November 18: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

November 18, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1918, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “New and official boundaries for time zones in the United States, unifying existing lines and removing them slightly westward, were announced today by the Interstate Commerce Commission, to become effective at 2 a.m., January 1 next. This order is pursuant to the daylight saving act, which, in addition to authorizing advance of the clock during the summer, provided for permanent United States standard time and required the commission to define the limits of the standard time zones which previously had been fixed only by custom of cross-continent railroads or by local law.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Attorney General Tom Clark conferred with his aides about legal action against John L. Lewis’ United Mine Workers (A.F.L.) today, while mines answered government stay-at-work pleas with a wave of wildcat walkouts. More than 35,000 soft coal miners were idle as premature walkouts spread through four states … With President Truman backing a showdown administration fight with Lewis, the Justice Department was reported to have papers already drafted to bring a civil suit against the union. Criminal action under the Smith-Connally anti-strike law also was reported being considered. In a civil suit the government would seek to prove that Lewis had no right to serve notice — as he did last Friday — terminating the U.M.W. contract with the government at midnight Wednesday. The miners stop work when their contract expires. Secretary of Interior J.A. Krug, who negotiated the agreement with Lewis after the government seized the mines last May, sought to prevent a walkout by sending notices to mines telling the workers that their contract with the government had not expired and that they should remain at work.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “London crowds celebrating the birth of Princess Elizabeth’s baby are featured in the new program at Embassy Newsreel theaters. Other foreign news concerns Tojo’s death sentence and easing of the French mine crisis. Domestic reels deal with the dock strike, President Truman’s conferences with Vice President-elect [Alben] Barkley in Key West and lighting tests at the Empire State Building.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “Jackie Robinson has done it again. The Dodger second baseman received the Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 when he was a first sacker on the Brooklyn champions, and now the baseball writers have honored him again as the Most Valuable Player in the National League. Moreover, he got half of the 24 first-place votes cast. Jackie will be presented with the Kenesaw Mountain Landis plaque at the baseball writers’ dinner in February. Robinson polled 12 firsts, five seconds, three thirds and fourths and one fifth for a total of 264. Stan Musial and Enos Slaughter, both of the Cardinals, were second and third, respectively. Ralph Kiner, Pirate home run king, was fourth yet didn’t receive one first-place ballot. ‘Gee, I hardly know what to say,’ said Robinson when he heard the news. ‘I really didn’t expect it the way I fell off the last week of the season. I wouldn’t have been disappointed if one of our other fellows had gotten it. The way I figured it I thought it might be [Carl] Furillo. Carl carried us the last month. The way Musial came on, it could have been him, too. But I’m tickled to death that I was chosen.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Eagle reported, “Reapportionment of Brooklyn’s Congressional districts yesterday became a growing headache for the Republican-controlled Legislature as opposition mounted to a GOP proposal to link Staten Island and the Rockaways to borough areas. The addition of the two outside communities, it was reported, would give Brooklyn far more than it needs in population to make up the eight new Congressional districts which would become among the most heavily populated in the state. Brooklyn will lose one of its present nine Congressional seats, all occupied by Democrats, because it has not kept pace sufficiently with the population increase in other counties, such as Queens and Long Island.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “The Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood, who was born in 1939; “Once Is Not Enough” star Brenda Vaccaro, who was born in Brooklyn in 1939; “Dynasty” star Linda Evans, who was born in 1942; “Falcon Crest” star Susan Sullivan, who was born in 1942; “Crooklyn” star Delroy Lindo, who was born in 1952; former “Saturday Night Live” star Kevin Nealon, who was born in 1953; “Big” star Elizabeth Perkins, who was born in 1960; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Kirk Hammett (Metallica), who was born in 1962; news anchor and author Rita Cosby, who was born in 1964; former N.Y. Yankees and Mets outfielder Gary Sheffield, who was born in 1968; “Wedding Crashers” star Owen Wilson, who was born in 1968; former N.J. Nets point guard Sam Cassell, who was born in 1969; news anchor Megyn Kelly, who was born in 1970; “Boys Don’t Cry” star Chloe Sevigny, who was born in 1974; Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz, who was born in 1975; and former “Saturday Night Live” star Nasim Pedrad, who was born in 1981.

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POLLS APART: Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting on this day in 1872. Seeking to test for women the citizenship and voting rights extended to black males under the 14th and 15th amendments, Anthony led a group of women who registered and then voted at a Rochester, N.Y., polling place. In the ensuing federal criminal trial, held in June 1873, she was found guilty and sentenced to pay a $100 fine She refused to do so and never did.

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STAT’S LIFE: George Gallup was born on this day in 1901. The Iowa native and journalism professor pioneered a statistical method to measure public opinion. He received national recognition for correctly predicting that Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt would defeat Republican challenger Alf Landon in 1936, but also gained notoriety for incorrectly predicting that Republican Gov. Thomas Dewey would defeat incumbent Democratic President Harry Truman in 1948. He died in 1984.

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

Quotable:

“I could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone — the chances that all the functions of an individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity.”

— statistician George Gallup, who was born on this day in 1901