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September 11: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 11, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History
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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Two antiquated houses in downtown Brooklyn gave themselves up to science last night for the benefit of a group of future firefighters as their last act before going the way of condemned tenements. With 200 probationary firemen looking on from a vacant lot across the street, the four-story, eight-family brick houses at 79 and 81 Tillary St. were fired to give the rookies a closeup of the methods used by the Fire Department in besting blazes and effecting rescues. After perpetrating their deed, the firemen did such a first-class job of extinguishing the blaze that the damage was insignificant. But the wreckers will get them. Fire Commissioner John J. McElligott supervised the show and, to add to the realism, a number of policemen under Deputy Inspector McNeill maintained ‘fire lines’ and directed traffic in the vicinity. Motion pictures were taken for use in instructing the young men attending the Fire Department School.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (A.P.) — A delayed-action bomb hit Buckingham Palace, residence of the King and Queen of England, Sunday night and exploded Tuesday, demolishing one corner of the north front and sending flying glass over the first floor. King George and Queen Elizabeth were not in the palace at the time and a palace spokesman said today there were no casualties. Reporters were permitted to inspect the wreckage at the century-old royal residence this morning. The torn-out part was the glass-enclosed swimming pool, just under the Queen’s sitting room facing an expansive shaded lawn where the annual July garden party was given in peacetime. Great pillars of white stone were toppled in fragments around a crater 15 feet deep and 35 feet wide … The pool was a favorite with 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth, who already has won swimming medals, and 10-year-old Princess Margaret Rose. A room adjoining the pool made up the ‘Belgian suite’ which, in ‘happier times,’ the palace spokesman said, was occupied by visiting royalty.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — President Roosevelt in a momentous radio address tonight will give the American people the cold, hard facts of the international crisis in simple English which will leave no questions unanswered, Secretary Stephen T. Early said today. Working on the final draft of the message he will deliver at 10 p.m. (E.D.T.), Mr. Roosevelt conferred this morning with Congressional leaders of both parties. He arranged to talk later with Secretary of State [Cordell] Hull and Soviet Ambassador Constantine A. Oumansky. That conversation also was expected to include a preview of the address. Usually trustworthy sources said President Roosevelt’s radio address will declare that the United States will take whatever action is necessary to protect shipments to Iceland. The President also is expected to express American resentment over the German submarine attack on the U.S. destroyer Greer, which was en route to Iceland, and over the sinking of the U.S. freighter Steel Seafarer in the Red Sea.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “A huge flight of migratory birds, flying over Manhattan, was felled mysteriously today and for hours the bodies of the dead and injured dropped down into the streets surrounding the Empire State Building. Police theorized they apparently crashed into the tower of the building, the world’s tallest skyscraper, in the darkness. Hundreds of bodies were picked up, most of them on 5th Ave., by the Department of Sanitation workers and officials of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Hundreds more rained down onto the parapets of the building. But police said most of them were only stunned and revived a few minutes later. Police said the birds began falling about midnight and the ‘shower’ continued for more than four hours. Police said the flight apparently contained thousands of birds, and office workers in skyscrapers near the Empire State Building could hear them chirping plainly above the hubbub of downtown Manhattan.”

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Taraji P. Henson
Evan Agostini/AP
Maria Bartiromo
Evan Agostini/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Space Shuttle Columbia pilot Robert Crippen, who was born in 1937;  “The Untouchables” director Brian De Palma, who was born in 1940; singer and actress Lola Falana, who was born in 1942; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead), who was born in 1943; “Field of Dreams” star Amy Madigan, who was born in 1950; Styx guitarist and singer Tommy Shaw, who was born in 1953; “Empty Nest” star Kristy McNichol, who was born in  1962; TV personality and author Maria Bartiromo, who was born in Brooklyn in 1967; “Wicked Game” singer Harry Connick Jr., who was born in 1967; “Empire” star Taraji P. Henson, who was born in 1970; and rapper and producer Ludacris, who was born in 1977.

Harry Connick Jr.
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

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CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: On this day in 1786, 12 delegates from New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Virginia met at Annapolis, Md., to discuss commercial matters of mutual interest. The delegates voted, on Sept. 14, to adopt a resolution prepared by Alexander Hamilton asking all states to send representatives to a convention in Philadelphia in May 1787 “to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union.”

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NEVER FORGET: On this day in 2001, members of the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger airliners, flying two into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. Passengers on the fourth plane resisted the hijackers, causing the plane to crash in western Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks and more than 6,000 others were injured. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in modern history and the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in U.S. history.

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

 

Quotable:

“I wonder what my last hour will be. Will it be trying to help someone, trying to save a life?”

— Father Mychal Judge, who died on this day in 2001

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