July 12: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “A pulley jammed in the mechanical parachute at the World’s Fair late last night and Mr. and Mrs. J. Cornelius Rathborne of the Old Westbury Rathbornes, who had gone up for a five-minute thrill, spent more than five hours suspended 100 feet in the air. Firemen spread rescue nets under the suspended couple, policemen rigged up loud-speakers which somehow did not help, steeplejacks climbed up and down the 250-foot parachute tower to give directions, a crowd which grew to 10,000 and more looked on and cheered, and even Grover A. Whalen, World’s Fair president, personally took a hand in the proceedings before the suspended pair were brought down to safety at 4:40 a.m. today. Mr. Rathborne, familiarly known to his friends in society as ‘Cokie,’ is 30, a banker and something of a polo player. His wife, the former Nancy Nelson Huidekopser, 25, was a Baltimore debutante. They had dinner with friends last night, came to the fair and drifted into the amusement area. Shortly before 11:30, they paid their 40 cents each for a ride in the mechanical parachute, were duly strapped into the parachute seat and began to rise. Normally, they would have been raised to the top of the 250-foot tower and then dropped, the parachute opening on the way down to keep the speed within safe bounds. The Rathbornes, however, technically never got their money’s worth. They had risen only half the distance up when one of the four pulleys attached to the four guide wires on the chute became fouled.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1942, an Eagle editorial said, “Dispatches from Washington continue to suggest that the stage is being set to bring forth Senator James M. Mead of Buffalo as the New Deal candidate for governor of New York. It is not surprising that some of the inside clique of White House favorites and advisors should turn in this direction, but it is hard to believe that such an astute politician and judge of trends as Franklin D. Roosevelt is supporting such a move. For if the only consideration is defeating Thomas E. Dewey — who now seems practically sure to be the Republican nominee — we have no doubt that [Attorney General John J.] Bennett would make a far better showing than Mead.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.