November 8: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

November 8, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1882, a Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorial said, “Grover Cleveland’s majority in this state is phenomenal. Although he was nominated as a party candidate, the people have made him the people’s governor. Greater responsibilities never rested upon a chief magistrate than fall to the lot of Governor Cleveland. He cannot, as a man of honor, meet them by discharging his responsibility to the party that nominated him. We believe now, what we said before the election, that the conduct of the state’s affairs on business principles commends itself to the intelligent judgment and to the conservative temper of Grover Cleveland.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1898, the Eagle reported, “OYSTER BAY, L.I. — A large number of people was at the depot when the 10:27 train pulled in this morning, expecting to see Colonel [Theodore] Roosevelt. He did not come and it was said that he would arrive on the 12:20, but a telegram was received stating that the colonel would get here on the 3:20 train. A photographer from one of the New York papers stands ready to photograph the colonel at the booth … In the Fifth District, where the colonel votes, 186 votes had been polled up to noon. The registration was 440, but about 100 of that number are either dead or have moved away. It is thought a full vote will be polled. In the Seventh District, 142 votes out of a registration of 326 had been cast up to 12 o’clock. This is a Republican district. Roosevelt will get about 75 majority in the district. The indications are that he will get about 50 in the Fifth District. The election here is conducted very quickly and the streets have a holiday appearance.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Eagle reported, “In the heaviest ‘off year’ balloting experienced in New York State in a decade, New York City and upstate voters flocked to the polls today to make the final decision in the neck-and-neck race between Gov. Herbert H. Lehman and District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican standard bearer. As control of the state government for the next four years hung in the balance and the nation as a whole awaited an indication of New York’s trend toward the national election of 1940, more than 2,000,000 of the state’s 5,557,845 qualified voters clicked the keys on voting machines before the midway mark was reached in the state’s twelve hours of balloting.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Eagle reported, “SAN FRANCISCO (U.P.I.) — Richard M. Nixon bowed in defeat to Democratic Gov. Edmund G. Brown Wednesday and all but ruled himself out of future political campaigns. Nixon told a news conference, after conceding the gubernatorial election to Brown, that he is leaving on a ‘long holiday.’ ‘I leave you now, Gentlemen,” he told reporters. ‘You don’t have Nixon to kick around any more. This is my last press conference.’ Nixon added that the Republican Party, which twice made him Dwight D. Eisenhower’s running mate and nominated him for the presidency in 1960, would find new leadership and be ‘revitalized in 1964.’ ‘And I look for it to be revitalized in California under new leadership, not mine,’ he added. Nixon complained about the press coverage of his ill-fated campaign against Brown, whose margin of victory was more than a quarter of a million. Although he started his remarks by praising the press, Nixon then criticized the reporting of his campaign. ‘I defended my opponent’s patriotism but you didn’t report that,’ he said. ‘For once, Gentlemen, I wish you would write what I said. Never in my years of campaigning have I complained to a publisher or editor about my coverage. I believe a reporter has a right to write as he feels. You have had the opportunity to attack me and I think I’ve given as well as I’ve got.’”

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Alfre Woodard
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Basketball Hall of Famer Satch Sanders, who was born in 1938; U.S. Racing Hall of Famer Angel Cordero Jr., who was born in 1942; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Roy Wood (ELO), who was born in 1946; Space Shuttle astronaut Rhea Seddon, who was born in 1947; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt, who was born in 1949; former “Entertainment Tonight” host Mary Hart, who was born in 1950; The Manhattans lead singer Gerald Alston, who was born in 1951; “Crooklyn” star Alfre Woodard, who was born in 1952; celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who was born in 1966; “Melrose Place” star Courtney Thorne-Smith, who was born in 1967; “Party Girl” star Parker Posey, who was born in 1968; “Sharknado” star Tara Reid, who was born in 1975; “90210” star Jessica Lowndes, who was born in 1988; and singer-songwriter SZA, who was born in 1989.

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THE SPIRIT OF 76: Edmond Halley was born on this day in 1656. The British astronomer and mathematician observed the great comet of 1682 (now named for him), first conceived its periodicity and wrote in his Synopsis of Comet Astronomy: “I may venture to foretell that this Comet will return again in the year 1758.” It did, and Halley’s memory is kept alive by the once-every-generation appearance of the comet. There have been 28 recorded appearances since 240 B.C. The average time between appearances is 76 years. Halley’s comet is next expected to be visible in 2061.

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YA GOTTA HAVE HEART: Christiaan Barnard was born on this day in 1922. The South African native performed the first human heart transplant on Dec. 3, 1967, after years of practicing the procedure, mainly on dogs. The patient, Louis Washkansky, lived for 18 days before dying from an infection. Today heart transplants are performed regularly and with good success. Barnard died in 2001.

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

Quotable:

“Suffering isn’t ennobling, recovery is.”

— heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who was born on this day in 1922