March 24: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

March 24, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee unanimously approved today the nomination of William O. Douglas to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. The committee voted to approve the nomination after less than five minutes discussion. The 40-year-old nominee, now chairman of the Securities Commission, came before the committee in company with Attorney General [Frank] Murphy, but members said they did not wish to question him. Another witness, Charles A. McBride of Philadelphia, asked permission to testify regarding committee procedure, but his request was refused after he said he did not wish to support or oppose Douglas’ nomination. The full Judiciary Committee is expected to act on Douglas’ nomination soon. Prompt approval is expected.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Secretary of State Dean Acheson and foreign ministers of other Atlantic Pact nations plan an important meeting here April 2 on East-West relations, it was learned today. Informants said top diplomats of Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway intend to be here for the treaty-signing ceremonies April 4. Foreign ministers of Denmark, Portugal, Italy and Iceland also will be on hand if those nations accept invitations to join the pact as charter members. The signing of the historic treaty is scheduled for 3 p.m. April 4 in the State Department auditorium, which seats about 1,300 persons. President Truman is tentatively scheduled to be present at the ceremonies. Officials said the prime purpose of the April 2 meeting will be to reach formal agreement on the text of the historic 20-year pact. This approval is assured in advance. In addition, the conferences are slated to consider future measures to build the treaty into a forceful weapon to forestall any Russian aggression.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “MT. CHARLESTON, NEV. (UP) — The second atomic device to be fired within a week was detonated at the Yucca Flat proving ground shortly before dawn today and the Atomic Energy Commission reported that 1,300 troops huddled in foxholes in the area survived ‘without injury.’ The top secret explosion went off ‘exactly on schedule’ at 5:10 a.m. (8:10 a.m. Brooklyn time), but there were conflicting reports of its intensity. The flash was not seen in some areas where previous atomic explosions were sighted. Other localities, to the east and north, reported the flash brighter than the public demonstration of last week. The flash was seen in Pocatello, Idaho, 700 miles north of Yucca Flat, and in Reno, 450 miles north. Residents of Las Vegas, 75 miles away, estimated it took from five and a half to five and three-quarter minutes for a faint rumble from the explosion to reach there. … The fireball boiled furiously for about 10 seconds and then the atomic cloud itself began to churn into the sky. Ten minutes after the flash, the cloud had taken the shape of two squat toadstools, the stem of one growing out of the head of the other.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “CHICAGO — President Kennedy warned yesterday that the nation may face 10 years of recession and chronic economic woes unless Congress passes his $10 billion tax cut this year. Kennedy’s speech before 1,400 civic and airline dignitaries was a direct appeal to the ‘will of the people’ to back his economic program. In effect, he went over Congress’ head in calling for action now to find jobs for the nation’s ‘tide of manpower.’ In his most somber warning to date of the nation’s economic condition, Kennedy said that unless the manpower situation is solved, ‘I must warn you this nation faces a decade of chronic troubles and recession — characterized by the economic waste and human tragedy of unemployment.’ There is no single magic solution to the manpower problem, Kennedy said in his prepared text, but added that the most important action the nation can take now is ‘to release the brake of wartime tax rates which are now holding down growth at the very time we need more growth to create jobs.’”

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Jessica Chastain
Grant Pollard/Invision/AP

Annabella Sciorra
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include fashion designer Bob Mackie, who was born in 1940; paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, who was born in 1945; World Golf Hall of Famer Pat Bradley, who was born in 1951; fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, who was born in 1951; former N.Y. Knicks coach Mike Woodson, who was born in 1958; “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” star Annabella Sciorra, who was born in Brooklyn in 1960; “Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parsons, who was born in 1973; “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star Alyson Hannigan, who was born in 1974; Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, who was born in 1976; “It” star Jessica Chastain, who was born in 1977; and “Boston Legal” star Lake Bell, who was born in 1979.

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FULL HOUSE: The British Parliament passed the Quartering Act on this day in 1765. It required the American colonies to provide barracks for British troops. If the barracks were insufficient, the colonies would be required to house the troops in livery stables, inns, ale houses, victualling houses and houses of wine sellers. And if there still wasn’t enough room, “the colonies were then required to take, hire and make fit for the reception of his Majesty’s forces, such and so many uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings as shall be necessary.”

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ALL SHOOK UP: Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army on this day in 1958. The 23-year-old rock n’ roll sensation and budding movie star was sent for training at Fort Hood in Texas and shipped out to West Germany from the Brooklyn Army Terminal in September. Sgt. Presley was discharged on March 5, 1960.

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

Quotable:

“Dinosaurs are the jumper cables to the human mind. Kids can’t curb their enthusiasm when they’re in a hall of dinosaurs and mammoths and mammoth hunters and trilobites and giant fish that could chomp up a shark.”

— paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, who was born on this day in 1945