May 20: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

May 20, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1923, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “A cloudless sky and the first real warm sun of the spring made possible a picturesque as well as auspicious opening for the new Rockaway Beach boardwalk yesterday afternoon. The walk was opened under the auspices of the Department of Parks of New York City and the Rockaway Park Boardwalk Celebration Committee. Mayor John F. Hylan and Commissioner of Parks Albert C. Benninger officiated, and a throng of nearly 20,000 persons participated in the event. The boardwalk extends from the easterly boundary of Rockaway Beach Park, near 110th st., along Triton ave. to Beach 126th st. It is 4,500 feet long and 31 feet wide, constructed of reinforced concrete piles and girders and creosoted yellow pine floor beams on the under structure and fir flooring, galvanized steel rails and reinforced concrete lamp posts on the superstructure. It was built by the P.J. Donlan Company of Brooklyn and the final cost is estimated at $133,000. A motorcar parade, starting from Beach 109th st., was reviewed by Mayor Hylan and his staff at 2:30 p.m. The parade was led by Miss Lucy Fox, a Paramount Picture star. Following the motorcars came a foot parade in which 3,000 school children and all the civic organizations of the Rockaways took part.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1928, Eagle columnist Henry Suydam said, “WASHINGTON, MAY 19 — The United States Senate is not so bad as it is painted. It has become the fashion among certain groups to regard our Upper House as beneath contempt, but I have an idea that most persons who condemn the Senate either form their judgment on a partial view of the facts or speak from prejudice arising from personal interest. Whether you like it or not, the Senate is there to stay — an integral and powerful part of the Government, its form and prerogative fixed in the Constitution. It has undergone many changes in its history and will change again from time to time.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “Celebrations marking the birth of a new nation, Israel, and the battle for Haifa highlight the current bill at Embassy Newsreel theaters. Churchill’s call for a federation of nations at the first Congress of Europe is another foreign event. Domestic news includes Truman’s address to the Young Democrats, Citation’s victory in the Preakness and the strike of Chrysler auto workers.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Sunday Home Reporter said, “A bent spoon blackened on the bottom, an eyedropper, a bottle cap stuffed with cotton or a hypodermic needle could top off some alert Bay Ridge mother to the fact that her teenage child is a dope addict. This was told to the Sunday Home Reporter by Robert F. Walsh, chief of the Narcotics Bureau for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, in an interview this week. Mr. Walsh said that approximately one-eighth of the 8,000 drug addicts in Brooklyn live in the Bay Ridge-Sunset Park area. He also declared that ‘there are 5,000 new teenage drug addicts each year in New York City.’ The city’s total known addict population is almost 25,000. These figures indicate that about 200 teenagers join the ranks of drug addicts in the Bay Ridge-Sunset Park area each year. Mr. Walsh explained that the problem is more widespread in the poorer neighborhoods and ‘that you had a bigger narcotics problem at the turn of the century than you have today’ but that ‘the new problem is the increase in the number of teenage addicts.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (UPI) — Atty. Gen. Robert F. Kennedy is to hold another bipartisan meeting with key senators this week to discuss the issue of tougher civil rights legislation, which could endanger the Administration tax program. The conference will be an extension of a meeting with bipartisan leaders last week, at which the Justice chief urged that local leadership be given a chance to settle racial violence in Birmingham. Senate Democratic whip Hubert H. Humphrey, Minn., said key Democratic and Republican senators will meet with the President’s brother this week to review the problem. Sen. Jacob K. Javits, R-N.Y., has been pressing for President Kennedy to seek the ‘Part Three’ power which would let the attorney general sue to protect civil rights of individual Negroes.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “General Hospital” star Constance Towers, who was born in 1933; Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh, who was born in 1940; Oscar-winning actress Cher, who was born in 1946; “SCTV” star Dave Thomas, who was born in 1949; former New York Gov. David Paterson, who was born in 1954; “Relic” co-author Douglas Preston, who was born in 1956; Go-Go’s guitarist Jane Wiedlin, who was born in 1958; “Scandal” star Tony Goldwyn, who was born in 1960; former N.Y. Yankees pitcher David Wells, who was born in 1963; “Justified” star Timothy Olyphant, who was born in 1968; rapper and actor Busta Rhymes, who was born in 1972; “Fight Song” singer Rachel Platten, who was born in 1981; and “Game of Thrones” star Jack Gleeson, who was born in 1992.

Timothy Olyphant
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

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A WONDERFUL LIFE: Jimmy Stewart was born on this day in 1908. The Pennsylvania native is best known for his everyman roles in films such as “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “The Philadelphia Story” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” He died in 1997.

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LONG DISTANCE: Amelia Earhart crossed the Atlantic on this day in 1932. She left Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, Canada, at 7 p.m. and landed near Londonderry, Ireland. The 2,026-mile flight took 13 hours and 30 minutes. Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

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

Quotable:

“The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do.”

— philosopher John Stuart Mill, who was born on this day in 1806