson, who was born in 1943; former N.Y. Knicks coach Don Chaney, who was born in 1946; “Kiss the Girls” author James Patterson, who was born in 1947; Oscar-winning composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who was born in 1948; “Alias” star Lena Olin, who was born in 1955; actress and singer Stephanie Mills, who was born in Brooklyn in 1957; “Mad TV” star Keegan-Michael Key, who was born in 1971; former N.Y. Knicks center Marcus Camby, who was born in 1974; Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon, who was born in 1976; former NFL linebacker Joey Porter, who was born in 1977; and former N.Y. Mets first baseman Ike Davis, who was born in 1987.

William Shatner
Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

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NET GAIN: The first women’s collegiate basketball game was played on this day in 1893 at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. Senda Berenson, Smith’s director of physical education and “mother of women’s basketball,” supervised the game, in which Smith’s sophomore team beat the freshman team 5-4.

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REACH FOR THE SKY: The Tuskegee Airmen were activated on this day in 1941. The pioneering and highly decorated African-American aviator unit gained its name during training at the U.S. Army airfield near Tuskegee, Ala., and the Tuskegee Institute. During World War II, they shot down 111 enemy planes and destroyed 273 planes on the ground. The group was deactivated when President Harry Truman integrated the U.S. military in 1948.

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

Quotable:

“Regret is the worst human emotion. If you took another road, you might have fallen off a cliff. I’m content.”

— “Star Trek” star William Shatner, who was born on this day in 1931