Brooklyn Boro

July 29: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

July 29, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History
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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Rumors that Charles Ponzi, the Boston high financier who is reputed to have amassed a fortune of $9,000,000 in a few weeks, will open an office in New York have not been confirmed, and in the meantime the U.S. District Attorney in Manhattan is keeping close watch over the possibility of his coming here. A question that neither officials nor laymen have been able to figure out as yet, in connection with his startling entry into the financial world is: Who is losing the money that Ponzi has made?”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1922, the Eagle reported, “Fishermen of the Rockaway trestle colonies along Jamaica Bay are much concerned over reports received during the past week concerning the appearance of a school of sharks and porpoises in the bay the early part of the week. While the species of the shark has not been ascertained thus far, it is assumed by the majority of the angling enthusiasts that the creatures are of the sand variety and not of the man-eating species as a number of persons supposed. Maxwell Kennedy, proprietor of the Breezy Point Hotel at Rockaway Point, stated over a week ago that nothing but a school of sharks could have brought so many fish into Jamaica Bay as that have been inhabiting the waters during the past month. However, up until that time none of the big fish had been observed, but during the past week several reports were received from fishermen who have seen the sharks swimming about the bay … A number of fishermen were given a surprise on Wednesday while fishing off Black Wall, near Barren Island, when, upon pulling their lines following a bite, they discovered only the heads of weakfish which had taken their hook. Bill Anderson of 32 Bayside Pl., Rockaway Beach, was one of those who had this experience, and said that it had been the work of the sharks. However, the sharks or porpoises are not bothering fishermen near the Rockaway side of the bay.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “The Big Stench went back to court today for purification. Before Magistrate Abner C. Surpless in Flatbush Court appeared representatives of 40,000 residents in the Marine Park-Jamaica Bay area to press their complaint that the city officials dumping garbage in their midst were guilty of maintaining a public nuisance. That the overwhelming odor wafting from the dumped garbage is a nuisance in the ordinary meaning of that word most of the 40,000 living in the afflicted area are fully convinced. The dumping has been carried out, for the past six months or more, in the shallow water off Jamaica Bay, at Flatbush Ave. and Avenue W, on the site of what is to become a municipal golf course. Spread by wind and tide and rotted by the summer sun, the garbage gives forth an overpowering smell which destroys the appetite, makes sleep difficult, causes children to vomit and adults to cry out in disgust. Tiny particles rising from the soggy garbage afloat in the air leave a film of muck on everything, and turn polished silver black, the complainants say, in a matter of minutes.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “The city’s juvenile delinquency rate is increasing with growing speed, according to new figures made public by Mayor [Robert] Wagner. In the first six months of this year, the mayor said, delinquency jumped 17.2 percent over the same six months last year. The figure last year, he added, was an increase of 13.2 percent over the first six months of the previous year. Despite the big jump in New York, the mayor added, the increase has been even more marked in some other parts of the state and nation. Speaking at the concluding dinner of the annual New York State Association of Chiefs of Police in the Hotel New Yorker, he said only an overall community-supported program could cure the growing evil. He declared the rise in juvenile crime might be related to ‘the inadequate support, judicially, psychiatrically and in terms of existing law’ given the police in meeting the problem. Necessary tools, he said, are parental education, slum clearance, religious education, trained probationary and psychiatric personnel and adequately staffed and compensated police forces.”

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Dak Prescott
Scott Roth/Invision/AP
Patti Scialfa
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Emergency!” star Robert Fuller, who was born in 1933; former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who was born in 1936; “Police Academy” star Leslie Easterbrook, who was born in 1949; documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who was born in Brooklyn in 1953; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Geddy Lee (Rush), who was born in 1953; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Patti Scialfa (E Street Band), who was born in 1953; boxing trainer and commentator Teddy Atlas, who was born in 1956; “Baywatch” star Alexandra Paul, who was born in 1963; “Stand by Me” star Wil Wheaton, who was born in 1972; Wimbledon mixed-doubles champion Nicole Melichar-Martinez, who was born in 1993; and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who was born in 1993.

Geddy Lee
Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP

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A VIEW FROM ABROAD: Alexis de Tocqueville was born on this day in 1805. The French politician and author’s 1831 trip the U.S. inspired “Democracy in America,” one of the most insightful books written about the U.S. “America is a land of wonders,” he wrote, “in which everything is in constant motion and every change seems an improvement.” He died in 1859.

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LOST AND FOUND: The USS Indianapolis was sunk on this day in 1945. After delivering the atomic bomb to Tinian Island, the American cruiser was headed for Okinawa to train for the invasion of Japan when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. More than 350 of the 1,196 crew members were immediately killed in the explosion or went down with the ship. The survivors endured the next 84 hours in ocean waters. By the time rescue arrived on Aug. 2, only 318 sailors were still alive, the rest having drowned or been eaten by sharks. In 2017, a search group financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen found the wreck of the Indianapolis in the Philippine sea at a depth of 18,000 feet.

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

 

Quotable:

“History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.”

— author Alexis de Tocqueville, who was born on this day in 1805

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