January 29: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1917, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Before a courtroom gathering, half composed of women, most of them young, Mrs. Margaret Sanger, the birth-control advocate, was called to face trial today and the possibility that she would be sent to the workhouse, as was her sister, Mrs. Ethel Byrne, who is now being forcibly fed on the Island. Incidentally, Mrs. Sanger was asked: ‘In case you should be sent to the workhouse, as was your sister, will you go on a hunger strike?’ ‘I don’t care to say now what I would do,’ she replied. ‘My action will depend upon the circumstances.’ Rarely has the little courtroom of Special Sessions held such a large feminine element among its ‘benchers’ as were present today to listen to the much-discussed case … There was the usual grist of larceny, assault and shoplifting cases to dispose of before the star case of the day was reached. It was after the noon hour when the clerk called Mrs. Sanger’s name and that of the nurse, Fannie Mindell, who is the first of the two to face trial … The charge Mrs. Sanger and the little nurse were called on to face was violation of Section 1142 of the Penal Code in disseminating information with reference to birth control.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, “The All-America Conference indicated today it is ready to call off the pro football war if the National Football League will do the same. Despite three court victories resulting from player raids by both leagues, the year-old A.A.C. now wants a ‘live and let live’ policy on the theory that there’s plenty of room for two major pro football groups. Reports that Big Bill Daley may jump from the All-America to the N.F.L. Pittsburgh Steelers put club owners of the new conference in a temporizing mood as they opened the second day of a scheduled three-day meeting in which the most urgent business is selection of a new commissioner to replace ‘sleepy’ Jim Crowley. ‘We expect to respect the contracts of others,’ said President Dan Topping of New York’s football Yankees. ‘But we also expect to defend our own contracts and our legal battles with the other league will start all over again if Daley signs with Pittsburgh.’”
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’.