September 11: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1910, a Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorial said, “In the popular mind, modern naval warfare is correctly typified by and embodied in the great battleships. One of these mighty engines combines more power, offensive and defensive, than did whole fleets of a few years back, and the cost has gone up as high as $12,000,000 and is still rising. It is natural that the thought of the whole world should turn to the effect of the aeroplane upon the battleship. Is it possible that one of these great costly battleships could be destroyed by one or more cheap little aeroplanes? Is the day near at hand when the aeroplane can go into combat with the battleship and have a reasonable chance to win?”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Eagle reported, “Two antiquated houses in downtown Brooklyn gave themselves up to science last night for the benefit of a group of future firefighters as their last act before going the way of condemned tenements. With 200 probationary firemen looking on from a vacant lot across the street, the four-story, eight-family brick houses at 79 and 81 Tillary St. were fired to give the rookies a closeup of the methods used by the Fire Department in besting blazes and effecting rescues. After perpetrating their deed, the firemen did such a first-class job of extinguishing the blaze that the damage was insignificant. But the wreckers will get them. Fire Commissioner John J. McElligott supervised the show and, to add to the realism, a number of policemen under Deputy Inspector McNeill maintained ‘fire lines’ and directed traffic in the vicinity. Motion pictures were taken for use in instructing the young men attending the Fire Department School.”