August 8: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 8, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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DAY ON THIS DAY IN 1871, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The pacification of Ireland by royal visit does not seem to have amounted to much. As the Prince of Wales and his party left Dublin yesterday the streets were crowded, ‘but not a cheer was raised.’ This expression of popular opinion was more impressive than a noisy demonstration, with possible riot and bloodshed, could have been.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1884, the Eagle reported, “Dr. O’Donnell, the leper crank, arrived in Washington last night. He announced that he would exhibit his lepers from the Capitol steps and would also deliver a lecture at the same spot.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, the Eagle reported, “Property of extremely uncertain present and future value in Las Vegas, Nevada, is being offered to buyers in all sections of the country at exorbitant prices as sound real estate investments by certain promoters, according to a bulletin recently made public by the National Better Business Bureau, Inc., 383 Madison ave., Manhattan. This boom condition, the bulletin points out, comes as a result of the passage of the Boulder Dam Act. Las Vegas is situated 30 miles from the site of the proposed dam and is the town nearest the dam site. It will undoubtedly enjoy a certain amount of prosperity during the estimated seven years that the dam is in the process of construction. That this prosperity will be permanent is, according to the bulletin, decidedly problematical.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Eagle reported, “HOLLYWOOD (U.P.) — With much of the trappings and ballyhoo of a personal appearance tour, a group of movie stars, including Ralph Morgan, Ann Sheridan and Olivia de Havilland, fly East in a chartered airplane tonight to place before William Green and his executive council a protest from the highest-paid members of the American Actors’ Guild. They are members of the Hollywood Screen Actors’ Guild, who earn $1,000 or more a week but are famed for their readiness to leap into any battle involving the lower-paid members of their profession. They will protest what they described as an effort ‘to kidnap a section of organized actors.’ The effort is being made by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, which heretofore has been a union for stagehands and electrical workers but which has granted a charter to the American Federation of Actors. The federation was suspended by its parent body, the American Association of Actors and Artistes, and its membership consigned to the American Guild of Variety Artists. But President Sophie Tucker and others of the suspended federation seek to bring it into the Stage Employes’ Alliance. Morgan is president of the Scree Actors’ Guild and is leading a delegation of its famous members to Atlantic City to place their protest personally before Green and the council. They will stop at New York City and join forces with Broadway delegates, then appear before the council meeting on Thursday.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “Japan will be defeated by air power and the atomic bomb ‘exclusively’ without an invasion, according to Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker. The World War I ace declared today that bombings should demoralize the enemy in the near future and ‘make them cry quits.’ ‘This is strictly an air power show in the Pacific’ he said. ‘Japanese communications are already disrupted and the entire country’s food transportation disorganized. Destruction of Japan’s electrification system is already in an advanced stage.’ … Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, University of California scientist who worked on the bomb, today refuted early reports that Dr. George B. Kistiakowsky ‘threw his arms about me with shouts of glee’ when the test in the New Mexico desert was successful. ‘Dr. Kistiakowsky didn’t embrace me,’ Dr. Oppenheimer declared. ‘He slapped me on the back and asked me for the $10 he bet me.’ Dr. Oppenheimer was doubtful as to the outcome of the test as the zero hour grew near and the wager was made.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “HONG KONG, AUG. 7 (U.P.) — An American priest who arrived here today after release from Red China said the Chinese masses would welcome a Nationalist invasion of the mainland. The priest, the Rev. Linus Lombard of Ipswich, Mass., and two other American priests, the Rev. Ernest Hotz of Brooklyn, and the Rev. Lawrence Mullin of Jersey City, were released under terms of an agreement reached between the United States and Red China at Geneva. Asked how he thought the Chinese people would react if Chiang Kai-shek’s armies attacked from their island fortress of Formosa [Taiwan], Father Lombardo said: ‘Everybody would go right with them. They are just living in hope that something happens. There is systematic starvation of those who do not belong to the party.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include TV producer Donald P. Bellisario, who was born in 1935; former N.Y. Mets manager Frank Howard, who was born in 1936; Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman, who was born in 1937; actress and singer Connie Stevens, who was born in Brooklyn in 1938; “CHiPs” star Larry Wilcox, who was born in 1947; “Madam Secretary” star Keith Carradine, who was born in 1949; drummer and producer Willie Hall, who was born in 1950; “Midnight Run” director Martin Brest, who was born in 1951; drummer Anton Fig, who was born in 1952; radio personality Robin Quivers, who was born in 1952; “Happy Days” star Don Most, who was born in Brooklyn in 1953; “Inside Edition” anchor Deborah Norville, who was born in 1958; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer the Edge (U2), who was born in 1961; rapper and actor Kool Moe Dee, who was born in 1962; tennis champion Roger Federer, who was born in 1981; N.Y. Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who was born in 1989; and “Senorita” singer Shawn Mendes, who was born in 1998.