April 20: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

April 20, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “TOPEKA, KAN. (U.P.) — Alfred M. Landon came out of political retirement today to protest a specific censorship of Kansas movies. ‘We must not sleep while a government board takes away the very foundations of our freedom,’ he said. He called upon Governor Walter Huxman, his successor, to ‘correct the foolish act of the Kansas Censor Board’ and restore a speech of Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D., Mont.) to the current edition of the March of Time newsreel. Deletion of Senator Wheeler’s speech, which was in opposition to President Roosevelt’s court reorganization plan, has raised a political furor in Kansas.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “The King and Queen took Princess Elizabeth to the theater last night on the eve of her 18th birthday anniversary to see the musical comedy ‘Something in the Air.’ The royal party was cheered when it appeared in the royal box, and the principals of the cast, including Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge, were received by the King, Queen and Princess during the intermission.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, “As the city continued its efforts to vaccinate its 7,500,000 residents against smallpox, Dr. Charles F. Pabst of 15 Clark St., director of dermatology at the Greenpoint Hospital, urged the Department of Commerce to include in its census queries, ‘Have you ever been successfully vaccinated?’ This, he said yesterday, would provide the only accurate figures on the rate of vaccination and should be followed by Federal law making the inoculations compulsory. Dr. Pabst said that ‘dermaphobes’ (the word for opponents of vaccination) include George Bernard Shaw, the English playwright. Shaw in 1931 in reply to a letter from Dr. Pabst asking whether he had been vaccinated declared he had been as an infant and had caught smallpox in 1881. Dr. Pabst answered that the author ‘owes his life to vaccination and if he had not been vaccinated his attack of smallpox would have been much more severe and, in all probability, he would have lost his life.’ Health Commissioner Weinstein urged all physicians who were able to volunteer their services in the mass vaccination process. He warned that scratching of the vaccinations and applying ointments without medical advice may cause a secondary infection.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Eagle reported, “General [Douglas] MacArthur, whose soldiers have taken many a city in military operations, didn’t have to take New York today — everyone gave it to him. The greatest outpouring of people in history for a public greeting to a national figure brought nearly every phase of the city’s operation to a virtual standstill long before the man who achieved a new kind of fame by being fired left his Waldorf-Astoria suite. The conqueror of Japan, who subsequently endeared himself to the people his armies subdued, got a foretaste last night of what was in store when he flew in from Washington and rode triumphantly along a 14-mile route from International Airport in Queens through solid banks of more than 1,500,000 persons. Today, more than three times that number – Official City Greeter Grover Whalen said he thought his original estimate of 5,000,000 would be conservative – lined up on Broadway, Park Ave., 5th Ave. and through Central Park to cheer the returning hero and catch a fleeting glimpse of the man who almost overnight has captured the collective heart of the nation.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “At 5:32 p.m. (EST), rookie Ron Hunt was officially admitted into the New York Met Hall of Fame. The ceremony was very short. The young second baseman merely stroked a line double to left field, his third hit of the game, to score two Mets in the bottom of the ninth and bring our local heroes a pulsating, 5-4 victory over the Milwaukee Braves. The victory, the Mets’ first of this not so young season, enabled the new darlings of Coogan’s Bluff to move ahead of their pace of last season, which started with nine straight losses. And there were those who said the Mets weren’t improved. Shocking!”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1931, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “WINDSOR, ENGLAND (AP) — Princess Betsy of York celebrates her fifth birthday tomorrow behind the cold, gray walls of Windsor Castle. Her parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, have brought her there especially for the occasion. At her own request, since she no longer cares for ‘baby toys,’ most of her presents will be mechanical toys.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Russia today pressed a series of power moves along Europe’s Eastern front in what diplomats fear may be the start of the long-awaited Soviet cold war offensive. The Moscow-directed campaign extended from the Baltic, where the United States claims Red air force pilots shot down 10 U.S. Navy airmen on a peaceful mission, to the shores of Asia Minor. The Russians fired a new broadside at Washington over the touchy Baltic incident, claiming the United States ordered the Navy plane to fly over Soviet territory and thus was guilty of a ‘deliberate international provocation.’ At the same time, they reopened their war of nerves against U.S.-backed Turkey at the other end of the Iron Curtain with a new demand for control of the Dardanelles. This move caught the State Department completely by surprise. The big push also was evident in the center of the Eastern European front. Communist-dominated Czechoslovakia cracked down on U.S. propaganda activities and demanded the ouster of a U.S. Embassy official on spy charges. And the controlled press of Communist-dominated Poland stepped up its attacks against the Voice of America. The U.S. Senate voted, 66-0, posthumous decorations for the 10 American fliers amid mounting demands that Russia be arraigned before the United Nations. House approval was considered certain but leaders said it probably would not be taken up before next week.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “A mass meeting, protesting the removal of subway agents from the Ocean Parkway station of the Brighton line after 8:30 p.m., will be held tonight at the Terrace Ballroom, Ocean Parkway and Sea Breeze Ave. The Brighton and Manhattan Beach Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association and the Brighton and Manhattan Beach Board of Trade are sponsoring the demonstration. Charles J. Larkin, spokesman for the groups, said that the people of the Brighton Beach area ‘will fight together as a united front to compel the Transit Authority and the mayor to stop the practice of false economy.’ ‘The taking away of the station agents,’ he went on, ‘leaves this abandoned station open as a mecca for hold-ups, robberies and muggings.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “President John F. Kennedy has listed Ian Fleming’s novel ‘From Russia, With Love,’ as one of his favorite books. The spy thriller, about the exploits of British Secret Service Agent James Bond, is currently before the cameras for United Artists release. The president’s list was made public in a letter to the North Bellmore, L.I., Public Library, in response to a request by the Friends of the Library to prominent people for letters to help commemorate National Library Week, which begins April 21. The news story listing the president’s favorites was published widely in the press over the weekend. ‘From Russia, With Love,’ produced by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, is directed by Terence Young in Technicolor. Sean Connery is starred as James Bond, with Lotte Lenya, Pedro Armendariz and Robert Shaw co-starred.”

