September 22: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 22, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1898, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “ALBANY — Governor [Frank S.] Black’s final stand at Saratoga next Tuesday will lack the effect of his presence to make it dramatically complete. The governor decided today that he would not attend the convention and the cottage which had been engaged for him may be put to other uses … The governor’s belated decision is no sign of weakening on his part. He is just as determined as ever to fight it out to the end, and, although he must realize that he will be overwhelmed by the [Theodore] Roosevelt movement, he will not take down his flag.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1901, an Eagle editorial said, “Will the United States interfere or not is the question that Venezuelans and Colombians are eagerly asking themselves now that hostilities have broken out between the two republics. The recent war with Spain and the consequent entrance of the United States upon an era of colonial expansion has been watched with the most intense interest by America’s southern neighbors, and gloomy predictions of the ultimate and forcible absorption of the Latin-American republics into the colonial system of the United States are by no means uncommon. This apprehensiveness is, of course, increased by the turn things have taken in Colombia and Venezuela. It is assumed that there will be a prolonged and bitter conflict between these two countries, necessitating the intervention of the United States, and to the pessimistic such intervention means ultimate conquest.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1931, the Eagle reported, “City schools belatedly threw open their doors to 1,250,000 pupils today, but an estimated 80,000 in the lower grammar grades stayed away. They stayed away, school officials believed, because of the infantile paralysis scare. Miss Lizzie E. Rector, district superintendent in Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst, reported ’10 percent of the children were kept away’ in elementary and junior high schools. A physician, she said, informed her he was keeping his two children out until Oct. 15. In Flatbush, Dr. James J. Reynolds thought the number staying away ‘might be 10 percent or might be 20 percent.’ In Flatbush, the more well-to-do people are keeping their children out of town until around Oct. 1.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (U.P.) — Five of Britain’s leading doctors and 12 tanks of oxygen arrived at Buckingham Palace today and it was believed a lung operation would be performed on King George VI before nightfall. Some 1,500 to 2,000 anxious Britons had gathered in silence outside the palace gates by noon to await the outcome of the operation on the frail, seriously ill 55-year-old monarch. Prime Minister Clement R. Attlee said the King’s condition was causing ‘great anxiety.’ The King will be operated on in a specially converted room in the palace, the same room in which he underwent surgery for his legs 2½ years ago, and in which Princess Elizabeth’s two children were born. There still was no official word on the nature of the King’s illness, other than that it involves ‘structural changes’ in one of his lungs.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, Eagle sports columnist Tommy Holmes said, “The celebration in Cleveland is still going on. And it’s hard to imagine anybody happier about the successful pennant fight of the Indians than a nice guy named Hank Greenberg. Now maybe they’ll forget that the old slugger turned general manager once traded Minnie Minoso to the White Sox. The final front office moves that improved the Cleveland club to the point that the Indians could end the five-year reign of the Yankees were well conceived and well executed. Greenberg called the tune last spring. He conceded that the Yanks were good [and] paid tribute to the great reserve strength which was Casey Stengel’s ace-in-the-hole through five straight seasons. ‘We’ll have to beat the Yankees with pitching,’ he declared. Then he proceeded to do just that. He loaded the Cleveland pitching staff and it rolled the right number.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Mickey” singer Toni Basil, who was born in 1943; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Coverdale (Deep Purple), who was born in 1951; “You Light Up My Life” singer Debby Boone, who was born in 1956; musician and author Nick Cave, who was born in 1957; “Con te partiro” singer Andrea Bocelli, who was born in 1958; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Joan Jett, who was born in 1958; “Happy Days” star Scott Baio, who was born in Brooklyn in 1961; “Dynasty” star Catherine Oxenberg, who was born in 1961; U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer and former N.Y. Rangers goalie Mike Richter, who was born in 1966; “Smallville” star Laura Vandervoort, who was born in 1984; and “Harry Potter” star Tom Felton, who was born in 1987.

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LADY JUSTICE: The first all-woman jury in the colonies was empaneled on this day in 1656. At the General Provincial Court at Patuxent, Maryland, the jury heard the case of Judith Catchpole, who was accused of murdering her child. The defendant claimed she had never even been pregnant. After all the evidence was heard, the jury acquitted her.

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EXECUTIVE DECISION: President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on this day in 1862. It stated that, as of Jan. 1, 1863, “all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever, free.”

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

Quotable:

“If you start worrying about the people in the stands, before too long you’re up in the stands with them.”

— Baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda, who was born on this day in 1927