September 9: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 9, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1932, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Some 165 laughing and joking workmen at 8 a.m. today boarded the 92-foot steamer Observation, docked in the East River, at the foot of 134th St., happy in these times of depression that they were bound for their jobs helping to build the new $9,000,000 penitentiary on Rikers Island. Five minutes after the Observation had put out, there was a terrific blast aboard. For a few fatal minutes a white cloud of smoke hung ominously over the muddy waters of the East River. When it cleared, only a few pieces of wreckage remained of the craft. Frantic, cursing men struggled helplessly in the water among the dead and dismembered bodies of comrades. And New York Harbor chalked up its greatest disaster since the General Slocum tragedy. Today’s explosion occurred almost at the same place where the General Slocum burned with Brooklyn Sunday School picnickers in June 1904. The known dead this afternoon totaled 37. About 80 more were in hospitals, many of them not expected to live, and about 48 others were missing.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “By official proclamation of Borough President [John] Cashmore, this is ‘Brooklyn Children’s Day’ — the opening of the new school year. But whether 400,000 Brooklyn boys and girls who thus ended their summer vacation fully appreciated the honor was at least debatable. Superintendent of Schools Harold G. Campbell, at his new headquarters, 110 Livingston St., issued a call to the city’s 37,000 teachers to lose no opportunity to foster loyalty and devoted to American ideals among their 1,128,000 charges. ‘In times like the present,’ said Dr. Campbell, ‘I am sure that every teacher will do all that is possible to foster loyalty to our country and devotion to those ideals of tolerance and fair play which are synonymous with Americanism.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS (U.P.) — Maybe it was just a psychological counterattack on the heat. A Nacogdoches merchant in the midst of one of the worst Texas heat waves in history advertised children’s snow suits for sale.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, “BUFFALO (U.P.) — The Taft-Hartley Labor Law, particularly that section requiring unions to file affidavits that their leaders are not Communists, will come under fire today at the meeting of the C.I.O. international executive board of the United Auto Workers. The decision of the 22-man board may affect C.I.O. policy toward the non-Communist requirement of the Taft-Hartley Law. The board represents U.A.W. regional groups throughout the country. C.I.O. President Philip Murray has announced the C.I.O. would not comply with the non-Communist requirements of the new labor law before Oct. 13, when the organization meets at San Francisco for its national convention. Discussion today may touch off a battle between right and left wing forces on the U.A.W. executive board.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “BERLIN (U.P.) — Russian authorities rejected all protests against the Soviet reign of terror in Berlin today and pressed ahead with apparent plans to drive the Anglo-American airlift out of the skies. ‘Do not interfere in matters which do not concern you,’ the Russians told Col. Frank Howley, American commander in Berlin, when he protested against their City Hall coup early this week. In the coup, Russian troops and Communist-dominated police seized the Berlin City Hall, drove the City Assembly into the Western sectors, beat up American correspondents, broke into American military offices and arrested some 40 West Sector German police, under American and French protection. Russian fighter planes roared over the American sector of Berlin at noon after warning the four-power air safety center that their planes would saturate the busy Allied corridor during seven more days of Soviet air maneuvers.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “From east to west borders of Brooklyn today outraged citizens raised the indignant cry for more cops to walk the streets on the prowl for criminals. On Brooklyn Heights, a group of residents, horrified by a Sunday-morning attack on a woman returning home, called for ‘action’ to save ‘our lives which are at stake.’ The ‘murderous rats who prowl the streets,’ they wrote to the Brooklyn Eagle, blackened the woman’s eyes, injured her nose and then —frightened off by her outcries which aroused an entire neighborhood — slunk away without robbing her. And it was 45 minutes before police, in a fast-moving patrol car, reached the scene, too late. And at the far-east end of the borough, the Cypress Hills Board of Trade charged that that part of town — including East New York and Highland Park as well as Cypress Hills — was ‘inadequately’ policed, was again and again bypassed when additional police were named. Following a Board of Trade meeting last night, at which a petition was adopted asking for better police protection of the area, a spokesman said: ‘There just aren’t enough police to cover the district, and what few there are travel in radio cars. If you want a cop, it takes 45 minutes sometimes — and, of course, by that time it’s too late.’”

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Michelle Williams
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Adam Sandler
Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Mashed Potato Time” singer Dee Dee Sharp, who was born in 1945; former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann, who was born in 1949; “The Dukes of Hazzard” star Tom Wopat, who was born in 1951; “Lost in Space” star Angela Cartwright, who was born in 1952; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), who was born in 1952; “Four Weddings and a Funeral” star Hugh Grant, who was born in 1960; “Uncut Gems” star Adam Sandler, who was born in Brooklyn in 1966; model and actress Rachel Hunter, who was born in 1969; “Modern Family” star Eric Stonestreet, who was born in 1971; “E.T.” star Henry Thomas, who was born in 1971; “ER” star Goran Visnjic, who was born in 1972; five-time Grammy winner Michael Buble, who was born in 1975; “Dawson’s Creek” star Michelle Williams, who was born in 1980; and “Supergirl” star Julie Gonzalo, who was born in 1981.