Brooklyn Boro

March 12: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

March 12, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History
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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Weather permitting, the Superbas and New York Americans start tomorrow afternoon on their long spring series. In both camps the opinion is strong that the two teams will get a line on each other for the World Series next fall. The spirit is just as strong among Uncle Wilbert Robinson’s Brooklyn athletes as with the Miller Huggins clan of New Yorkers, even though the Brooklyn club has no Babe Ruth as a vehicle to carry it to the wished-for goal. As the teams stand at this day and date, the Brooklyn pitchers are in much better shape than those of the Yankees. Uncle Robbie has put them through their paces under all kinds of weather conditions, while Huggins nursed his along like hothouse plants. As a result, the Brooklyn boxmen are already putting a lot of fancy stuff on the ball, whereas the New Yorkers are still using nothing but fast ones. This should help the Superbas in the opening game and give them first blood. The Brooklyn outfield will be weak compared with New York’s … However, Babe Ruth has not yet regained his fence busting habit, and unless the home run king gets busy, there are hopes of a Brooklyn victory.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1922, the Eagle reported, “HILO, ISLAND OF HAWAII, T.H., MARCH 4 — An area of 43,000 acres of volcanic formation comprising land that was practically unknown until last year even to the inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands would be added to the Hawaii National Park on this island under the Senate bill pending in Congress, which gives the Secretary of the Interior authority to accept the tract which was set aside for park purposes by territorial authorities a year ago. As constituted now, the Hawaii National Park has three sections, the dormant volcano of Haleakala, on the island of Maui, the summit of the volcano Mauna Loa, with its great active crater of Mokuaweoweo and the whole of the crater of Kilauea, said to be the largest continuously active volcano in the world, with much of the surrounding country.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, the Eagle reported, “EL PASO, TEXAS (AP) — An attempt to smuggle arms and ammunition across the international border was frustrated late last night after a gun battle in which two members of the American border patrol were wounded. August Steinburn and Francis Scott, members of the border patrol, were shot from ambush near Cordova Island as they started to investigate the presence of two loiterers on the American side of the boundary. Approaching to within 40 yards of the two, the officers shouted, and the answer was a fusillade of bullets from another direction, where a group lay concealed in a thicket. Both men fell wounded. Reinforcements arrived under command of H.C. Horsley, head of the border patrol. A miniature battle followed in which many shots were fired. Thereafter half a hundred men were seen to run to safety on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, Horsley reported today.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “HONG KONG (U.P.) — The Communists admitted today at least 200,000,000 persons in China do not have enough food. It was one of the rare instances in which the Reds have divulged any concrete figure about the food shortage among China’s half-billion population. The admission was buried deep in a New China News Agency dispatch from Peiping which said floods and other natural calamities ruined much of the nation’s food crop last year.”

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Jessica Hardy
Michael Sohn/AP
Darryl Strawberry
Seth Wenig/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Get Smart” star Barbara Feldon, who was born in 1933; race car driver Johnny Rutherford, who was born in 1938; Oscar-winning actress Liza Minnelli, who was born in 1946; voice actor and singer Frank Welker, who was born in 1946; U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, who was born in 1947; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer James Taylor, who was born in 1948; Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris, who was born in 1956; baseball player Dale Murphy, who was born in 1956; “Lovecraft Country” star Courtney B. Vance, who was born in 1960; “Brooklyn South” star Titus Welliver, who was born in 1962; former N.Y. Mets and Yankees outfielder Darryl Strawberry, who was born in 1962; U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who was born in 1968; and swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Jessica Hardy, who was born in 1987.

Steve Harris
Amy Harris/Invision/AP

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GIRL POWER: The Girl Scouts of the United States of America was founded on this day in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low. The organization’s motto is “Be prepared,” which in the 1947 handbook was specified as, “A Girl Scout is ready to help out wherever she is needed. Willingness to serve is not enough; you must know how to do the job well, even in an emergency.”

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RADIO DAYS: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt held the first of his Sunday evening “fireside chats” on this day in 1933. Speaking by radio from the White House, he reported on the economic problems of the nation and on his actions to deal with them. FDR gave 30 of these addresses during his 12 years in office. The last was on June 12, 1944, a week after the D-Day invasion.

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

 

Quotable:

“I’ve always thought ‘space station’ is a great name. It should be like a gas station where we go for service and supplies before heading further out.”

— astronaut Wally Schirra, who was born on this day in 1923

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