History

August 5: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 5, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1884, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Among other interesting events that the weather of today threatens to interfere with is the ceremony of laying the cornerstone of the great Bartholdi statue of Liberty, about which we have heard so much of late, and done so little. This will be the first step toward putting into material form that lively appreciation of a nation’s good will and a great sculptor’s munificence that is graceful in itself, and eloquent of our highly cultivated national morality. It may be added that this step bears to those that are to follow before the expression is perfected the relation that a pint pot hole holds to the Atlantic Ocean, or to put it more accurately and less extravagantly, that the paltry sum already raised to meet the expense of erecting the pedestal bears to the enormous amount of money that will be necessary for the completion of the project.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Eagle reported, “BOSTON — Joseph E. Herman and two others, said to represent the Commonwealth Trading and Securities Corporation of 25 W. 43rd St., New York, conferred with Charles Ponzi here today. Ponzi previously had announced that a New York syndicate had made him an offer for his business and that a conference had been arranged. Mr. Herman said he and his associates had made a careful investigation of Ponzi and his business and had satisfied themselves that his methods were sound. Ponzi, he said, was doing the bulk of his business in France and dealing in foreign exchange. The inquiry into the business, Mr. Herman added, originated in Europe.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — The United States practically conceded today that China is lost to the Communists, but warned Russia and her Chinese puppets not to carry the Red aggression in the Far East beyond China’s borders. The admission and the warning were contained in a State Department ‘white paper’ reviewing American policy in China, tracing the events leading to the collapse of Nationalist China, and revealing hitherto secret documents — including the long-suppressed Wedemeyer report. The government expressed belief that the Chinese people will rise up in revolt and ‘throw off the foreign yoke.’ And it promised to ‘encourage all developments in China which now and in the future work toward the end.’ But nowhere did it get specific about just how it proposes to do this. In a foreword to the 1,054-page document, Secretary of State Dean Acheson said of the Communist victory in China: ‘Nothing that this county did or could have done within the reasonable limits of its capabilities could have changed that result; nothing that was left undone by this country has contributed to it.’ This apparently was in answer to the repeated charges that the administration’s wait-and-see policy hastened the Communist conquest in China.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “TEHRAN (U.P.) — Iran and the West today announced officially a 25-year agreement putting Iranian oil back on the world market for the first time in three years. The agreement ended a struggle that had cost more than 1,000 lives and for many uncertain months threatened to swing Iran into the Soviet Union. It also restored to Iran her major source of revenue. The agreement reached between Iran and a Western oil combine was the second major Middle East settlement in a week. It followed an Anglo-Egyptian pact for evacuation of British troops from the Suez Canal zone. The deal made here relieved Britain from one of the worst tail-twistings it has suffered since World War II and stabilized a country that lies under Russia’s soft Middle East underbelly on a frontier regarded as a likely Soviet invasion route westward in event of war.”

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Maureen McCormick
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “WKRP in Cincinnati” star Loni Anderson, who was born in 1945; “One Life to Live” star Erika Slezak, who was born in 1946; “Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” singer Rick Derringer, who was born in 1947; “The Brady Bunch” star Maureen McCormick, who was born in 1956; “Absolute Power” author David Baldacci, who was born in 1960; Knicks legend and Basketball Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing, who was born in 1962; “Brighton Beach Memoirs” star Jonathan Silverman, who was born in 1966; former N.Y. Mets and Yankees first baseman John Olerud, who was born in 1968; Olympian hurdler and bobsledder Lolo Jones, who was born in 1982; 2010 U.S. Women’s Open golf champion Paula Creamer, who was born in 1986; and “Cloak & Dagger” star Olivia Holt, who was born in 1997.

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IT’S A HIT: “American Bandstand” premiered on this day in 1957. Hosted by Dick Clark, it relied on a simple format: teens dancing, performers doing their latest hits and Clark introducing songs and listing the top 10 songs each week. The show was not only TV’s longest-running musical series but also the first one devoted exclusively to rock and roll. It was canceled in 1989.

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A STAR IS BORN: Neil Armstrong was born on this day in 1930. The first man to walk on the moon flew in a Tin Goose aircraft at age 6 and could fly a plane before he could drive a car. He was a Navy fighter pilot during the Korean War and later studied aeronautical engineering. He was chosen by NASA to command Apollo 11’s mission to the moon, and on July 20, 1969 he made that “giant leap for mankind.” He died in 2012.

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

Quotable:

“The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.”

— astronaut Neil Armstrong, who was born on this day in 1930