October 10: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

October 10, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1849, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reprinted the following story from the New York Evening Post: “Edgar A. Poe. — This distinguished author, who was well known in our city for his infirmities as for his genius, died suddenly in Baltimore, on Sunday. His life had been one of unusual and painful vicissitudes. His youth was embittered by the wreck of hopes in which he had indulged until it was too late for him to be educated to the career of independence that awaited him. After leaving the University of Virginia, he passed some time in Europe, and on his return, still young, he entered the Military Academy at West Point, which he left, to undertake the profession of literature. His experience is an addition to the many mournful examples of the vexations and sufferings which follow such an election. He was an industrious, original and brilliant writer; and besides his numerous contributions to the periodicals, he published in volumes Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque; Arthur Gordon Pym (a nautical romance), Poems, Eureka (an essay on the material and spiritual universe), Tales, and two or three elementary books on science. He resided the three or four last years at Fordham near this city.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1892, the Eagle reported, “Columbus might well have thought he was discovering a new heaven instead of merely a new world if his approach to the Bahamas was accompanied by such glorious October sunshine as marks the four hundredth anniversary of that event about New York harbor. Sun and earth and winds have combined to do honor to the great navigator, and the decorators have merely fallen into line in making Columbus pictures and statuettes the central features of the festivities. On every side the eyes fall upon representations of an elderly man, smooth shaven, with lace ruffles around his neck and perchance a sword in his hand. The feature of New York’s decorations, as remarked by everyone, is their universality. Go high, go low, from Castle garden to and even beyond Harlem river, you will find no street so remote, no alley so squalid, but gaily flaunts its bits of color. Were Rudyard Kipling here, he would have to admit that what he splenetically called ‘the long narrow pig trough known as New York’ is the most brilliant pig trough in the history of hogs. It is probable, even certain, that no city was ever so beautifully, so gaily, so artistically and, above all, so generously decorated as is New York today.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — President Roosevelt criticized the nation today for permitting conditions which have left 50 percent of its youth unfit physically or mentally for Army service, and inaugurated a program to ‘salvage’ 200,000 of the 1,000,000 youths who have been rejected. Under the salvage program, the Federal Government will pay medical costs for treatment by local physicians of approximately 200,000 registrants whom local draft boards certify as susceptible to rehabilitation for Army service. The Army expects to accept virtually all of these 200,000 after they undergo treatment by family physicians or dentists at Federal expense, Mr. Roosevelt said. Describing the salvage program as only the initial objective, Mr. Roosevelt said that existence of conditions which permit so high a rate of rejections is an indictment of America.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Eagle reported, “BEIRUT, SYRIA (U.P.) — The troops of five Arab nations were reported on or converging on the borders of Palestine today, ready to invade if the British withdraw and the Jews ‘lift a finger’ against the Arabs in the Holy Land. The Syrian and Lebanese governments announced officially that their troops already had deployed along Palestine’s northern border. A spokesman for the British Government of Palestine denied in Jerusalem that he knew anything about troops on the northern border. Abdul Rahman Azzam, secretary general of the Arab League, which recommended the encirclement of Palestine, reaffirmed that Egypt had ordered its troops to move on to the Holy Land’s southern border. Reports reached Beirut that Saudi Arabian cavalrymen already were well across the Sinai peninsula of Egypt en route to the southern border. These reports said the peninsula had been closed for four days. It had been thought at first that it was because of the cholera epidemic, but it was said now that it was to allow the Saudi Arabians to cross. A Beirut newspaper quoted Arab League officials that Trans-Jordan troops already were massed on Palestine’s eastern border. ‘Democracy has failed as regards Palestine, but the Arabs are determined to prevent the Zionists from overpowering the Palestinian Arabs and becoming masters of Arab country,’ Azzam Pasha said. ‘Should this crisis burst into armed conflict not only our armies but thousands of volunteers will pour in to help the Palestine Arabs.’ ‘This time we mean business,’ said sources within the seven-nation Arab League. ‘If the British abandon the country and the Jews lift a finger, we will be ready to enter Palestine and defend Arab rights.’ These sources said any attempt by the United Nations to solve the Palestine question by any method other than declaring it an independent Arab nation would be opposed by united Arab forces. If the U.N.’s solution of the Palestine issue precipitated a war between Arabs and Jews, it could well be the bloodiest chapter in the Holy Land’s long history. In Palestine alone, there are 1,000,000 Arabs to 600,000 Jews.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1958, the Bay Ridge Home Reporter said, “WASHINGTON — President Eisenhower issued these greetings to the press on the occasion of National Newspaper Week: ‘A strong society of free men must be kept fully informed. Liberty can flourish only in the climate of truth. In our American tradition much of the burden for making known the affairs of the day falls upon the newspapers of the nation. With thorough and fearless inquiry, with clear and responsible reporting, the press renders a fundamental service to the citizens of our Republic. Each year, during National Newspaper Week, I am glad to send greetings to the members of the press. Our nation and all its people are more than ever, in these critical times, dependent upon those newspaper standards which separate the significant from the sensational, scorn half truths and rumor, and consider their profession for what it basically is: A public trust.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “A Walk to Remember” star Peter Coyote, who was born in 1941; “Roots” star Ben Vereen, who was born in 1946; singer and drummer Cyril Neville, who was born in 1948; Romance Writers of America Hall of Famer Nora Roberts; who was born in 1950; former N.Y. Islanders right winger Bob Nystrom, who was born in 1952; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Lee Roth, who was born in 1954; Country Music Hall of Famer Tanya Tucker, who was born in 1958; former “Saturday Night Live” star Julia Sweeney, who was born in 1959; “The West Wing” star Bradley Whitford, who was born in 1959; “Gypsy Woman” singer Crystal Waters, who was born in 1961; Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino, who was born in 1967; Pro Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre, who was born in 1969; “Saved by the Bell” star Mario Lopez, who was born in 1973; stock car racing driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was born in 1974; “Nash Bridges” star Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, who was born in 1978; singer and actress Mya, who was born in 1979; and former N.Y. Jets and Giants quarterback Geno Smith, who was born in 1990.