October 17: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

October 17, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (A.P.) — The Post said today it had received cabled advices that King Edward VIII is planning to marry Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson, who is suing her husband for divorce. ‘He may not be able to make the erstwhile Baltimore debutante his Queen,’ the paper said in a copyrighted story, ‘but he is said to be determined to make her his wife even if it costs him his throne. Mrs. Simpson’s suit for divorce, coming at this particular time, is considered significant. It indicates that the 42-year-old British monarch plans to have a showdown before his coronation in May.’ It was noted that the English law would not permit Mrs. Simpson’s remarriage until six months after the divorce decree. Her husband, Ernest Simpson, is not defending the case. Efforts to confirm the story through Mrs. Simpson’s family circle here met with no immediate success. Servants at the home of Mrs. Buchanan Merryman, her aunt, denied reporters access to the society matron. Mrs. Merryman, a few years ago, chaperoned Mrs. Simpson and the then Prince of Wales on a vacation to Biarritz.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, the Eagle reported, “A new drive for the demolition of antiquated Raymond Street Jail was under way today with the Kings County Grand Jurors Association taking the lead. Assailing the prison as a ‘hotbed for the breeding of vice and crime’ and an ‘institution that should have been demolished long ago,’ the association has placed the situation before Mayor [Fiorello] LaGuardia and Corrections Commissioner Austin H. McCormick. The abuses existing in the jail were emphasized in a resolution adopted by the organization at a meeting last night in the Central Court Building, Smith and Schermerhorn Sts., and copies were dispatched to the Mayor and the Commissioner … The association, long in the forefront to get rid of the jail, had the full support last night of William B. Cox, well-known criminologist and executive secretary of the Osborne association, who addressed the meeting. He stated that the jail is one of 1,273 institutions in the country which are ‘unfit for human habitation.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, “At least 18,000 Brooklyn evictions were halted today in a Municipal Court decision handed down by Justice Harold J. McLaughlin. His edict requires all landlords who have obtained final orders for eviction but have not yet obtained warrants to comply with the Sharkey Law. Normally six months elapse between the signing of a final order of eviction and the issuance of the warrant which effects the physical ouster of the tenant. The Sharkey Law, enacted Sept. 19, drastically limits the grounds on which a landlord can oust a tenant for other reasons than nonpayment of rent. Before its enactment, a landlord could evict to make the quarters available for a relative or to remodel for business or any other purpose. Now the apartment must be for his own occupancy and a ‘remodel eviction’ can be obtained only for the construction of new apartments and the evicted tenant must be given a choice of one of the new apartments. These two eviction conditions are held by Justice McLaughlin to have been the grounds on which more than half of the eviction orders of the past six months were granted.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Eagle reported, “With $125,000 riding on every pitch, the whiplash right arm of handsome Ralph Terry fired a pulsating 1-0 four-hitter for the deciding victory which gave the New York Yankees their 20th World Series Championship. Beaten four times in series play before he finally snapped his hoodoo by winning the fifth game, the 26-year-old Terry earned the plaudits of 43,948 fans in wind-swept Candlestick Park with a classic clutch performance. For those mighty Yankees gave him only one run to work with, and with $4,000 a man in series gold as well as the glory which goes with it hanging on every fastball and each curling curve, Terry tossed them to victory.” Ralph Terry died on March 16, 2022. He was 86.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, who was born in 1933; “Back to School” star Paxton Whitehead, who was born in 1937; singer-songwriter Gary Puckett, who was born in 1942; theatrical producer Cameron Mackintosh, who was born in 1946; Olympic gold medal-winning pole vaulter Bob Seagren, who was born in 1946; “This Is Spinal Tap” star Michael McKean, who was born in 1947; “Cheers” star George Wendt, who was born in 1948; Space Shuttle astronaut Mae Jemison, who was born in 1956; Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson, who was born in 1958; “Beavis and Butt-Head” creator Mike Judge, who was born in 1962; singer-songwriter Ziggy Marley, who was born in 1968; World Golf Hall of Famer Ernie Els, who was born in 1969; Fugees co-founder Wyclef Jean, who was born in 1969; rapper Eminem, who was born in 1972; and “Rogue One” star Felicity Jones, who was born in 1983.

Michael McKean
Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP

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BORN TO BE WILD: Robert Craig “Evel” Knievel was born in Montana on this day in 1938. Knievel gained worldwide fame as a stunt performer, conceiving of and executing a series of increasingly outlandish motorcycle jumps throughout the 1970s that often resulted in crashes and broken bones. He died in 2007.

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SQUARING OFF: “Hollywood Squares” premiered on this day in 1966. The popular game show featured nine celebrities sitting in a giant grid. Two contestants played tic-tac-toe by determining if an answer given by a celebrity was correct. Peter Marshall hosted the show for many years with panelists Paul Lynde, Rose Marie, Cliff Arquette, Wally Cox, John Davidson and George Gobel, among others. Davidson took over as host in 1986 for a new version of the show with Joan Rivers and, later, Shadoe Stevens at center square. In 1998, the show appeared again with Tom Bergeron as host and Whoopi Goldberg as the center square.

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

Quotable:

“I learned one thing from jumping motorcycles that was of great value on the golf course, the putting green especially: Whatever you do, don’t come up short.”

— stunt performer Evel Knievel, who was born on this day in 1938