June 6: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

June 6, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — Brooklyn now has a population of 2,022,262. Manhattan has a population of 2,284,104; Bronx, 732,016; Queens, 466,811; Richmond, 115,959. The total population of the five boroughs is 5,621,151. Brooklyn showed an increase in population in 1920 over 1910 of 387,911, or 23.7 percent. The Bronx showed the greatest increase, with 301,036, or 69.8 percent. Queens was next with 182,770, or 64.3 percent. Manhattan showed a decrease, having 47,439 or 2.0 percent less residents now than in 1910. While Brooklyn failed to overtake Manhattan, she did, however, make rapid strides in that direction. In 1910 Brooklyn was behind Manhattan by 679,191. According to the figures announced by the Census Bureau tonight, Brooklyn has cut this lead to 261,941.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1943, the Eagle reported, “Milk delivery in the city was moving back to normal — except for the skip-a-day modification — yesterday. Some milk drivers yesterday morning were still holding out against delivery of double loads of milk, made necessary by the ODT order to save gasoline and tires by resting the trucks every other day. These and other hitches, however, were being ironed out and it appeared that homes and stores would have all the milk needed from now on. The drivers, who had previously refused to deliver double loads, fearful that the skip-a-day deliveries would result in large-scale layoffs, went back to work after the Milk Drivers Union, a local of the Teamsters Union, voted to return and the War Labor Board called refusal to deliver ‘a form of strike.’ The WLB at the same time pledged that the milk companies would not permit layoffs pending a final adjustment. Even after the union’s decision to carry double loads, it took a radio appeal by Mayor LaGuardia, who had previously expressed the determination that milk supplies would have to be delivered, to start movement of milk wagons from the Borden Company’s Riverside plant, 615 W. 131st St., Manhattan.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, LONDON (U.P.) — Allied armies today stormed northern France with history’s greatest invasion armada — 11,000 planes, 4,000 ships and thousands of smaller craft — and in the first few hours seized beachheads that threated to isolate the Normandy peninsula and win a railroad pointed straight at Paris. The British radio said at least two beachheads had been secured and that ‘Allied formations are advancing inland.’ The German DNB news agency acknowledged the Allies had put tanks ashore in at least one sector. Some six hours after the first wave of American, British and Canadian assault forces landed by sea and air on the Normandy peninsula, Prime Minister Churchill told Commons the invasion was proceeding ‘according to plan.’ One German broadcast reported fighting as much as ten miles inland. ‘Obstacles which were constructed in the sea have not proved so difficult as was apprehended,’ Churchill said. ‘The fire of shore batteries has been largely quelled. Massed airborne landings have been successfully effected behind enemy lines and landings on the beaches are proceeding at various points at the present time.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “The first three digits of Brooklyn’s new Zip Code were announced today by Postmaster Edward J. Quigley, as this borough moved another step toward the kick-off of the National Coding Plan July 1. ‘Brooklyn, N.Y. will use the prefix 112 as the first three numerals in all correspondence,’ Postmaster Quigley said. ‘Local postal zone numbers, added to this prefix, will give you the full five-digit Zip Code for your delivery area.’ … Quigley stressed that Zip Code goes into effect nationally as of July 1, and urged that all residents and business firms of Brooklyn learn the Zip Code now for their respective delivery areas, and use the code in their return address on all correspondence. In answering mail, Zip Codes taken from return addresses on incoming mail should be used. He said that when the national Zip Code plan is fully operational, it will provide the United States with the most modern system of mail distribution and dispatch ever devised.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Apollo 15 commander David Scott, who was born in 1932; “Quarter to Three” singer Gary U.S. Bonds, who was born in 1939; National Track and Field Hall of Famer Tommie Smith, who was born in 1944; “Nightmare on Elm Street” star Robert Englund, who was born in 1947; actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, who was born in 1952; International Tennis Hall of Famer Bjorn Borg, who was born in 1956; “Saturday Night Live” star Colin Quinn, who was born in Park Slope in 1959; guitar virtuoso Steve Vai, who was born in 1960; “John Adams” star Paul Giamatti, who was born in 1967; “The Talk” moderator Natalie Morales, who was born in 1972; “Lost” actress Sonya Walger, who was born in 1974; Olympic gold medal-winning soccer player Becky Sauerbrunn, who was born in 1985; and Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who was born in 1992.

Natalie Morales
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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PATRIOT’S DAY: Nathan Hale was born in Connecticut on this day in 1755. During the battles for New York in the American Revolution, he volunteered to spy behind enemy lines. The British captured him near Flushing Bay on Sept. 21, 1776 and hanged him in Manhattan the next day. His last words, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” have become a symbol of American patriotism.

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THE GREAT OUTDOORS: Richard M. Hollingshead, Jr., opened America’s first drive-in movie theater in Camden, N.J., on this day in 1933. At the height of their popularity in the late 1950s, there were more than 4,000 drive-ins across the country. Today there are about 300.

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

Quotable:

“I wish to be useful, and every kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by being necessary.”

— American soldier Nathan Hale, who was born on this day in 1755