March 5: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

March 5, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1912, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Rejoice and be glad, all ye fans. Doff your lids and bow obeisance to Charles H. Ebbets, boss of the Brooklyn Baseball Club and eminent magnate of the national game. He has placed Brooklyn on the baseball map and has caused March 4, 1912 to be scribbled in the diary of national events as a day commemorative of a ceremony that has started on its journey the construction of the most beautiful and the most easily accessible baseball park that has ever been dedicated to the national game in America. Ebbets Field, as the new home of the Superbas will be called, is to be transformed from a barren, desolate stretch of wilderness, that lies in what might be termed the heart of the greater city, and is styled by such uninviting labels as ‘Pigtown,’ ‘Goatville,’ ‘Tin-can Alley’ and ‘Crow Hill.’ The task that Ebbets has undertaken to fulfill is of gigantic proportions. Little, one would think, on gazing at the property as it now appears, that a stadium of the grandeur and elegance that Ebbets Field will be, could be erected on such a site. It is difficult to imagine Zack Wheat or Jake Daubert clouting out a circuit of the bases on that undulating, rock-covered, weed-infested territory, with 30,000 throats yelling themselves hoarse in an endeavor to rattle ‘Matty’ or Leifield or Brown. And yet, yesterday, the initial steps toward the building of Ebbets Field were taken.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “MOSCOW (U.P.) — Stricken Premier Josef Stalin took another turn for the worse today and the Communist Party newspaper Pravda, in a rallying call to the Russian people, told them to unite behind their ‘experienced leadership.’ Stalin entered his fourth day of deep coma and his nine attending physicians used oxygen, drugs and blood-drawing leeches in a desperate effort to keep him alive … Thousands of anxious Moscowites gathered early at newsstands, despite the cold and snow which fell throughout the night. They had learned of Stalin’s illness only yesterday, 48 hours after he was stricken. Pravda and Izvestia, also a government newspaper, published the second bulletin on Stalin’s health on their front pages. ‘Medical measures taken during the fourth of March consisted of introducing oxygen, introduction of camphor compounds, caffeine and glucose,’ the bulletin said. ‘For a second time, leeches were used to draw blood.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “DALLAS (UPI) — The Stratoscope II balloon’s journey to the edge of space proved that Mars would be able to support only an ‘extraordinary form of life,’ a Dallas newspaper said yesterday. The Dallas Times Herald quoted Dr. Harold Weaver of the University of California as saying the red planet is a giant desert. Weaver, an associate of the project that sent two tandem-hooked balloons 77,000 feet high for man’s first clear look at Mars, said the planet’s atmosphere contains only a fraction of one percent of water vapor. Weaver said, however, that preliminary study of the data gathered did not rule out the possibility of Mars supporting some type of life. He said the flight turned out to be a ‘success’ only minutes before its sponsors were getting ready to write it off as a failure. Weaver said the balloons stood between the equipment and Mars. Turning equipment failed to respond to radio orders. Then, the package swung around, and the 36-inch telescope zeroed in on the red planet. The two studies revealed some carbon dioxide and water vapor in Mars’ atmosphere, he said. However, these findings must be checked against possible error, since the balloon was above only 96 percent of the earth’s atmosphere. ‘I think an angel was sitting on that thing,’ Weaver said. ‘It was remarkable.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include actor and comedian Paul Sand, who was born in 1932; football player and actor Fred Williamson, who was born in 1938; former Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Kent Tekulve, who was born in 1947; “Night Court” star Marsha Warfield, who was born in 1954; magician Penn Jillette, who was born in 1955; journalist and author Ray Suarez, who was born in Brooklyn in 1957; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers), who was born in 1970; “2 Fast 2 Furious” star Eva Mendes, who was born in 1974; former N.Y. Knicks point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, who was born in 1996; and singer-songwriter Madison Beer, who was born in 1999.

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TURNING POINT: The Boston Massacre took place on this day in 1770. A skirmish between British troops and a crowd in Boston, Mass., became widely publicized and contributed to the unpopularity of the British regime in the colonies before the American Revolution. Five men were killed and six more were injured by British troops commanded by Capt. Thomas Preston. The troops were defended by young lawyer John Adams, who later became a leader of the revolution and the second president of the U.S.

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CONTINENTAL DIVIDE: Winston Churchill, speaking at Westminster College, Fulton, Mo., on March 5, 1946, established the cold war boundary with these words: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Though Churchill was not the first to use the phrase “iron curtain,” his speech gave it a new currency and its usage persisted.

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

Quotable:

“Oh, I offended you with my opinion? You should hear the ones I keep to myself.”

— country singer Patsy Cline, who died on this day in 1963