May 31: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

May 31, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1843, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Two whales were killed off Southampton, by the inhabitants of that village, on Thursday last. One was a right whale, and the other was of that species called the humpback, the former making about thirty and the latter about five barrels of oil.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1903, the Eagle reported, “Of no other subject of national importance are the American people so willfully ignorant as of forestry. Let there arise in the Senate a proposed increase of a fifteenth of a cent tariff on shoe pegs and there is a clamor. The employment of a new clerk in a local department is noted by all the city press. The proposition to deepen a few rods of Cheesequakes Creek becomes a national issue. Bring any interest into politics, if you would have it known. And President [Theodore] Roosevelt was right in saying and doing as he has done concerning the woods and waters of the West. But while they are planting woods and digging ditches in the desert, at tremendous cost, they are undoing the greater good that nature has done for men in the East. Unrestricted lumbering and forest fires have uncovered vast areas of our soil, and we are losing springs, streams, and with them the industries that depend upon them. Because nature has been good to us in the past it seems to be supposed that we can draw upon her forever, taking all she offers without thought of repayment. But the day of reckoning approaches.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1908, the Eagle reported, “Immigration figures for the first five months of this year are practically the reverse of those of 1907 and previous years. The outward flow of the foreign labor element exceeds the incoming by at least two to one. The carefully kept steamship figures show that for every immigrant who has landed during the five months this year, three came in during the same period in 1907. On the present basis of the ‘outward’ flow of the foreign labor element, the enormous total of 75,000 will have left the United States by January 1 next, providing, of course, that the eastbound travel continues for the next seven months as it has for the last five months. The falling off in immigration, too, is most noticeable. With the past five months as a basis, the incoming figures will not be much greater than 370,000, about the number which has left during the past five months.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Eagle reported, “There appears to be a lurking suspicion in the minds of a few trainers — a very few, it is true — that Man o’ War will not go a long route. All the trainers agree that he is a horse of tremendous speed, the greatest in America today. But a few seem to think that when he goes over a distance of ground he will be beaten. All doubt on this score will be settled at the end of the meeting when Man o’ War races in the Belmont Stakes, distance one mile and three furlongs, the longest race of the spring and summer months for a 3-year-old. This will be his next start. It will be his test of merit.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1922, the Eagle reported, “Two fatalities, one from drowning, one from a motorcar accident, marked the busiest Memorial Day Coney Island has seen in the last 10 years. Several lesser motor accidents and a number of rescues kept the ambulances and lifeguards busy. There were 300,000 persons in the crowd that visited the Island yesterday. More than 25,000, the greatest number of the year, thus far, went in bathing. Ten men were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Fifteen lost children wailed for their parents in the Coney Island police station and were later claimed and taken home. By 1 o’clock this morning there was not a crust of bread or the small end of a frankfurter left on the Island. It was a hungry crowd and a spending crowd. Businessmen had no complaint.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “Democratic and Republican county leaders throughout the city today had before them a plea by ten prominent New York citizens, including Philip A. Benson, president of the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, to aid in obtaining a popular referendum at the November election on whether to establish a Transit Authority with power to fix a self-sustaining subway fare … They pointed out that Chicago is scheduled to have a similar referendum on June 4 on a transit authority bill, and that the people of this city ‘should be permitted to decide for themselves if they want safer, better and more modern service with a self-sustaining fare, or to continue the existing deteriorating service, which risks the public safety and causes a yearly loss of $50,000,000.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood, who was born in 1930; “Cagney & Lacey” star Sharon Gless, who was born in 1943; Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Namath, who was born in 1943; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jimmy Cliff, who was born in 1944; “Major League” star Tom Berenger, who was born in 1949; “Trapper John, M.D.” star Gregory Harrison, who was born in 1950; “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Susie Essman, who was born in 1955; Olympic gold medal-winning hockey player Jim Craig, who was born in 1957; “Back to the Future” star Lea Thompson, who was born in 1961; rapper Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, who was born in 1964; “Suddenly Susan” star Brooke Shields, who was born in 1965; “The Good Wife” star Archie Panjabi, who was born in 1972; “The Batman” star Colin Farrell, who was born in 1976; former N.Y. Knicks point guard Nate Robinson, who was born in 1984; and Fifth Harmony singer Normani, who was born in 1996.

Clint Eastwood
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

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ON THE BOOKS: President George Washington signed the first U.S. copyright law on this day in 1790. It gave protection for 14 years to books written by U.S. citizens. In 1891 the law was extended to cover books by foreign authors as well.

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VOICE OF AMERICA: Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, Long Island, on this day in 1819. The journalist and poet edited the Brooklyn Eagle from 1846 to 1848 and wrote the groundbreaking poetry volume “Leaves of Grass” in 1855. His poems celebrated all of modern life, including subjects that were considered taboo at the time. He died in 1892.

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

Quotable:

“Simplicity is the glory of expression.”

— poet Walt Whitman, who was born on this day in 1819