December 7: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

December 7, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1884, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The long expected completion of the Washington Monument obelisk was accomplished this afternoon by setting in place the marble capstone and its pyramidal apex of aluminum. The ceremonies were few and simple, an elaborate celebration of the event being reserved for Washington’s birthday. Shortly after 2 o’clock Colonel Thomas L. Casey, the Government engineer in charge, and his assistants, Captain Davis, United States Army, and Bernard R. Green, civil engineer, together with Master Mechanic McLaughlin, and several workmen, standing on a narrow platform built around the sloping marble roof near the summit, proceeded to set the capstone (weighing 6,300 pounds), which was suspended from a quadruped of heavy joists supported by the platform and towering forty feet above them. As soon as the capstone was set the American flag was unfurled overhead and a salute of twenty-one guns was promptly fired by Major Hanneman’s Militia Battery in the White House grounds far below. The sound of cheers also came up faintly from a crowd of spectators gathered around the base of the monument, while a number of invited guests on the 500 foot platform and in the interior of the monument at that level spontaneously struck up the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and other patriotic songs.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1907, the Eagle reported, “The army strategists want $1,020,000 for batteries at Guantanamo, Cuba, in spite of the statements from high administration officials that United States troops are to be withdrawn from that island at some period in the near future. Cuba has ceded to the United States a small naval station at Guantanamo which is now to be protected with heavy guns. The same amount of money is asked for the defense of Honolulu and Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In addition the War Department has recommended the appropriation of large sums of money for the purchase and installation of searchlights, which have become a permanent and important feature in all harbor defenses. Guam, Subig Bay and San Juan are also to be provided with searchlights. No feature of the all-around offensive and defensive apparatus of these points is being neglected. Congress has been asked to provide $725,000 for four torpedo planters to be stationed at Subig Bay, Manila, Pearl Harbor and Honolulu. These vessels are needed in order to provide hasty emergency defenses in the absence of permanent shore batteries.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Eagle reported, “Candles were lit in Jewish homes throughout the nation last night to mark the beginning of Chanukah, or the Feast of Lights. The rite, which celebrates the victory of the Israelites under the Maccabees over the Syrian King Antiochus and the rescue, 2,104 years ago, of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem from the hands of pagan rulers, will continue until next Thursday. Two candles, one a ‘leader,’ were lit in the homes. An additional candle will be lit each of the seven additional nights of the festival. Special services will be held in all synagogues tomorrow night. Appropriate benedictions and hymns will be sung.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, the Eagle reported, “With Iceland and Alaska as possible locales for their military training, 1500 cadets at West Point will learn about ice skating tomorrow from the 65 skaters in ‘It Happens on Ice,’ who will demonstrate their skill in the huge hockey rink at the United States Military Academy.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — A big task force of Superfortresses ushered in the third anniversary of Pearl Harbor today with a raid on Japanese war factories in southern Manchuria, and enemy broadcasts said another formation of B-29s started at least one fire in an attack on Tokyo itself. Tokyo, following its usual policy of belittling American raids, said three or four Superfortresses dropped a small number of incendiary bombs in a ‘nuisance raid’ on the Japanese capital. The lone fire started was ‘immediately extinguished,’ Tokyo asserted. Tokyo identified the Superfortress targets in Manchuria as the industrial city of Mukden and the port of Darien. About 70 of the B-29s carried out the two-way attack, a broadcast by the F.C.C. said, and Tokyo claimed 11 were shot down and four more probably destroyed. ‘We suffered some damage in the city of Mukden and the port of Darien,’ an official Japanese announcement said. ‘However, damage to important installations was slight.’ ‘It is believed that these enemy planes were on a mission of the war of nerves aimed at the people on the home front,’ Tokyo said. The Japanese obviously were fearful that the reconnaissance or nuisance raids would be followed later today by a full-scale Superfortress attack on Tokyo in revenge for the sneak attack on the American Fleet on Dec. 7, 1941.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Oscar-winner Ellen Burstyn, who was born in 1932; “Compromising Positions” author Susan Isaacs, who was born in Brooklyn in 1943; Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, who was born in 1947; U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who was born in 1952; Basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird, who was born in 1956; “Basquiat” star Jeffrey Wright, who was born in 1965; “Red Dawn” star C. Thomas Howell, who was born in 1966; former N.Y. Yankees first baseman Tino Martinez, who was born in 1967; Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, who was born in 1973; former N.Y Jets guard Alan Faneca, who was born in 1976; former N.Y. Yankees third baseman Eric Chavez, who was born in 1977; “Roswell” star Shiri Appleby, who was born in 1978; “Love Song” singer Sara Bareilles, who was born in 1979; “Dexter” star Jennifer Carpenter, who was born in 1979; “American Gods” star Emily Browning, who was born in 1988; and N.Y. Mets first baseman Pete Alonso, who was born in 1994.

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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.

Quotable:

“Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

— President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his address to Congress, Dec. 8, 1941