August 6: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 6, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

Share this:

ON THIS DAY IN 1867, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The preparations for the organization of the East River Bridge Company and the commencement of the work are going on in the most satisfactory manner, and in a short time the company expects to be able to lay before the public a full and explicit detail of the plan of the bridge and its location and cost, and then there is no doubt but that the stock will be largely taken up … On Friday last, three workmen, under the direction of Mr. Spangler, commenced to bore near the Fulton Ferry for the purpose of finding the nature of the substratum. By noon on Saturday they reached 22 feet, in which they passed 17 feet of cinders and then reached something like hard pan and then cemented boulders were struck.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1890, the Eagle reported, “AUBURN, N.Y. – The trial of a new means of taking human life, while prompted by humane motives, has resulted in a sickening spectacle presented by a pinioned wretch at whose vital center was kept pounding for some moments an alternating current of electricity which, though it ultimately destroyed his life, subjected the criminal to a torture of which none can describe. Imperfect registry of the currents’ pressure or faulty contact of the electrodes prevented instantaneous death. The layman may gain some conception of the process of this killing when the statement is made that a person whose body should be shaken into fragments could not have suffered such pain as did [William] Kemmler, whose nerve cells and tissues were disintegrated not in a flash, as designed, but by the relatively slow strokes of the electric hammers on them.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1904, the Eagle reported, “The regular Democracy of the Seventeenth Assembly District of Kings County, which stands for Senator Patrick H. McCarren for leader ‘against the field,’ formally opened its new club house last night at 351 Tompkins avenue, ratified the national ticket and made the preliminary arrangements for a very active campaign. The meeting was well attended, despite the rain and heat, and enthusiasm ran high.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1934, the Eagle reported, “Four years ago tonight, Joseph Force Crater, Justice of the Supreme Court in Manhattan, hailed a taxicab after dining in a mid-Manhattan restaurant and disappeared to create one of the most baffling mysteries in metropolitan history. Thousands of dollars have been spent by the city, press and private investigations without yielding a single clue to the jurist’s fate or whereabouts. Mrs. Stella Wheeler Crater, his wife, is understood to have nearly given up the hope she has held for four years that her husband would communicate with her. The jurist left property valued at $73,000 behind him, but three more years must pass before he can be declared legally dead and the estate pass to Mrs. Crater.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “GUAM (U.P.) — American fighter-bombers hit Tokyo and five surrounding prefectures today only a few hours after almost 600 Superfortresses set fire to five major targets along a 550-mile stretch of Japan in a pre-dawn assault. Radio Tokyo said 130 Iwo-based Mustangs swarmed over the greater Tokyo area in two waves for an hour shortly before 9 a.m., bombing and strafing military and transport objects. Urban areas of several cities also were said to have been attacked … Meanwhile, high-ranking officers of the 3rd Fleet said the great armada now was so powerful it could steam directly into Tokyo Bay if ordered. Vice Admiral John S. McCain, commander of the fleet’s carriers, told newsmen his airmen were determined to hunt down and destroy every plane in Japan before the invasion.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “LAS VEGAS, N.M. (U.P.) — Some two dozen survivors of Col. Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough-Riders’ charge up San Juan Hill in ’98 assembled today in their 50th annual convention. They represented less than a third of the 78 known living veterans of Roosevelt’s Cuban campaign in the Spanish-American War. Mr. and Mrs. Billy Gibson of Brooklyn were among the first to check in. There won’t be much whooping-it-up as in the old days. The Spanish-American War is a long way back. Few formalities exist when ‘Teddy’s boys’ gather. Most of their time is spent on hotel porches, adding twists and tangents to the tales they all know by heart but laugh harder at each year.”

***

M. Night Shyamalan
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include science fiction author Piers Anthony, who was born in 1934; “The Bob Newhart Show” star Peter Bonerz, who was born in 1938; “Days of Our Lives” star Louise Sorel, who was born in 1940; “The Jesse Owens Story” star Dorian Harewood, who was born in 1950; “7th Heaven” star Catherine Hicks, who was born in 1951; 1978 National League Rookie of the Year Bob Horner, who was born in 1957; “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star Michelle Yeoh, who was born in 1962; Basketball Hall of Famer David Robinson, who was born in 1965; ESPN host Mike Greenberg, who was born in 1967; “Unbreakable” director M. Night Shyamalan, who was born in 1970; Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, who was born in 1972; “Up in the Air” star Vera Farmiga, who was born in 1973; ESPN host Max Kellerman, who was born in 1973; “Punky Brewster” star Soleil Moon Frye, who was born in 1976; and former NFL quarterback Seneca Wallace, who was born in 1980.