History

July 21: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

July 21, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1894, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “A large shark, more dead than alive, came ashore at Rockaway Beach yesterday and created quite a commotion among the bathers. Soon as the monster was discovered, Richard Albrecht, a life saver employed at the bathing pavilion, dealt the shark several blows with an oar, killing it. The shark measured seven feet in length. A hole was dug in the sand and the monster buried.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1898, the Eagle reported, “Colonel [Theodore] Roosevelt’s friends want him to run for governor of New York. As police commissioner of New York City, as assistant secretary of the Navy and as a fighter in the jungles of Cuba, Colonel Roosevelt has demonstrated his sterling abilities and remarkable versatility.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1934, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (A.P.) — The government is seeking to rally the states to a fight against America’s newest narcotic menace, which lurks in a common roadside weed. The smoking of marijuana — which officials say breeds insanity and homicide — is on the increase. No federal law prohibits its use.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Eagle reported, “ALBANY — At least eight Democratic leaders in Brooklyn, most of them veterans in the party service, are due to lose their places if the Republican reapportionment proposal, now officially in the hands of the Constitutional Convention, becomes effective, it was definitely learned today. The situation has been brought about by provisions in the proposed amendment which consolidate existing Assembly districts in the older sections of Brooklyn and carve out new districts in areas where huge increases in population have taken place. In the redistricting, there would be six Assembly districts in which no leaders now reside. Reapportionment experts on the Democratic side, in completing their examination of the GOP proposal, discovered that Register Peter J. McGuinness, Dr. Joshua H. Friedman and William Meagher, all with districts of their own, now would be thrown into the proposed new 15th A.D. McGuinness is chieftain of the present 15th, Dr. Friedman heads the 14th and Meagher is top man in the 13th. The conclusion is that two of the leaders will have to bow out gracefully unless all three decide to go into primaries and fight it out for supremacy.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “There was a cool mass of air from Canada in the area today and this pleasant weather will last through tomorrow, according to the Weather Bureau. Sleeping under blankets was in vogue early today as the temperature was a chilly 61 degrees at 4:40 a.m. — a bit more than four degrees above the all-time low of 56.7 degrees set in 1890. The high today and tomorrow will be in the middle seventies. Tonight, it was reported, the low will be near 60 and the mercury will drop to 55 in the inland sections. Meanwhile, Water Commissioner Stephen J. Carney announced that he would recommend a six-month extension of the city’s artificial rain-making experiment. Board of Estimate approval is expected.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “A 40-year-old Boston man was dug unconscious from the beach at Coney Island today after he had been run over by a sand sled used by the Sanitation Department for collection of refuse. Workmen were clearing the beach at the foot of W. 15th St. shortly before daylight when one of them spied a hand sticking from the sand beneath the sled. Investigation showed the man pinned between the runners. Police of an emergency squad removed the victim and took him to Coney Island Hospital, where he was revived and gave his name as Cornelius Dawson of Boston. He had suffered a broken clavicle and cuts and bruises. Police theorized that the layer of sand had cushioned Dawson from the weight of the sled and saved his life. The caterpillar tread of the tractor pulling the sled had just missed the low mound in which he lay sleeping.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Moonstruck” director Norman Jewison, who was born in 1926; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Cat Stevens, who was born in 1948; “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau, who was born in 1948; The Hooters co-founder Eric Bazilian, who was born in 1953; “The Lincoln Lawyer” author Michael Connelly, who was born in 1956; former “Saturday Night Live” star Jon Lovitz, who was born in 1957; former Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin, who was born in 1961; National Soccer Hall of Famer Brandi Chastain, who was born in 1968; “The Hangover” star Justin Bartha, who was born in 1978; “Black Hawk Down” star Josh Hartnett, who was born in 1978; former N.Y. Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, who was born in 1980; rapper KB, who was born in 1988; former Brooklyn Nets center DeAndre Jordan, who was born in 1988; “Wonder Wheel” star Juno Temple, who was born in 1989; and model and actress Sara Sampaio, who was born in 1991.

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NO MORE BULL: The first major engagement of the Civil War took place on this day in 1861. Union Gen. Irvin McDowell was defeated by Confederate troops led by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at the first Battle of Bull Run at Manassas, Va. It was during this battle that Confederate Gen. T.J. Jackson won the nickname “Stonewall.” Jackson was stationed at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn in the late 1840s.

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A STRONG FOUNDATION: The National Women’s Hall of Fame was founded on this day in 1979. Located in Seneca Falls, N.Y., where the first Women’s Suffrage Convention was held in 1848, the hall honors American women whose contributions “have been of the greatest value in the development of their country.”

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

Quotable:

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”

— author Ernest Hemingway, who was born on this day in 1899