September 25: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 25, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1904, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The business of electing a President has no analogy in the commercial world. It is even more than a business — almost a science, certainly entitled to rank as a profession. It is a thing of magnitude. No enterprise which employs men by the thousand and expends anywhere from $500,000 to $1,000,000 can fairly be called small, even in this land of surpassingly big things. The business of electing a President has grown with time. It is twice as big a thing now as it was twenty years ago, and yet in 1884, when Grover Cleveland first went into office, over the heads of the startled and astonished Republicans, it was two or three times as big as it was in the final days of the Civil War.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1906, the Eagle reported, “At the close of the Federal business day tomorrow afternoon, the law regulating naturalization, under which more persons have become citizens of the United States than under any other law in the same time in any country, will cease to exist in force and beginning with business on Thursday morning, Uncle Sam’s new statutes will become operative all over the land. The new regulations are intended to restrict citizen making to include as nearly as possible only those who are fitted to assume the responsibilities and to uniformly, throughout the country, prevent fraudulent, illegal and undesirable naturalization of those foreigners who have failed to measure up to the standards which the last Congress, after months of investigation, found advisable. That the new law is commonly considered more stringent and containing provisions which will make naturalization for some now possible, then impossible, is generally attested by the tremendous rush for papers that has prevailed during the last two months. Never in the history of the Federal courts in this district have such mobs gathered in the halls of the Federal Building on Washington street and never have the state and county courts been so hard pressed by would-be citizens of this country.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Eagle reported, “Although he bears no medals upon his chest, Ray Nunnally, luckiest of the 350,000 chauffeurs of New York, knows all the secrets of how world celebrities like to ride. King Albert of Belgium and the late President Wilson were among his favorite passengers, he told the American Magazine, giving a story of his experiences for the September issue. ‘As a matter of fact,’ he said, ‘most of the celebrities are good passengers. Some of those I have had are William Howard Taft, when he was President; President Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson and both of the Mrs. Wilsons, King Albert, Marshal Joffre, Marconi, Carnegies, Senator William A. Clark and Mary Garden … The first time the Prince of Wales visited New York, he worked everyone to death. He had to keep going all day, often making two or three speeches. At midnight he would find he was expected to drop in at one or two parties that had been arranged for him. So he often got to bed at 4 o’clock in the morning; but at 9 he would step into my car, fresh as ever, and ready for another day of it. The Prince of Wales liked my driving, too. The last time I saw him he shook hands and said: ‘You’re a very clever driver, and I wish you would accept this.’ He gave me an enamel and gold tie pin with his coat-of-arms on it.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, the Eagle reported, “William Paxton, supervisor of the Brooklyn office of the Department of Health, noticed a large field of marijuana, a weed used in doped cigarettes, at the corner of Snedecker and Stanley Aves. today. He notified Capt. Joseph Mooney of the narcotic squad, who came out and discovered about two and a half tons of the stuff, of which one ton was already cut, drying out, almost ready to be harvested. An investigation was begun to locate the growers of the marijuana, since neighbors claimed they knew nothing about it, except that two men came and worked in the field, which was 600 by 700 feet, each Sunday. The value of the crop was estimated at several thousand dollars.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “The Giants returned to the Polo Grounds yesterday morning and lost no time in starting work for the crucial clash with the Philadelphia Eagles in Shibe Park on Saturday night. The defending Eastern champions are at present in the cellar, without a win after two league tests. Unless the Giants regain the winning habit soon they will be out of contention before the opening of the home season on Oct. 13.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Basketball Hall of Famer Hubie Brown, who was born in 1933; Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas, who was born in 1944; model and actress Cheryl Tiegs, who was born in 1947; “Star Wars” star Mark Hamill, who was born in 1951; Basketball Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo, who was born in 1951; “Dynasty” star Heather Locklear, who was born in 1961; “The Sopranos” star Aida Turturro, who was born in Brooklyn in 1962; “Damages” star Tate Donovan, who was born in 1963; Basketball Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen, who was born in 1965; Oscar-winning actor Will Smith, who was born in 1968; Oscar-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who was born in 1969; former NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, who was born in 1975; actor and musician Donald Glover, who was born in 1983; and figure skater Keauna McLaughlin, who was born in 1992.