July 3: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

July 3, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1876, a Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorial said, “The completion of a hundred years of American Independence is a fact to startle the dullest imagination. The Republic is driving the fact into the very consciousness of the people in a variety of forms. Orators, music, processions, and every appliance to make a joyful noise are at work in all the land. A century hence, the celebrations of today and tomorrow will be as historical as the events that are commemorated now. If this great observance in progress all over the country shall rekindle love and confidence in our system of government, it will accomplish its best results, for on many sides love was lessening and confidence was abating.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Eagle reported, “LOS ANGELES (U.P.) — Distress signals signed with the call letters of Amelia Earhart’s monoplane flashed over the Pacific today in the midst of a feverish sea and sky hunt for the famed aviatrix missing in Equatorial waters surrounding tiny Howland Island. A radio message containing figures believed to be from Miss Earhart was picked up in Los Angeles at 3:30 p.m. P.S.T. (7:30 a.m. E.D.T.) today by two amateur operators who interpreted it as indicating the famed aviatrix’s plane was adrift on the Pacific near the Equator between Howland Island and the Gilbert Islands. The amateurs, Walter McMenamy and Carl Pierson, said the signals were so weak they could hardly hear them through dense static, and that once when they caught the letters ‘L-A-T’ for latitude, the signals were blotted out by interference … ‘KHAQQ’ is the call of Miss Earhart’s plane, last heard from in the air yesterday at 3:12 p.m., E.D.T., when she reported she and her navigator, the veteran Fred Noonan, could not sight land and were nearly out of gas.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “Brooklynites were urged today to make their Fourth of July a life-saving holiday so that ‘men now fighting to preserve the Declaration of Independence will be with us for the holidays to come.’ They can do this, Mrs. William W. Lasker Jr., volunteer director of the Brooklyn Red Cross Blood Donor Center, 57 Willoughby St., pointed out, by donating their blood. The bank will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. to collect Type O whole blood and blood for plasma to be shipped immediately to Pacific fighting fronts.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, “Edmund Gwenn and the charm, wit and sentiment that have made ‘Miracle on 34th St.’ one of the most talked-about movies of the year came to the RKO Albee Theater as the new holiday bill co-featuring ‘Strange Journey’ with Osa Massen and Paul Kelly. ‘Miracle on 34th St.’ is a sly and tickling satire on the Christmas spirit, on commercialism, on modern children, on bogus psychologists and on the worries of public officials.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Eagle reported, “Police Commissioner Thomas F. Murphy will resign Friday to be sworn in as a Federal Judge in Manhattan’s Southern District. The ceremony will take place the same morning at 10:30 at the Federal Courthouse in Foley Square.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “SAN FRANCISCO (U.P.) — Roy Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics said today: ‘The Athletics definitely will not move out of Philadelphia.’ Mack made the flat statement in a telephone conversation with San Francisco supervisor Francis McCarty, who called yesterday to sound out the Athletics boss on the possibility of bringing the team here. It has been reported that the A’s might move unless they draw 400,000 to the park during the remainder of the year. McCarty is spearheading a drive to float a $5,000,000 bond issue to build a bigger ballpark that would attract a major league club. ‘Mr. Mack was very blunt in saying the Athletics would not move out of Philadelphia,’ he said. ‘I know this contradicts earlier reports. It is possible that Commissioner Ford Frick has ordered him to tone down such talk. However, we are going ahead with our bonding plan. If the Athletics should move and we should get them, all well and good. However, if we don’t, we’ll look ahead to the future.’ The city-county supervisor said he would ask Mayor Elmer E. Robinson to set up a citizen’s committee to investigate future opportunities to bring big league baseball to San Francisco.”

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Montel Williams
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who was born in 1935; “The Mod Squad” star Michael Cole, who was born in 1940; Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Lance Larson, who was born in 1940; “That ’70s Show” star Kurtwood Smith, who was born in 1943; “Lookin’ for Love” singer Johnny Lee, who was born in 1946; humorist Dave Barry, who was born in 1947; “Eight is Enough” star Betty Buckley, who was born in 1947; Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Mike Burton, who was born in 1947; TV host Montel Williams, who was born in 1956; Ratt singer Stephen Pearcy, who was born in 1956; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode), who was born in 1960; “Top Gun: Maverick” star Tom Cruise, who was born in 1962; “The Simpsons” star Yeardley Smith, who was born in 1964; “Wonder Woman” star Connie Nielsen, who was born in 1965; Broadway star Audra McDonald, who was born in 1970; and World Cup-winning soccer player Crystal Dunn, who was born in 1992.

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THOUGHT FOR FOOD: Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was born in Michigan on this day in 1908. With the publication of her first book, “Serve It Forth” (1937), she essentially invented a new genre: essays about food. Her other works include “The Gastronomical Me” (1943) and “With Bold Knife and Fork” (1969). She died in 1992.

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HELP IS ON THE WAY: On July 3, 1976, an Israeli commando unit staged a raid on the Entebbe airport in Uganda and rescued 103 hostages on a hijacked Air France airliner. Three hostages, seven hijackers and 20 Ugandan soldiers were killed in the raid. The plane had been en route from Tel Aviv to Paris when it was taken over by the pro-Palestinian guerrillas.

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

Quotable:

“First we eat, then we do everything else.”

— food writer M.F.K. Fisher, who was born on this day in 1908