October 22: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

October 22, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1928, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Mechanical Man, known as ‘televox,’ illustrated the sermon of the Rev. Dr. Christian F. Reisner in the Chelsea Methodist Episcopal Church in Manhattan yesterday. The mechanical man was placed in the pulpit beside the pastor and in response to commands spoke through a telephone, lighted a lamp and did other tricks. The sermon was on the possibilities of science.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “TEL AVIV (U.P.) — Both Israel and Egypt accepted the United Nations cease-fire order today and directed their troops in the Negeb region of southern Palestine to observe the U.N. order to restore peace to the Holy Land. The truce went into effect officially at 7 a.m., but front line dispatches said both sides had ceased fighting hours before the deadline. The deadline was set by Acting Palestine mediator Dr. Ralph Bunche after both governments had indicated the cease-fire would be observed only if the other side agreed to it. Several bombs were dropped on Tel Aviv this morning during the second of two air aid alerts, but officials said there was little damage and no casualties.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Eagle reported, “LAS VEGAS, NEV. (U.P.) — An atomic blast so small it barely was audible 30 miles away signaled the start today of the nation’s first atomic combat maneuvers. The small explosion at 6 a.m. tended to support unofficial reports from Washington two weeks ago that the Nevada tests would involve baby A-bombs and perhaps artillery and other combat equipment with atomic warheads. No troops were involved in today’s test blast, although 5,000 GIs were standing by to participate later. In contrast to earlier tests at the Frenchman Flat proving grounds, which rolled out shock and light waves for up to 500 miles, today’s detonation atop a 100-foot steel tower produced only a ’faint rumbling’ to a listener in Indian Springs, 30 miles away. In Las Vegas, 65 miles south of the firing site, watchers on hotel rooftops and other vantage points were unaware that an explosion had been touched off until the Atomic Energy Commission announced tersely: ‘One of the nuclear detonations announced by the AEC on Aug. 28 was held this morning at the Nevada test site.’ There was speculation, entirely unconfirmed, that the AEC had developed an atomic weapon the size of a grenade.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “New York City and State, for the first time in history, have more women than men registered to vote on Election Day, Nov. 4, the Board of Elections has disclosed, but that isn’t true in Brooklyn. Here the preponderance is still on the male side, with a registration of 591,187 men, 567,667 women. The total is 1,158,854, Brooklyn’s second biggest registration. The total state registration was 7,825,456, or more than 11 percent over the previous high, in 1948, of 7,044,676. In the 57 ‘upstate’ counties, largely Republican, the increase was more than 15 percent over 1948. In the predominantly Democratic city, the total was 3,515,997, an increase of less than 6 percent and below the 1944 figure, 3,556,377. Bronx and Richmond, like Brooklyn, listed more men than women registrants, while Queens went to the women by less than 100 votes out of a total of more than 800,000. Manhattan, with a heavy female preponderance, threw the city into the women’s column.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “JERUSALEM (U.P.) — An Israeli freight train was wrecked today by land mines near the border of Jordan and an Israeli spokesman said it was an act of Arab sabotage. The mining of the train was the latest incident of violence in a series of acts which have inflamed relations between Israel and her hostile Arab neighbors and precipitated a menacing Mid-Eastern crisis. Thirteen cars of a 52-car train went off the rails and smashed into a rocky hillside near Kalkilya, between Haifa and Tel Aviv near the Jordan border. A spokesman said there were no casualties. Only an hour earlier a passenger train had passed the mined area. Shortly before that, a spokesman said, Israeli police had noticed suspicious movements on the tracks in the area, but believed they had frightened the intruders away. Within two hours of the incident, United Nations observers had joined Israeli police at the scene of the crash. Israeli police said they traced footprints from the mined rails to the outskirts of Kalkilya, inside the Jordan frontier. The U.N. Mixed Armistice Commission convened an emergency session and invited Israeli and Arab members to submit draft resolutions which the chairman will consider, in connection with the latest incident. Earlier Israeli officials had charged that the United States is trying to win the friendship and sympathy of the Arab states at the expense of the Jewish state. They said the suspension of economic aid to Israel was the latest result of this alleged new State Department policy.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “One hundred paintings from more than 1,000 submitted by Bay Ridge school pupils were selected yesterday to be painted on 86th St. store windows next week for the Bay Ridge Community Council’s third annual Halloween Window Painting Contest. The pupils will transfer their work to store windows next Wednesday, according to Vincent P. Kassenbrock, who initiated the project three years ago. The 100 paintings were selected by a group of public and parochial school art teachers headed by Anna Dick of Fort Hamilton High.”

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Jeff Goldblum
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Henry V” star Derek Jacobi, who was born in 1938; “Back to the Future” star Christopher Lloyd, who was born in 1938; “Belle de Jour” star Catherine Deneuve, who was born in 1943; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Eddie Brigati (The Young Rascals), who was born in 1945; “Daughters of the Dust” director Julie Dash, who was born in 1952; “Jurassic Park” star Jeff Goldblum, who was born in 1952; composer Marc Shaiman, who was born in 1959; “Breaking Bad” star Bob Odenkirk, who was born in 1962; figure skater and Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano, who was born in 1963; “Rain Man” star Valeria Golino, who was born in 1965; former N.Y. Jets cornerback Otis Smith, who was born in 1965; Grammy-winner Shaggy, who was born in 1968; Oscar-winning filmmaker Jennifer Lee, who was born in 1971; former N.Y. Yankees outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, who was born in 1973; “Modern Family” star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who was born in 1975; and “Roseanne” star Michael Fishman, who was born in 1981.