June 11: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

June 11, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1907, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The public schools will close on Friday, June 28. Many of the teachers have already made their arrangements to leave the city just as soon as they can get away. If they obtain their salaries for June and July on the last day of school, and are assured of the fact beforehand, many of them will leave the city the following day or perhaps that night. They cannot get their salaries, however, unless Auditor Cook receives the payrolls before June 20 or, at the latest, the 23rd, as provided for in the by-laws of the Board of Education. In order, therefore, to facilitate payment of salaries on the last school day, Mr. Cook made a suggestion to the finance committee last evening that the principals be requested to send in their payrolls next Friday, June 14. The committee and President Winthrop approved of the suggestion and Commissioner John Greene, chairman of the committee, will tomorrow offer a resolution to the Board of Education suspending the by-laws in order to provide for the change in date. There is no doubt that the board will adopt the resolution.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1916, the Eagle reported, “CHICAGO — Theodore Roosevelt has declined with only a slight reservation the nomination for President which the Progressive party, after four days of struggle with George W. Perkins, today succeeded in forcing on him. Roosevelt’s telegram stating that he would wait for final action until he had read Candidate [Charles Evans] Hughes’ statement on the issues of the day was read to the Progressive Convention shortly before 5 o’clock this afternoon. Instantly the convention was adjourned. The delegates had nominated Roosevelt by acclamation for President, and John M. Parker of Louisiana, also by acclamation, for Vice President. The declination came as a staggering surprise to the delegates. It stunned them. They sat in their seats for several minutes while the full realization of what they had heard sank into their brains. As they saw Perkins, Raymond Robins, Bill Flynn and others hurry off the platform to take to their autos, the men who a few minutes before had been cheering their heads off for Roosevelt at last got it that he was no longer with them. He had gone back to the hated G.O.P. They were left holding the bag. Democrats there were who had burned their bridges and one-time Republicans who had followed Roosevelt into the Progressive camp as they thought for all time. Now they saw their leader deserting them. They saw their newly-born party going up in smoke and Roosevelt marching on with Hughes, probably to fresh victories.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1916, the Eagle reported, “President [Woodrow] Wilson has issued a proclamation for the first time in the history of this country that the coming Wednesday shall be celebrated throughout the land as Flag Day, the anniversary of the birth of our national flag. Furthermore, in the parade that will be held in Washington at that date, the President announced, according to the dispatches, that he will march on foot. Ordinarily, these novel facts, contrary to any precedent in the history of presidential etiquette, would arouse a gasp of astonishment throughout the country. But this year, when the hitherto-assumed bonds of patriotism, even citizenship, have become objects of searching question as never before in the history of the country, these energetic efforts to impress on our national mind the urgent importance of the American flag and its symbolism passes without astonishment. We seem to expect that these attempts to make us understand what the American flag really stands for are necessary. How different from the days when our military heroes fought and died for the flag. That is the opinion of the pessimist who believes that the present war has disjointed American patriotism into loose and dangling hyphens. The opinion of the optimist was expressed by Louis Annin Ames, president of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, in a conversation last week with The Sunday Eagle representative on the issues raised in the consideration of the importance of the coming Flag Day this year. ‘It is not necessary to die for the flag today to show our love for it, but we must not forget that we should live for the flag,’ he said. ‘To show respect for the flag, even formal respect, is enough to inculcate an inner feeling of devotion to the country which it symbolizes. I personally think that our foreign-born citizen is gaining a growing respect for the American flag every year.’”

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Peter Dinklage
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, who was born in 1930; “Maude” star Adrienne Barbeau, who was born in 1945; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Frank Beard (ZZ Top), who was born in 1949; Air Supply co-founder Graham Russell, who was born in 1950; 38 Special co-founder Donnie Van Zant, who was born in 1952; Pro Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana, who was born in 1956; “House” star Hugh Laurie, who was born in 1959; surgeon and TV personality Mehmet Oz, who was born in 1960; “Game of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage, who was born in 1969; “Fringe” star Joshua Jackson, who was born in 1978; “Transformers” star Shia LeBeouf, who was born in 1986; former N.Y. Liberty point guard Brittany Boyd, who was born in 1993; and “Pan’s Labyrinth” star Ivana Baquero, who was born in 1994.

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HEAD OF THE PACK: Vince Lombardi was born on this day in 1913. The Brooklyn native played football for Fordham’s famed “Seven Blocks of Granite” line in the mid-1930s, became a teacher and began to coach high school football. He became offensive line coach at West Point in 1949 and moved to the N.Y. Giants in 1954. Five years later, he was named head coach of the Green Bay Packers. His Packers won five NFL titles and two Super Bowls in nine years, and Lombardi was generally known as the greatest coach and finest motivator in pro football history. He died in 1970 and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971.

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VOICE OF AMERICA: “American Idol” premiered on this day in 2002. Fox’s phenomenally successful talent show was based on a British program. Singers competed for a major-label record deal while being judged by a panel of highly critical music experts, including Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. The audience voted for favorites online or by phone. Fox canceled the show in 2016 but ABC revived it in 2018.

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

Quotable:

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”

— football coach Vince Lombardi, who was born in Brooklyn on this day in 1913