January 28: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

January 28, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1906, Brooklyn Daily Eagle columnist Frederick Boyd Stevenson wrote, “A movement now on foot, beginning with the preservation of an ancient road, may lead to a more extended action with the aim of perpetuating the historic landmarks in and about Brooklyn. The primordial object of the present movement is to have the old Kings Highway, connecting Eastern Parkway with Ocean Parkway, placed on the city map so that it will become a part of the official topography of the Borough of Brooklyn, and thus protect the road from ultimate obliteration and safeguard it against the hands of unsentimental vandals with rectangular and straight-line manias. Naturally following along the line of this idea will come the proposition to mark with tablets the points of historic interest in and in the vicinity of Brooklyn. As this plan expands and meets with public approval, as it is believed it will, other historic points of importance throughout Long Island will, in all likelihood, be perpetuated and properly marked for the information of future generations. The neglect of Kings Highway, one of the most historic and picturesque roadways in the country, has led to efforts on the part of Brooklyn citizens to preserve it in its original turns and graceful curves.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1906, the Eagle reported, “Football reform is on. At the meeting of the American Intercollegiate Football Rules Committee, held at the Murray Hill Hotel in Manhattan yesterday, radical changes in the present rules were adopted tentatively, with the tacit understanding that the committee would formally approve them at a meeting two weeks hence. There may be one or two changes in detail, but the reforms agreed on yesterday will, in the main, be incorporated into the regulations of the game next fall. So radical was the legislation that there is no doubt that it will be acceptable even to Harvard. It may be announced on the highest authority that as soon as the new rules have been formally passed, the authorities will lift the ban on football at Cambridge and that the Crimson will play the sport next season as in the past. Summarized, the changes in the rules place the heaviest kind of penalties on foul play and unnecessary roughness and go far toward opening up the game. Disqualification is the penalty for foul play and the colleges will be asked to declare ineligible for a year a player guilty of two offenses in this respect in a season. It is also provided that the offending team shall lose half the distance to its own goal line. The severity of this ruling may be appreciated when it is stated that, should a team succeed in rushing the ball down to its opponents’ 5-yard line and then commit a foul play, it would be sent back to the middle of the field.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — Senator [William] Calder of New York today appeared before the Post Office Committee of the Senate to urge an appropriation to construct a tunnel for carrying mail between the Pennsylvania and Grand Central stations in Manhattan. The project was also advocated by First Assistant Postmaster General [John] Koons. It is estimated that the project will cost $2,000,000. The subway that is contemplated will handle nothing but mail. It will provide facilities for a double track electric car service, in a tube eight feet in height by fifteen in width. The amount of mail now carried through the streets between the two railway terminals is enormous and is frequently subject to traffic delays. The object of the tunnel is to remove this mail entirely from the streets, thus helping to relieve traffic congestion and at the same time expedite the mail service.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1924, the Eagle reported, “MOSCOW — The body of Nikolai Lenin lies in an unfinished tomb in the shadow of the Kremlin, whither it was carried yesterday while half a million persons paid their tribute to the man they honored as the ‘commander of a new humanity.’ The casket rests on an elevated platform in the mausoleum’s sunken central chamber, over the door to which is the world ‘Lenin’ in relief letters. The double wooden walls are filled with sawdust, so that the temperature may be maintained at three degrees below zero. Over these walls and from the ceiling hang draperies of red and black bearing the imprint of the sickle and the hammer, the symbols of the State. The new Russia has never seen a ceremony more impressive than the entombment of Lenin. Beginning early in the morning, before the civil mass in the House of Unions, the thousands of the leader’s followers gathered near Red Square, awaiting the coming of the funeral procession. It was 30 degrees below zero and more, but the bitter cold was ignored, and for hours after the casket had been lowered the crowd marched by the mausoleum. There was no oratory at the service in the House of Unions, only music by an orchestra and the frequent changing of the guard of honor about the bier. When the music had ceased, the coffin was closed. [Joseph] Stalin and [Grigory] Zinoviev, representing the State, assisted by representatives of the workmen, lifted it to their shoulders and began the cold march to the mausoleum.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “M*A*S*H” star Alan Alda, who was born in 1936; San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, who was born in 1949; “Hee Haw” star Barbi Benton, who was born in 1950; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Billy Bass Nelson (Parliament-Funkadelic), who was born in 1951; pastor and author Rick Warren, who was born in 1954; “Major Tom” singer Peter Schilling, who was born in 1956; “The Shawshank Redemption” director Frank Darabont, who was born in 1959; “Raised on Promises” singer Sam Phillips, who was born in 1962; “I Will Remember You” singer Sarah McLachlan, who was born in 1968; rapper and record producer Rakim, who was born in 1968; humorist and actor Mo Rocca, who was born in 1969; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was born in 1972; former major league outfielder Jermaine Dye, who was born in 1974; former NFL quarterback Daunte Culpepper, who was born in 1977; NSYNC member Joey Fatone, who was born in Brooklyn in 1977; “Lord of the Rings” star Elijah Wood, who was born in 1981; and “Modern Family” star Ariel Winter, who was born in 1998.

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SEAL OF APPROVAL: The Great Seal of the United States was authorized on this day in 1782. Congress resolved that the secretary of Congress should “keep the public seal, and cause the same to be affixed to every act, ordinance or paper, which Congress shall direct.”

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AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY: The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on this day in 1986, 74 seconds into its flight and about 10 miles above the earth. Seven astronauts were killed, including teacher Christa McAuliffe, who was to have been the first ordinary citizen in space. Intermediate School 187 in Dyker Heights was renamed the Christa McAuliffe School in her honor.

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

Quotable:

“Space is going to be commonplace.”

— teacher and astronaut Christa McAuliffe, who died on this day in 1986