September 23: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 23, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1878, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The weather yesterday was typical of Mid-autumn. The earth was bright with the fullness and richness of the harvest season. A sky of sapphire canopied land and sea. A few clouds, mere tiny specks of vapor, sailed lightly across it from time to time. From the clear blue firmament the sun shed a golding glow, bathing all below it with radiance. A stiff breeze stirred the leaves, seeming to warn them that they must soon change their hues of dark green for the coating of flaming scarlet, deepening crimson and the quiet tinge of russet brown. There was a slight chill in the wind that swept Coney Island sands and carried the fragrance of the sea almost to the city. In town it was cool morning and evening and at noontide the air was not oppressive. The day was in all respects a pleasant one. Between eight and ten thousand people took advantage of it to visit the great popular resort.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1908, the Eagle reported, “The show committee of the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers met yesterday, there being present Chairman George Pope, Marcus I. Brock, M.L. Downs, secretary, and E.P. Chalfant, assistant general manager of the A.L.A.M. Arthur N. Jervis, the well known writer on automobile subjects, was again appointed press agent of the show. The headquarters of the committee during the show will be the Hotel Breslin. The committee took up the matter of electrical effects for both illumination and decorative purposes, with the idea of introducing novel features, which will result in an advance over past attempts. Allotment of space to exhibitors in the commercial vehicle section was made. This department will be a much more important element than in the past, as to both quantity and quality. Owing to the unprecedented demand for space by exhibitors of electric automobiles, it was necessary to postpone allotment of space in this division, in order to arrange for the necessary room if possible.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “Less than 24 hours after 148 high school teachers had reaffirmed their decision to cease voluntary coaching of athletic teams, impulsive students in traditional hotbeds of sports in Brooklyn rallied to their support. ‘No football — no school!’ was the chant that began to echo yesterday, and in some sections of the borough undergraduate leaders who congregated on street corners talked of appealing to Mayor La Guardia to intervene in behalf of the adamant coaches. Sentiment among the athletes affected was clearly on the side of the teachers and against the Board of Education. Meanwhile, several principals indicated that there would be no attempt to continue with sports if the coaches quit, as they had voted overwhelmingly to do Friday at a meeting at Brooklyn Technical High School. The issue at stake is a wage scale ranging from $100 to $600 yearly for coaching all sports, both major and minor in scope. ‘We are not entitled morally or legally to send a team out without trained adults in charge,’ said Max Newfield, head at James Madison High. ‘I wouldn’t take a chance and it would be a rank disservice to the parents of the competitors.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1960, the Bay Ridge Home Reporter said, “The picture of gray, leaden skies over 13th Ave. was lightened somewhat last Tuesday afternoon by the street arches erected for the recent St. Bernadette bazaar. Some of the suggestion they induced of that colorful and cheerful occasion filtered through the group of men waiting at the entrance of the Banner Democratic Club, among whom was St. Bernadette’s Pastor, the Very Rev. Monsignor Francis Barilla. Their patience was soon rewarded when a slender, bright-eyed woman in a simply-tailored blue suit, white scarf and white velour crushed cloche moved briskly toward them, and, with the ease of an experienced campaigner, moved among her hosts and hostesses, acknowledging instructions and smiling at the assembled guests, until she reached the dais at the opposite side of the clubroom hall. The guest of honor was Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, mother of Democratic Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. Her stops at the 12th A.D. Democratic Club, and later, at the 9th A.D. Democratic Club, were two in a series of city-wide appearances at clubhouse teas in behalf of her son … In speaking to her audience, Mrs. Kennedy stressed the early start her children had in being made aware of national and international history … “I had three sons and one son-in-law in the Second World War,’ Mrs. Kennedy went on, ‘and lost a son and a son-in-law. Jack learned early the heartbreak that such losses mean in a family. He learned, too, through his own searing experiences in the Second World War, the terrible effects of these upheavals.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “All of You” singer Julio Iglesias, who was born in 1943; “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” star Mary Kay Place, who was born in 1947; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Neal Smith (Alice Cooper), who was born in 1947; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bruce Springsteen, who was born in 1949; “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” star Rosalind Chao, who was born in 1957; former NFL coach Marvin Lewis, who was born in 1958; “Seinfeld” star Jason Alexander, who was born in 1959; “Boston Public” star Chi McBride, who was born in 1961; former N.Y. Mets pitcher Pete Harnisch, who was born in 1966; singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, who was born in 1970; “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” star Anthony Mackie, who was born in 1978; and former N.Y. Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain, who was born in 1985.