August 30: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 30, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “BOSTON — The operations of Charles Ponzi’s Securities Exchange Company and of the Old Colony Foreign Exchange Company will be the subject of an investigation by the Suffolk County Grand Jury. Attorney General [J. Weston] Allen, who has before him the claims of some 11,000 persons for more than $5,000,000 against the Ponzi project and of several hundred creditors with claims of $300,000 against the Old Colony Company, made request today that the Grand Jury be convened in special session to hear the evidence which he has obtained in conjunction with the two schemes. Chief Justice [John J.] Aiken authorized District Attorney Joseph C. Pelletier to call the jurors together on Wednesday. For the present, action in the State court against Ponzi will have no effect, as he is a Federal prisoner at the East Cambridge jail on charges of using the mails with fraudulent intent. Three of the officials of the other quick-rich enterprise are now at liberty on bail under charges of larceny.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1935, the Eagle reported, “BRUSSELS (A.P.) — Long lines of Belgians entered the royal palace in sorrow again today, paying their last homage to Queen Astrid, who was killed yesterday in an automobile accident in Switzerland. It was 18 months ago that these same folk came to view the mortal remains of King Albert, who also died by accident. Funeral services are to be held next Tuesday, probably at 11 a.m. The dead Queen Astrid came back to the capital to the muffled roll of drums and to the sound of bugles playing ‘Aux Champs’ — the call usually sounded at funerals. Sorrowing crowds wept openly in the streets and behind them doors were draped with black crepe and shop windows were shuttered. A deathlike hush fell over the crowd outside the station as the Queen’s body was lifted from the coach in which it made the overnight journey from Lucerne. Sobs from the bareheaded crowd broke the deep silence as attendants placed the casket in the motor hearse outside the somberly draped station and stepped back to await the start of the drive to the palace. Then drums, hung with heavy black velvet, began the funeral roll, and the notes from the trumpets of a band of army buglers rang out strangely and sharply in the usually bustling square facing the station.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “In times such as these one should be cautious about calling another person a ‘Hitler,’ Magistrate D’Andrea today warned Mrs. Ray Brodsky of Manhattan, arraigned in Coney Island Court on charges of disorderly conduct and littering the beach at Coney Island. Special Officer Thomas O’Connor of the Park Department testified that Mrs. Brodsky called him ‘a Hitler’ when he warned her against littering the beach with paper Saturday. O’Connor said that she was sitting on a paper, a practice prohibited by Park Department ordinance, and that he issued the summonses after her remarks.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “YOKOHAMA, JAPAN (U.P.) — General Douglas MacArthur set up headquarters in Yokohama today as the first 40,000 troops of his occupation army raised the Stars and Stripes over Japan’s largest naval base, two airfields and a big slice of the Tokyo plain. A half-dozen or more Japanese towns, some within a few miles of the southern outskirts of Tokyo, were occupied by Allied air and seaborne forces in their first few hours ashore. General MacArthur, supreme occupation commander, established his headquarters at Yokohama’s new Grand Hotel with other top American officers less than an hour after landing at Atsugi Airfield from Okinawa. From the top of the hotel, General MacArthur could see Emperor Hirohito’s palace in the heart of Tokyo. Both Hirohito and the Japanese Government now must take their orders from General MacArthur. South of Yokohama, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz — General MacArthur’s partner in the conquest of Japan — and Admiral William F. (Bull) Halsey of 3rd Fleet fame went ashore at the newly occupied Yokosuka naval base, formerly Japan’s No. 1 navy yard. It already had surrendered formally to Admiral Halsey’s deputies.”

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Cameron Diaz
Christopher Smith/Invision/AP

Michael Chiklis
Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include International Tennis Hall of Famer Vic Seixas, who was born in 1923; Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, who was born in 1930; “The Dukes of Hazzard” star Ben Jones, who was born in 1941; cartoonist Robert Crumb, who was born in 1943; comedian Lewis Black, who was born in 1948; “The Paper Chase” star Timothy Bottoms, who was born in 1951; Basketball Hall of Famer Robert Parish, who was born in 1953; “Mr. Saturday Night” star David Paymer, who was born in 1954; former St. John’s basketball coach Fran Fraschilla, who was born in Brooklyn in 1958; “The Shield” star Michael Chiklis, who was born in 1963; “The Mask” star Cameron Diaz, who was born in 1972; journalist Lisa Ling, who was born in 1973; International Tennis Hall of Famer Andy Roddick, who was born in 1982; singer-songwriter Bebe Rexha, who was born in 1989; and “Underwater” star Jessica Henwick, who was born in 1992.

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EMERGENCY BREAKTHROUGH: The Washington-Moscow hotline went into operation on this day in 1963. Also known as the “red telephone” (though Teletype equipment was used), it linked the Pentagon and the Kremlin. Fax machines took over the task in 1986 and secure email has been used since 2008.

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BENCHMARK: Thurgood Marshall was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court on this day in 1967. Marshall, the founder of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, was the first African-American on the high court. He retired in 1991 and was succeeded by Clarence Thomas. He died in 1993.

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

Quotable:

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

— business magnate Warren Buffett, who was born on this day in 1930