August 22: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 22, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1911, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “’La Jaconde,’ the masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci, has disappeared from the Salon Carre of the Louvre, where it occupied the place of honor. The great museum has been searched from cellars to attics in vain … Just a year and a month ago, the Cri de Paris announced that ‘La Jaconde’ had been stolen from the gallery of the Louvre one night in June through the complicity of an official of the museum and that a copy had been substituted in the frame for the original, which, the paper asserted, had been taken to New York and sold to an American collector. This report was repeatedly denied later.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1916, the Eagle reported, “FREEPORT, L.I. — While bathing in Woodcleft Channel yesterday, Charles C. Funk, who is living in the Woodcleft section for the summer, was attacked by a shark. It measured about 7 feet and weighed close to 350 pounds. The brute jumped at Funk, who dived into the channel. Jay Bogart and Tom Murray, the former an actor and the latter a constable, saw the shark making toward Funk. Bogart and Murray grabbed the shark spear on the wharf, hurled the spear into the shark’s side and lifted it out of the water. Funk was uninjured.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1922, the Eagle reported, “The master minds of the police departments of the United States, Great Britain and Continental Europe at present are engaged in stacking the cards against the criminals of the world, and some time in the near future crooks will find that when they start matching wits against the constituted authorities they will be up against a stiffer game than the one to which they have been accustomed. The radio, whereby pictures of individuals, fingerprints, records and checks can be reproduced, will soon be fighting against them. The apparatus for transmitting photos, etc., was perfected by Professor Arthur Korn.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Eagle reported, “Air pilots, like everybody else, talk about the weather, but unlike most people, they also do something about it. A few minutes’ conversation on the subject with Newark Airport, for instance, on a foggy day: a weather report like ‘ceiling 300,’ and a pilot scoots for Floyd Bennett Field! Newark-bound planes, many carrying passengers and mail, have done that 57 times since Floyd Bennett Field began to operate — the few miles which separate the two fields make that much difference in flying weather. Not only the weather itself — particularly fog, for which fliers have a distaste — but what happens to an airport’s ground facilities in bad weather is of major importance to airmen. It is because Floyd Bennett Field not only has consistently good flying weather — ‘ceiling and visibility unlimited’ in the air phrase — but because it has also the facilities that minimize even the hazards of bad weather, that pilots have found it expedient to ‘sit down’ at Floyd Bennett Field when warned away from Newark.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “For the first time in history a Negro will be competing for a national grass courts tennis championship next Monday when the United States women’s singles play begins at the famous West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens. That was revealed by the United States Lawn Tennis Association when it was announced that 22-year-old Althea Gibson of New York was included among the 52 entrants accepted for title play. ‘Miss Gibson was accepted on her ability,’ Executive Secretary Edwin S. Baker of the U.S.L.T.A. said. ‘Her name came up for consideration by the selection committee in the normal process and the committee considered her record strong enough for her to compete for the national title.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “TEHRAN (U.P.) — Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi today returned in triumph to his capital to receive a hysterical and weeping welcome from his jubilant subjects. Overjoyed Iranians wept, shouted, flung themselves to the ground and slaughtered whole herds of sheep in a wild orgy of welcome. The 33-year-old ruler, wearing a trim military uniform and gold-braided cap, flew his own twin-engined plane from Baghdad, Iraq … One of the ruler’s first actions upon arriving was to ask officials about the condition of former Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, whose more than two years of iron-handed rule of Iran was ended by Royalist forces in Wednesday’s bloody fighting. Reza Pahlevi told new Premier Gen. Fazollah Zahedi he hoped the aged Mossadegh was being kept comfortable and his health was good.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Annie Proulx, who was born in 1935; Baseball Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski, who was born in 1939; Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Parcells, who was born in 1941; “The Sopranos” creator David Chase, who was born in 1945; Baseball Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, who was born in 1956; Living Colour founder Vernon Reid, who was born in 1958; Tears for Fears co-founder Roland Orzabal, who was born in 1961; “Crucify” singer Tori Amos, who was born in 1963; Wu-Tang Clan co-founder GZA, who was born in Brooklyn in 1966; “Modern Family” star Ty Burrell, who was born in 1967; National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry, who was born in 1968; chef and TV personality Giada De Laurentiis, who was born in 1970; former “Saturday Night Live” star Kristen Wiig, who was born in 1973; and “Don’t Start Now” singer Dua Lipa, who was born in 1995.