September 12: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 12, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1926, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “LONDON, SEPT. 11 (A.P.) — Ladies-in-waiting to Queen Mary no longer shiver miserably while on duty at Balmoral Castle in Scotland as they did in the days of Queen Victoria. The castle has been modernized and the minister in attendance to the King needs no longer to use his bed as a writing table and his chimney as a smoking room.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Eagle reported, “Just to underline the distinct chilliness which separates the British Government from its ex-monarch, the Duke of Windsor, their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Kent have completed their vacation on the Continent without so much as a call on the Duke’s brother Edward. Worse than that, a meeting of the two brothers and their two duchesses which had long been planned as Step No. 1 in a reconciliation was abruptly canceled. There were two reports on the incident: 1. That the Government, determined to keep Edward down and determined to build up stammering King George VI, had given Kent his orders; 2. That the Duchess of Kent, herself a princess of Greece, declined to meet the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. The Duke was reported to be ‘simply boiling.’ The government’s chief control over Edward is via the purse strings; it can cut off his income almost at will. Reports had it that Windsor is now forbidden not only to return to England but to visit the United States, any British dominion, the Scandinavian countries or Germany. In theory, the Duke’s ‘allowance’ comes from the private funds of his brother, the King; practically, the King would be constitutionally bound to act on the ‘advice’ of his Cabinet if the Cabinet suggested that the remittances be discontinued.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, “ST. LOUIS (U.P.) — The Sporting News, national baseball weekly, today named Jackie Robinson, Negro first baseman of the Brooklyn Dodgers, as its choice for ‘Rookie of the Year.’ Publisher J.G. Taylor Spink, author of the story, emphasized that Robinson’s selection was based solely on his ability as a hitter, runner, fielder and team man. ‘The sociological experiment that Robinson represented,’ Spink wrote, ‘the trail-blazing that he did, the barriers he broke down, do not enter into the decision … Jackie Robinson has done it all in his first year as a major leaguer. What more could anyone ask?’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle said, “The Health Department today reported one of the lowest day’s totals of cases since the polio outbreak began early in the summer. There were 12 cases for the 24 hours up to 9 a.m. yesterday with no deaths. The department warned, however, that the low figure might be due to a lag in reporting them during the weekend. As usual, Brooklyn had the most cases, with nine reported here and three in Manhattan. Total cases for the year stood at 1,754 and deaths at 146, with 77 of them in Brooklyn. A 100-car motorcade, sponsored by the Oceanfront Division of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, toured through the Manhattan Beach, Plum Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island and Sea Gate sections as part of a drive to raise emergency funds for the foundation’s work in the current epidemic.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “NEWPORT, R.I. (U.P.) — Senator John F. Kennedy (D., Mass.), once one of the nation’s most eligible bachelors, takes an heiress as his bride here today. Kennedy, son of former Ambassador to Great Britain Joseph P. Kennedy, will wed Jacqueline Lee Bouvier on Newport at 11 a.m. in St. Mary’s Catholic Church. Archbishop Richard J. Cushing of Boston will officiate at the wedding, which caps the social season in this fashionable summer resort. Miss Bouvier, a descendant of prominent Washington and New York banking families, met the tousle-haired Kennedy while working as an inquiring reporter for the Washington-Times Herald. She is 24 and he is 36. Twenty-six attendants will participate in the wedding ceremony, which will be followed by a reception at Miss Bouvier’s Hammersmith Farm home, where she was presented to society in August, 1947.”

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Jennifer Hudson
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Dallas” star Linda Gray, who was born in 1940; folk singer Maria Muldaur, who was born in 1943; “Police Academy” star Bruce Mahler, who was born in 1950; “Midnight Run” star Joe Pantoliano, who was born in 1951; “The Thorn Birds” star Rachel Ward, who was born in 1957; Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, who was born in 1957; political commentator Greg Gutfeld, who was born in 1964; singer-songwriter Ben Folds, who was born in 1966; singer-songwriter Jennifer Nettles, who was born in 1974; “Gotham” star Ben McKenzie, who was born in 1978; “American Idol” winner Ruben Studdard, who was born in 1978; Basketball Hall of Famer Yao Ming, who was born in 1980; Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson, who was born in 1981; “Shameless” star Emmy Rossum, who was born in 1986; and 2020 National League MVP Freddie Freeman, who was born in 1989.

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FRONTIER SPIRIT: On this day in 1962, President John F. Kennedy told an audience of 40,000 people at Rice University that he wanted to land a man on the Moon before 1970. “But why, some say, the Moon?” he said. “Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? … We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

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NOW PLAYING: Today is Video Games Day, a time for kids to celebrate the fun they have playing and to thank their parents for all the consoles, games and quarters they have provided to indulge this enthusiasm.

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

Quotable:

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong.”

— journalist H.L. Mencken, who was born on this day in 1880