October 13: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

October 13, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Congratulations to Cleveland. It has won the world’s championship because it has the best ball team in the world and deserved to win. It is not altogether pleasant for Brooklyn to acknowledge that its team, which is so good at its best, is only second best in the end, but the record is made. There is satisfaction to losers as to the winners, that this championship struggle was fought out on its merits and was cleanly and honestly won. No such scandal as followed Cincinnati’s victory last year can trail itself along through the next season to the injury of baseball, the cleanest professional sport which has ever reached to great prosperity. The Brooklyns did not lose because anybody on the team was paid to lose, but because their power failed them in the face of the tremendous onslaught of the Indians.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, the Eagle reported, “The suburban lot market will show a decided improvement this fall, in the opinion of J.E. McGolrick, president of the McGolrick Realty Corporation. ‘Developers may look forward to the biggest activity of the year,’ he declared yesterday, ‘and the momentum should enable them to operate successfully throughout the coming winter. This acceleration in sales may be expected because the real estate developer’s greatest rival, the stock market, is in the doldrums. Stocks are on the steady decline. In September alone stocks on the big board lost the stupendous total of $2,100,000,000. Ironically enough, at this time reports are issued of estimated 1930 assessed real estate valuations. And every county in and around New York City shows a substantial gain for the year. The $2,000,000,000 lost in the stock market in the one month would have been sufficient, according to assessment figures, to buy out the boros of Queens and Richmond or the entire counties of Westchester and Nassau.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1942, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Congressional sponsors of teenage draft legislation acknowledged President Roosevelt’s go ahead signal today by promising quick action. The president in his fireside chat last night warned parents that the drafting of their 18 and 19-year-old sons for military service was ‘inevitable.’ He left the general manpower situation on a voluntary basis for the present, but warned that ‘we must learn to ration manpower.’ Mr. Roosevelt set no time limit for the drafting of 18 and 19-year-olds, but the War Department wants to begin as soon as possible. Legislation is pending in both House and Senate and, immediately following Mr. Roosevelt’s speech, Senator Chan Gurney (R., S.D.), sponsor of the Senate bill, said he would request hearings at once by the Senate Military Affairs Committee. Gurney assumed his request would be granted in view of the president’s recommendation. The president cited two ‘major objectives of a sound manpower policy: First to select and train men of the highest fighting efficiency needed for our armed forces in the achievement of victory over our enemies in combat. Second, to man our war industries and farms with the workers needed to produce the arms and munitions and food required by ourselves and our fighting allies to win this war.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “TAIPEI, FORMOSA (U.P.) — U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Walter S. Robertson met three times today with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek against a somber background of threatened invasion and new Communist efforts to wreck the American position in Asia. American and Chinese Nationalist officials were unusually reticent about the Robertson visit, which is due to end when he leaves by plane tomorrow morning. Official quarters described the Robertson-Chiang talks as concerned with ‘problems of mutual interest.’ They would only repeat a Washington announcement that the assistant secretary had flown here to discuss U.S. future aid to Formosa. But unofficial speculation centered on the belief that Robertson was here on a trouble-shooting mission. He was reported attempting to get Chiang’s concurrence in a policy of holding the fighting along the Chinese coast to a limited scale. Fighting flared intensively along the coast after the Communists shelled Nationalist-held Quemoy island on Sept. 3. Nationalist planes and ships lashed back with fierce attacks on Red positions, and the battle swelled to alarming proportions.”

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Sacha Baron Cohen
Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include disc jockey Bruce Morrow, who was born in 1935; “A Christmas Story” star Melinda Dillon, who was born in 1939; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Paul Simon, who was born in 1941; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), who was born in 1947; “The X-Files” creator Chris Carter, who was born in 1956; singer and actress Marie Osmond, who was born in 1959; Anthrax singer Joey Belladonna, who was born in 1960; Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers, who was born in 1961; “In Living Color” star T’Keyah Crystal Keymah, who was born in 1962; Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, who was born in 1962; “Borat” star Sacha Baron Cohen, who was born in 1971; singer and actress Ashanti, who was born in 1980; U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was born in 1989; and “Stranger Things” star Caleb McLaughlin, who was born in 2001.

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GO NAVY: On this day in 1775, the Second Continental Congress authorized the acquisition of ships and the establishment of a Navy. Since 1972, a nationwide celebration has been held “to enhance a greater appreciation of Navy heritage and to provide a positive influence toward pride and professionalism in the naval service.”

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BUILT TO LAST: The White House cornerstone was laid on this day in 1792. The presidential residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., was designed by James Hoban. The first presidential family to occupy the building was that of John Adams in November 1800. The house was burned by British troops in 1814 but was reconstructed, refurbished and reoccupied by 1817.

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

Quotable:

“You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure.”

— former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was born on this day in 1925