September 6: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 6, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1909, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The following dispatch was received here today: ‘Indian Harbor, via Cape Ray, N.F., September 6 — To Associated Press, New York: Stars and Stripes nailed to North Pole. Peary.’ The foregoing startling and laconic message, signed Peary, is the only available information up to this time. It was received in New York at 12:39 p.m. today through the Postal Telegraph Company. It was handed in at Indian Harbor, Labrador, and sent from there by wireless telegraph to Cape Ray to Port aux Basques by the Newfoundland government land cable, and to New York from there over the lines of the Commercial Cable Company. Commander Robert E. Peary left Sydney, N.S., July 17, 1908, on the steamer Roosevelt, on his third attempt to reach the North Pole. His last remark as he went on board the steamer was that he expected to accomplish his purpose. He arrived at Cape York, Greenland, July 31. On August 11 the Roosevelt was at Etah, which point he left September 26. He had a good supply of Eskimo dogs and provisions. The latest information concerning Commander Peary indicated that he was on polar ice north of Cape Thomas Hubbard, about 560 miles from the Pole.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “Removal of 56 bodies of army dead which arrived at the Brooklyn Army Base on the transport Wilson Victory was delayed today by the maritime strike. The vessel arrived at Pier 3 of the base at 7:55 a.m. today and at 1 p.m. base officials were still awaiting word from the union as to the removal of the coffins. Maj. Gen. Ewert G. Plank, base commander, said that the bodies would be removed later today by army men if the union does not reach a decision to do so. The caskets would ordinarily be removed by members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, General Plank stated in observing that this union was honoring picket lines established by the Seafarers International Union and other unions in the maritime stoppage. A line of four pickets of the International Seafarers Union and the Seamen’s Union of the Pacific was parading outside the Army Base at 1st Ave. and 58th St. They carried signs saying ‘On Strike!’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “The toll of accidental deaths over the Labor Day weekend, with reports still coming in, today reached a total of 479. Traffic accidents over the nation accounted for 365 deaths, also a record. A survey also shows 47 drownings, 19 deaths in air crashes and 48 in miscellaneous mishaps. An official of the National Safety Council, which had predicted 280 highway traffic deaths, commented grimly: ‘This is barbaric.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (U.P.) — Wernher Von Braun, German rocket expert, outlined a plan today to land 50 explorers on Mars for a 13-month visit. His proposal was the latest scheme for interplanetary travel laid before the International Congress on Astronautics. Von Braun, designer of the mighty V-2 rocket bomb that plastered London late in 1944, submitted a paper to the conference detailing his proposal. He is in the United States. Fifty men could reach Mars, he suggested, by traveling on spaceships and rockets. They would stop over for refueling at artificial moons fixed in space between the earth and Mars. The journey to Mars, Von Braun said, would take 260 days. Ten spaceships with 70 men aboard would take off from earth and stop at the first artificial moon for supplies. They would then travel to another man-made orbit closer to Mars. From there, he said, 50 men would be selected to land on Mars in three 200-ton rockets. Von Braun said the trip would be possible as soon as the artificial moons are built.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include cartoonist Sergio Aragones, who was born in 1937; “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” star Jo Anne Worley, who was born in 1937; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), who was born in 1944; “Sisters” star Swoosie Kurtz, who was born in 1944; original “Saturday Night Live” star Jane Curtin, who was born in 1947; former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who was born in 1954; actor and comedian Jeff Foxworthy, who was born in 1958; “Police Academy” star Michael Winslow, who was born in 1958; former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, who was born in 1962; “America’s Most Wanted” host Elizabeth Vargas, who was born in 1962; “The Lovely Bones” author Alice Sebold, who was born in 1963; “Do the Right Thing” star Rosie Perez, who was born in Brooklyn in 1964; “I Try” singer Macy Gray, who was born in 1967; “Pacific Rim” star Idris Elba, who was born in 1972; and rapper Foxy Brown, who was born in Brooklyn in 1978.

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AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY: President William McKinley was shot on this day in 1901. McKinley was visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., when anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot him twice in the abdomen. He died Sept. 14 and was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Czolgosz died in the electric chair Oct. 29.

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BREAKING AWAY: On this day in 1991, the Soviet government recognized the independence of the Baltic states — Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. The action came 51 years after the Baltic states were annexed by the Soviet Union. All three states had earlier declared their independence and many nations, including the U.S., had already recognized them diplomatically.

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

Quotable:

“I didn’t appreciate Brooklyn until I left it.”

— actress Rosie Perez, who was born on this day in 1964