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George Takei
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Star Trek” star George Takei, who was born in 1937; “Love Story” star Ryan O’Neal, who was born in 1941; “24” star Gregory Itzin, who was born in 1948; “Alien” star Veronica Cartwright, who was born in 1949; two-time Oscar-winner Jessica Lange, who was born in 1949; actor and musician Clint Howard, who was born in 1959; former N.Y. Yankees captain Don Mattingly, who was born in 1961; “Back to the Future” star Crispin Glover, who was born in 1964; “Lord of the Rings” star Andy Serkis, who was born in 1964; Dream Theater founder Mike Portnoy, who was born in 1967; “Criminal Minds” star Shemar Moore, who was born in 1970; Olympic gold medalist and Knicks executive Allan Houston, who was born in 1971; “Scary Movie” star Carmen Electra, who was born in 1972; “Blossom” star Joey Lawrence, who was born in 1976; and supermodel Miranda Kerr, who was born in 1983.

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MONUMENTAL: Daniel Chester French was born on this day in 1850. The New Hampshire native was one of the most important artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries as a sculptor of public monuments. He is best known for his 1875 “Minute Man” statue at Concord, Mass., and his 1922 statue of the seated Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial at Washington, D.C. He died in 1931.

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COMBINED MIGHT: Holland “Howling Mad” Smith was born on this day in 1882. The Alabama native is considered the father of amphibious warfare. He developed techniques that involved coordination of land, sea and air forces. During World War II he led troops in assaults in the Marshall and Mariana Islands and also directed forces at Guam, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He died in 1967.

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

Quotable:

“Honestly, at one time I thought Babe Ruth was a cartoon character. I really did. I mean, I wasn’t born until 1961, and I grew up in Indiana.”
— former N.Y. Yankees captain Don Mattingly, who celebrates his 60th birthday today