August 11: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 11, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1907, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Tenting by the sea in a canvas city is enchanting, and has many features of the simple life. Practically all the cares that vex the housewife are lacking, and there is no dressing several times a day for various occasions. This is the life that is being lived at the Seashore Camp, below Seaside, on the ocean front, at Rockaway Beach, and the number of tents is entirely too small for the demand made upon the management for accommodations. There are 365 tents in the city of canvas — just one for every day in the year — and all have been occupied since the camp opened, early in June. No tent has been vacant since the camp opened, for as fast as one tenant leaves, another is on the ground to enter. The season will come to a close about the middle of September. That the tent dwellers are thoroughly enjoying themselves is manifested by the smile seen on every face as one passes through the long streets, bordered on each side by the snowy white tents. The camp in past seasons has been a success, but this year is a record breaker; for, had there been twice as many tents in the camp, none would have been vacant.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1923, the Eagle reported, “EBERBACH, BADEN (A.P.) — Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, the American draft evader, shot down and killed one man and wounded another last night when men concealed in his hotel apartment seized him in a kidnaping attempt.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Eagle reported, “With the purpose of the Mount Rushmore monument in the Black Hills, a work formally initiated yesterday by President [Calvin] Coolidge in a fitting and dignified address, there can be only harmony. The monument will commemorate Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Washington never crossed the Mississippi either physically or definitely; Jefferson never beheld it, but he extended our territory over a great area beyond it; Lincoln helped make the country one from end to end, but lived his life east of the great river. Roosevelt alone of the four closely knew and loved the country beyond it. Yet it is an appropriate thing that the West should have within its expanse a place dedicated to the fame of these four. They belong to the whole country, not to the East alone.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, the Eagle reported, “In no section of the city has a greater transformation taken place in the past few years than in Queens. Thousands of families have moved from the congested neighborhoods of Manhattan and the Bronx into the attractive home colonies of Queens, where there is plenty of playground space, beautiful shade trees, adequate transit accommodations, healthful surroundings and an environment that makes for better home conditions. Mile after mile of solid brick apartment houses of the finest construction and equipment, one and two-family dwellings, business blocks and amusement places can be seen where a little over a decade ago were farms or long stretches of vacant land yielding nothing. Transportation is an important factor in determining the location of a home. Improved methods of travel mean, to those who work a little longer than the average, greatly lessened time going to business and returning home, whether by subway, trolley or bus line. The bulk of Queens’ residential expansion has taken place in the sections best supplied with transit accommodations. Jackson Heights, Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill, Forest Hills and Flushing have developed under the influence of quick communication between home and business employment.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Two young chemists on the research staff of Parke, Davis & Co., Detroit, have developed a new drug — promin — which may lead to a cure from tuberculosis and leprosy, an article in Collier’s Magazine said today. The article, written by J.D. Ratcliff, said promin was a member of the sulfone family and was developed by Drs. Louis Bambas and Louis Swett primarily as a weapon to fight streptococci. Ratcliff said, however, Dr. William Feldman of the Mayo Clinic and others experimented with promin in treating tuberculosis patients. Out of a group of 423 T.B. patients tested, one-third were ‘unquestionably improved, many of them making quick recoveries enabling them to get back to work,’ the article said. Then Dr. G.H. Faget, staff physician at the National Leprosarium, Carville, La., decided to experiment. He injected the new drug into the veins of 22 patients with leprosy. ‘As time went by, the coppery skin patches — the badge of leprosy — began to take on the tone of normal skin. Open sores healed and leprous lesions of the eye, which threatened blindness, closed up,’ the writer said.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “PHILADELPHIA (U.P.) — Directors of the impoverished Philadelphia Athletics today studied a local syndicate’s last-ditch plan to keep the club from moving to Kansas City, Mo., or some other city. Details of the plan, described by a syndicate spokesman as a ‘basis for saving the club,’ were not disclosed but were being weighed carefully by the A’s five-man board, headed by Connie, Earle and Roy Mack.”

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Viola Davis
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith, who was born in 1944; “Star Wars” star Ian McDiarmid, who was born in 1944; journalist and author Marilyn vos Savant, who was born in 1946; “All by Myself” singer Eric Carmen, who was born in 1949; Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak, who was born in 1950; World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan, who was born in 1953; Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis, who was born in 1965; comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan, who was born in 1967; “Hotel Rwanda” star Sophie Okonedo, who was born in 1968; “Boy Meets World” star Will Friedle, who was born in 1976; “Thor” star Chris Hemsworth, who was born in 1983; former N.Y. Yankees outfielder Melky Cabrera, who was born in 1984; and political commentator and TV host Tomi Lahren, who was born in 1992.