October 29: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

October 29, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1909, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The fight for the Fourth avenue subway has been won. By a unanimous vote the Board of Estimate at the meeting this morning authorized the appropriation of $2,850,000 to begin the construction work immediately. Then the board went farther, at the instigation of Controller [Herman] Metz, who has been instrumental in holding up the project for a year, and passed a resolution requesting the Public Service Commission to apply to the Board of Estimate for $13,036,381, which is the balance of the estimated cost of the entire six sections of the subway from the Manhattan Bridge to Forty-third street. ‘As long as we started the work, we should see that it won’t be held up by any future board,’ said Mr. Metz. ‘This board here should authorize the balance of the money covering the entire cost of construction so the work won’t be stopped after it has once been started.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “There will be more foot patrolmen on duty after Wednesday in parks and outlying residential areas, Police Commissioner Thomas F. Murphy announced last night. The extra men will come from an experiment in the use of one-man radio cars, instead of two, in 22 precincts in the city, including four in Brooklyn. Demands for such action had been voiced by thousands of Brooklynites earlier this year when, while William P. O’Brien was police commissioner, the Brooklyn Eagle campaigned to ‘Put the Cops Back on the Beat.’ For several months, stories pointed up the rising tide of crime on the streets and the fears of residents to go outdoors at night. A few small increases in the number of foot patrolmen followed, but only in widely scattered precincts.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Eagle reported, “MIAMI (UPI) — Cuban Premier Fidel Castro fired off a demand that the United States get out of its Guantanamo Naval Base as one of five conditions he posed for settling the [missile] crisis. He also said ‘violations’ of Cuban air and naval space must stop. [President] Kennedy’s guarantees to the Soviet premier on Cuba ‘will have no meaning,’ Castro said, unless the United States bows to Cuba’s specific demands as well. In Moscow, diplomatic sources said Castro may have been caught off guard when the Russians agreed to withdraw their missile bases.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1970, the Brooklyn Heights Press reported, “Michael A. Armstrong, Liberal Party candidate for assemblyman in the 52nd A.D., today issued a position report on the narcotics problem, which he said was the ‘single most serious problem facing all the residents of our district.’ ‘It is time our legislators stopped pussyfooting around this problem, stopped their political rhetoric, stopped their cop-out reliance on experimental programs and started taking a stand for sound, positive, effective plans to solve this hideous problem,’ he said. Armstrong, who has been endorsed by the West Brooklyn Independent Democrats, proposes a four-point plan which he says is essential ‘if we are to stop the crime surrounding narcotics and begin to effectively cure the addict.’ He proposes: (a) the legalization of marijuana; (b) a program to begin controlled free distribution of drugs, including greatly expanded use of methadone; (c) a massive state financed commitment to multiple treatment programs; and (d) well-planned educational programs to teach all school children about the danger in using all types of drugs. ‘If anyone doubts the magnitude of the problem, I just remind them that during the recent prison riots in New York City, sixty percent of all the residents of the city jails were there because of narcotic-related offenses,’ he pointed out. ‘Also, to bring the problem to a more personal level, talk to your neighbor who has just been mugged, burgled or had a purse snatched. Then there is the tragic case of the son or daughter, niece or nephew or friend who has been hooked.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Denny Laine (The Moody Blues), who was born in 1944; singer and actress Melba Moore, who was born in 1945; “Stakeout” star Richard Dreyfuss, who was born in Brooklyn in 1947; “Charlie’s Angels” star Kate Jackson, who was born in 1948; New York Islanders legend Denis Potvin, who was born in 1953; “The Simpsons” star Dan Castellaneta, who was born in 1957; Jackson 5 member Randy Jackson, who was born in 1961; “Heathers” star Winona Ryder, who was born in 1971; “Black-ish” star Tracee Ellis Ross, who was born in 1972; “Bring It On” star Gabrielle Union, who was born in 1972; “Roswell” star Brendan Fehr, who was born in 1977; and former N.Y. Giants cornerback Janoris Jenkins, who was born in 1988.

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BALLPARK FIGURE: Charles Ebbets was born in New York City on this day in 1859. Ebbets bought into the Brooklyn baseball club in 1890 and became controlling owner in 1898. He sold 50 percent of the team to build Ebbets Field, the park whose enduring reputation has been the model for the new, old-fashioned parks constructed in recent years. He died in 1925.

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AGE OF WONDERS: John Glenn returned to space on this day in 1998. Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, flying solo aboard Friendship 7 in February 1962. After his retirement from NASA, he served four terms as a Democratic senator from Ohio. Near the end of his fourth term, he joined the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery as a payload specialist, becoming, at age 77, the oldest person in space. He died in 2016 at age 95.

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

Quotable:

“No one can tell time except approximately. Time never stands still to be named.”

— author Fredric Brown, who was born on this day in 1906