January 26: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “A proposal that the government establish a Central Bureau of Information, to be operated under the Department of Justice and not by the State, War or Navy Departments, was made by Victor L. Anfuso, prominent Brooklyn civic leader and founder of the Italian Board of Guardians, at a dinner in his honor last night in the Ambassador Hotel, Park Ave. and 51st St., Manhattan. The event was sponsored by the Regular Veterans Association of the United States. Mr. Anfuso suggested that the Central Bureau of Information operate like the FBI, except that the CBI would be concerned only with foreign intelligence. He warned that to set up such a bureau under the Secretaries of State, War and Navy might become dangerous and involved for our government. It may involve the State Department in the intrigues of undercover agents which would lower the dignity and ethical standards of the department. To leave it under the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Navy is all right during a war, but certainly not in peace time. He said that to prevent another war, we must know what is really behind international agreements and protocols. Mr. Anfuso, who served with the Office of Strategic Services during the war, received at the dinner a merit medal for distinguished service.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “Three Brooklyn gas companies were feeding all their surplus fuel into mains of the Brooklyn Borough Gas Company in the southern section of the borough today in an effort to avert further curtailment of service by the stricken utility, which by last night had shut off gas-heating lines to 1,275 homes. Despite the supplemental supplies from Consolidated Edison, Brooklyn Union Gas Company and Kings County Lighting Company, a spokesman for the Brooklyn Borough Company said more homes in the Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Kings Highway and Marine Park areas may be deprived of gas for heating today. Gas company crews started out yesterday about 8 a.m. and began shutting off heating systems without any warning. Most of those affected were veterans and their families in two housing projects — the Marine Park development, housing 840 families, and the Manhattan Beach project, where about 300 were deprived of heat. Cooking supplies were not affected, and in most of the frigid homes kitchen ovens were turned on to furnish some warmth … Early today the company had announced another 1,100 homes would be cut off from heating gas supplies, starting at 8 a.m., but an hour before the deadline another announcement said the plan had been held up until later, because significant pressure had been built up during the night to maintain the curtailed service this morning. It was possible, the spokesman said, that no more lines will be shut off, but ‘that depends on how much gas is conserved by other consumers.’”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.