November 16: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

November 16, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Macy’s famous Thanksgiving Day parade will be described by WMCA at 1 p.m.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Eagle reported, “Sure and if a piece of the Blarney Stone itself isn’t luck insurance enough for an Irish colleen — what is? Maureen O’Hara, 19-year-old Irish girl who recently arrived in Hollywood, the other day received her most prized bit of fan mail. A small box, postmarked ‘Cork, Ireland,’ arrived and a note which read in part: ‘I risked my neck and a jail sentence to chip off this piece of the Blarney Stone for you, just to bring you luck in America.’ Maureen is having the tiny rock put in a locket.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1943, the Eagle reported, “Capturing all the vivid drama to be found in the relationship of a boy and his dog and adapted from Eric Knight’s most successful story since ‘This Above All,’ MGM’s Technicolor film, ‘Lassie Come Home,’ will be held over for a second big week, starting Thursday at Loew’s Metropolitan Theater. The picture introduces to film fans a new dog star in Lassie, a gorgeous collie, and tells the story of her 100-mile journey to find her young master. Roddy McDowall and Donald Crisp, who played father and son in ‘How Green Was My Valley,’ are reunited in the picture, with principals including Dame May Whitty, Edmund Gwenn, Nigel Bruce, Elsa Lanchester, Ben Webster, Elizabeth Taylor, J. Patrick O’Malley, and others.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “CHICAGO — Mayor LaGuardia predicted yesterday that Idlewild Airport in Queens would be able to handle 300 flights an hour and indicated that LaGuardia Field was already handling a similar number of flights a day. Speaking at the International Civil Aviation Conference in Chicago, New York City’s Mayor said that military security prevented disclosure of the exact number of flights from LaGuardia Field at present, but indicated that they exceeded 300 a day.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “Eleven expectant mothers taking the home nursing course of Brooklyn Chapter, American Red Cross, today sent Princess Elizabeth a copy of their text on the care of children for use in bringing up her young prince. A letter signed by the women and their instructor, Louise E. Wilson, said they shared the new mother’s ‘joy and happiness’ in the baby’s arrival and wanted her to have the book as a ‘token of goodwill from the people of Brooklyn.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Diplomatic officials said today the United States must act swiftly and boldly to save face in the Far East. They indicated the State Department is preparing to take strong steps to protest the shelling of an American freighter by Chinese Nationalists and the jailing by Communists of several Americans, including Angus Ward, Consul-General at Mukden, Manchuria. These officials declined to specify what action the United States will take. But Secretary of State Dean Acheson may give some inkling at his news conference today. Acheson, just back from a meeting of the Western Big Three Foreign Ministers in Paris, conferred with President Truman late yesterday. Then he began a series of conferences with State Department officials. He must steer America’s course through these controversies: 1. A Nationalist Chinese warship attack on an American vessel, the Isbrandtsen Company’s Flying Cloud, off Communist-held Shanghai; 2. Communist China’s failure to release Ward and four of his aides; 3. Communist North Korea’s detention of Albert Willis of Brooklyn and Alfred T. Meschter of Kinderhook, N.Y.; 4. Communist China’s detention of two American naval fliers — William C. Smith and Elmer C. Bender — who fell into Communist hands more than a year ago.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “The football Giants — backpedaling in a hurry — may wind up losing more games this season than ever before in their history. New York’s ledger at the moment shows six reversals in eight games, with four to go. These upcoming opponents include Cleveland, champion Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington. The last named provides the opposition next Sunday at the Polo Grounds. If the Giants drop three of these contests, as seemed likely today, they will establish an all-time high for defeats. The previous mark of eight was set in ’47 when New York posted a 2-8-2 record followed by a 4-8 slate the following campaign. Yesterday’s 14-10 setback by the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Polo Grounds before a disappointed crowd of 20,411 was a hard pill to swallow after Frank Gifford had turned in one of the most brilliant individual performances by any National League star in years. The former Southern California ace played virtually the entire game on offense and defense. He scored the lone Giants’ touchdown in the closing moments of the third period on a pass from Chuck Conerly and kicked the extra point. Then in the fourth period he took another Conerly heave from the 32 to the 15 to set the stage for Randy Clay’s 20-yard field goal with 6:40 to go to put the locals ahead, 10-7, in what seemed to be the clincher. But Jim Finks, the Steelers passer who had been in a slump the past few weeks, snapped out of his lethargy in the closing minutes to steal the decision away from New York just as the cash customers were getting ready to leave.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Eagle reported, “President Kennedy and West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer wound up their cold war conference with the hope that the United States’ firm stand on Cuba had helped to take some of the heat off Berlin. In an address to the National Press Club just before his final meeting with the President, Adenauer said the free world would have been lost if the United States had not called Russia’s hand in its Cuba missiles buildup.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Cry Baby” singer Garnet Mimms, who was born in 1933; singer-songwriter Troy Seals, who was born in 1938; singer-songwriter Chi Coltrane, who was born in 1948; “CSI” star Marg Helgenberger, who was born in 1958; former N.Y. Mets and Yankees pitcher Dwight Gooden, who was born in 1964; singer-songwriter Diana Krall, who was born in 1964; “The Bold and the Beautiful” star Maeve Quinlan, who was born in 1964; “The Cosby Show” star Lisa Bonet, who was born in 1967; “The Goonies” star Martha Plimpton, who was born in 1970; singer-songwriter Allison Crowe, who was born in 1981; former N.Y. Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire, who was born in 1982; former “Saturday Night Live” star Pete Davidson, who was born in 1993; and “Heroes” star Noah Gray-Cabey, who was born in 1995.