January 14: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Immediate adoption of a 10-cent subway fare was urged today by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce as ‘a logical and intelligent step’ to balance the city’s budget for 1947-48. Calling for a realistic consideration of the problem, which he termed ‘a perennial political football,’ H.L. Wilkinson, chairman of the Chamber’s Committee on Municipal Affairs, declared in a letter to Mayor [William] O’Dwyer there is no need for a long wait for a public referendum before establishing a self-sustaining subway fare. The Board of Estimate, Mr. Wilkinson pointed out, could enact legislation for an increase within a matter of days and, unless the City Council within the following 30 days ordered a public referendum, the new fare would become operative at once. Commenting on a report last week that the Mayor would seek a higher fare ‘only as a last resort,’ the Chamber spokesman said a city income tax or an additional sales tax would be a far more burdensome alternative to the people.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “A twin-engine Northeast Airlines plane, with 36 aboard, undershot the LaGuardia Field runway in the fog early today and plunged into the East River. At least 28 persons were injured. All passengers and crew members were rescued. Eyewitnesses reported that about 9 a.m. the plane, arriving from Boston, ‘sputtered’ and dived into the murky water about 1,000 feet from the field. A crash boat and a commercial tug were the first to arrive at the scene. Martin Byrne, 44, of 7522 Ridge Boulevard, aboard the tug, said the passengers lined the wings and tail assembly of the sinking airliner waving for help. Police, Coast Guard and Navy rescue facilities were rushed to the area and victims were taken to Flushing, Queens General and Mary Immaculate Hospitals in Queens and others were sent to Fordham Hospital in the Bronx. Police Commissioner George P. Monaghan, who directed police rescue operations at the emergency station at the foot of 14th Ave., College Point, said he was sure all the passengers were removed from the plane. Joseph Amico, 27, of Mount Vernon, who operated the crash boat at the scene, took 25 persons from the sinking plane and transferred them to the nearby tug. ‘There was no screaming, no panic,’ he said, ‘although some of the passengers seemed to be suffering from shock.’”