August 23: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 23, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1887, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The Law Committee of the Board of Education, to which was referred the question of allowing the schools to remain closed on Labor day, which, being the first Monday of September, is the date on which the schools should be opened under the bylaws of the Board, has not yet reported. It is thought, however, that they will decide to issue instructions for observing the holiday.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1898, the Eagle reported, “The steamer Belgic, which arrived at San Francisco last evening, brought the news that at 11:52 A.M. on August 12 the Hawaiian flag was lowered at Honolulu and that at 12:05 P.M. the same day the ever glorious Stars and Stripes floated officially over the public buildings of the capital.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1931, the Eagle reported, “Supported from within Mayor [Jimmy] Walker’s own committee on taxation comes the newest and most formidable drive against transit unification. It is to be launched in the open as soon as the promised new plan of the Transit Commission is promulgated. Its object is two-fold: Complete abandonment of any purchase or acquisition through recapture by the city of transit properties and retention of the dual subway contracts; operation of the new lines now building by the B.M.T. as ‘additions’ under the terms of the present contract with that company. Two of the most forceful arguments for this program are: Retention of the present dual contracts is a certain assurance of maintaining the five-cent fare in view of the recent Court of Appeals decision, while any new plan must be open to the hazards of an untried financial setup and new legal tests of doubtful outcome; unification can offer the rider nothing additional in the way of service, free transfers or more cars than at present available. A third argument, carrying only a little less dynamite, is that the city’s treasury will not, in the present depression, prove able to supply even a minimum sum necessary to effect a merger and purchase of any kind.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Eagle reported, “‘Super Terminal’ is the classification under which Floyd Bennett Field is listed by the Federal Bureau of Air Commerce. When the local field received this rating a little more than a year ago, it was one of only 30 ‘super terminals’ throughout the country. Newark Airport, now the recognized Metropolitan air mail center, received a lower rating. The ‘super terminal’ classification indicates that an airport is prepared to handle the new super airliners which are planned by such famous plane builders as Douglas and Boeing, and which, it is expected, will be barred from airports which are not equipped to handle properly these flying monsters. The Brooklyn airport is particularly well adapted to receive giant airliners, because of its broad reaches, both on land and water, which make the gradual easy descent of huge air ships possible. The ‘super terminal’ stamp which the Federal authorities placed on Floyd Bennett Field is merely official recognition of what aviators themselves have conceded ever since the Brooklyn airport was brought to its present peak as a naturally endowed, superbly equipped flying field.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “MOSCOW (U.P.) — A mass replacement of Communist party leaders in the Ukraine was reported today by a member of the all-powerful Politburo, who charged that executive bodies there broke all the rules in the book when selecting the leaders. N.S. Khrushchev, Politburo member and first secretary of the Ukrainian Communist party, disclosed the sweeping reorganization of Communist leadership in the Ukraine. He said it was on a long-term basis and still continuing. The Communist party organ Pravda published the report by Khrushchev, which went into detail on the shortcomings of party leaders and fundamental mistakes made in their selection. Khrushchev told the Ukrainian Central Committee at Kiev that in the last 18 months about half of the leading personnel had been replaced. The percentage of turnover ran as high as 91 percent in the presidents of the executive committees of regional Soviets in the Sumy area.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “Grace Kelly, the Hollywood lovely, has taken a courtside box at the Forest Hills Stadium, which is another good reason to attend the National Tennis Championships which start next Saturday.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Brooklyn Heights Press reported, “A Brooklyn Heights girl will receive $5,000 toward her education under the terms of a will left by the late film star, Marilyn Monroe, who died Aug. 5. The girl is 16-year-old Patricia Rosten, daughter of poet Norman Rosten. Mr. Rosten and his wife, Hedda, were longtime friends of Miss Monroe and her second husband, playwright Arthur Miller. The will, dated Jan. 14, 1961, was filed for probate in New York last week. In it, Miss Monroe named eight beneficiaries and left a legacy totaling between $800,000 and $1,000,000.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include economist and Nobel Prize laureate Robert Solow, who was born in Brooklyn in 1924; “Psycho” star Vera Miles, who was born in 1929; “I Dream of Jeannie” star Barbara Eden, who was born in 1931; Pro Football Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen, who was born in 1934; “WKRP in Cincinnati” star Richard Sanders, who was born in 1940; International Tennis Hall of Famer Nancy Richey, who was born in 1942; “Plum Island” author Nelson DeMille, who was born in 1943; former Surgeon General Antonia Novello, who was born in 1944; “Cheers” star Shelley Long, who was born in 1949; “Jessie’s Girl” singer Rick Springfield, who was born in 1949; former N.Y. Mets first baseman Julio Franco, who was born in 1958; former “Saturday Night Live” star Jay Mohr, who was born in 1970; “X-Men” star Ray Park, who was born in 1974; swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Natalie Coughlin, who was born in 1982; former Brooklyn Nets guard Jeremy Lin, who was born in 1988; and former Brooklyn Nets guard Seth Curry, who was born in 1990.

Rick Springfield
John Salangsang/Invision/AP

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

Quotable:

“It’s always good to be recognized for hard work you’ve done in the years past. While you’re doing it, you don’t think of it so much. You’re just working.”

— actress Barbara Eden, who was born on this day in 1931