Milestones: December 8, 2023

December 8, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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VIGILS FOR SLAIN BEATLE — THE WORLD STOOD IN SHOCK ON THE NIGHT OF DEC. 8, 1980 upon learning that famous Beatle John Lennon was shot and killed outside the Dakota, a famous celebrity apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Lennon had just returned with his wife Yoko Ono from their recording studio, the Record Plant, around 10:50 that night, exiting the limo in front of the Dakota. A man who had staked out his spot and even earlier in the day asked Lennon to autograph his “Double Fantasy” LP album cover, shot Lennon at close range and doctors were not able to save his life. Grieving New Yorkers and fans around the world held vigils for days, lit candles and held hands singing Beatles songs and Lennon solo hits. John Lennon is memorialized in Strawberry Fields (named for one of his Beatles songs) which Yoko Ono landscaped on a portion of Central Park across the street from the Dakota.

The gunman, who gave no resistance to being arrested, was identified as Mark David Chapman (now age 68) a crazed fan who was reportedly also deeply critical of what he considered Lennon’s hypocrisy and atheistic statements. Denied parole multiple times, Chapman remains incarcerated.

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TARGETED QUEEN — MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS WAS BORN ON DEC. 8, 1542 in Scotland’s Linlithgow Palace. She was the only surviving child of King James V, who died just six days later, and a great-niece of England’s King Henry VIII, a Tudor king. From a very young age, Mary was caught in a web of royal marriage entanglements. She was married off to the French dauphin (eldest son and presumed heir) who died the year after becoming King Francis I. Mary returned to Scotland to take on her role as monarch, and in 1565 remarried, this time wedded to Lord Darnley, an English Lord and a Tudor, thus bolstering her claim to the English throne — and enraging the sitting monarch, Queen Elizabeth I. Because of plots within her country and the Catholic plots to assassinate her, Mary fled to England, where another plot to kill Elizabeth had been foiled. Whether or not she was involved, Mary was tried and convicted in connection and then beheaded in 1587.

Mary’s son, James VI of Scotland, also became the monarch of England after Elizabeth’s death.

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COMMITTED TO PACIFISM — U.S. REP. JEANETTE RANKIN ON DEC. 8, 1941 cast the lone vote against her nation entering World War II. Just the day before, Japanese warplanes had launched a surprise attack on the U.S. military base at Pearl Harbor, and Americans, tasting revenge, fully supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s declaration of war. However, while the Constitution (Article I, Section 8) gives Congress power and authority to declare war, Rankin believed that Roosevelt had been the one to provoke the Japanese, with the agenda of entering the war (and rebuilding the economy). She also understood that casting a dissenting vote would be political suicide. Holding ground as a pacifist, Rankin said during the roll call, “As a woman, I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.”

Although vilified and even called a traitor, Rankin stood firm in defending her vote and never apologized. She chose not to run for re-election. At age 87, she led a campaign against the Vietnam War as well.

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EARLY PRESIDENTIAL ACHIEVEMENT — PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON SIGNED THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA) INTO LAW ON DEC. 8, 1993. A trade pact involving the three nations comprising the North American continent — the United States, Canada and Mexico — NAFTA eliminated most tariffs and trade restrictions between these countries and became one of Clinton’s earliest victories in the first year of his Presidency. Even though Republican leaders had earlier initiated a movement for free trade, the idea received criticism before the 1992 Presidential election. Reform Party candidate H. Ross Perot warned that NAFTA’s passage would result in a ”giant sucking sound” of jobs leaving the U.S. for Mexico. NAFTA became effective on January 1, 1994, creating the world’s largest free-trade zone.

However, while NAFTA did lead to improved diplomatic relations between the countries and lower consumer prices, Mr. Perot was proven correct on the loss of manufacturing jobs to Mexico, particularly in the automotive and technology industries.

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DECISIVE ALLIED VICTORY — ONE OF WORLD WAR I’s MOST DECISIVE BATTLES TOOK PLACE ON DEC. 8, 1914, when British Naval forces pushed back a German raid on the Falkland Islands. Admiral Maximilian von Spee and his German naval forces had a month earlier defeated the Royal Navy by sinking two British cruisers near the Falkland Islands archipelago, about 300 miles east of the Patagonian shelf on Argentina’s southern tip. Admiral von Spee then set his sights on invading the Falklands, but the British, wanting to avenge the deaths of their fellow servicemen, thwarted the attempt. British First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher led a fleet of two swifter battle cruisers, aptly christened as Inflexible and Invincible, which opened fire on the German ships, sinking four of them, including von Spee’s flagship. Germany lost more than two thousand in the campaign, while the British forces lost only ten soldiers.

The Battle of the Falkland Islands not only represented a major Allied force win, but it was also one of the last involving only ships, sailors and guns.

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BROOKLYN’S CAMEO IN ‘ON THE TOWN’ — THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE AND CONEY ISLAND, BOTH ICONIC PARTS OF NEW YORK, WERE FEATURED IN THE MOVIE “ON THE TOWN,” WHICH DEBUTED ON DEC. 8, 1949. Gene Kelly starred and did the choreography for this film version of the Broadway musical which also starred Frank Sinatra and dancer Ann Miller. “On The Town” unfolds the romances – and misadventures of three Navy seamen on shore leave in the Big Apple for 24 hours. During the time, in which protagonist Gabey (Gene Kelly) has fallen in love with the subway beauty queen of the month (“Miss Turnstiles”), the sailors even manage to knock over a dinosaur skeleton — while dancing — at the mythical Museum of Anthropological History.

The song, “New York, New York,” (written by Leonard Bernstein) with the line “New York, New York, a helluva town. The Bronx is up but the Battery’s down,” is different from another melody of the same title that Frank Sinatra made famous later. Sinatra was in the 1949 film, which won an Oscar for “Best Musical Score.”

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BEST ACTRESS LEARNED GERMAN AND POLISH — ANOTHER MOVIE FEATURING BROOKLYN IN THE PLOT WAS “SOPHIE’S CHOICE,” WHICH PREMIERED ON DEC. 8, 1982. The film, which is based on the eponymous William Styron novel, and which won Meryl Streep an Oscar for Best Actress,” follows the story of a Holocaust survivor who becomes a neighbor to a young writer named Stingo who has moved next door. The “choice” deals with a heart-wrenching decision that Sophie must make about which of her two children will live or die while interned at Auschwitz.

The director was Alan J. Pakula, whose other films include “All The President’s Men,” and “The Pelican Brief.” Meryl Streep, for her role, learned to speak both German and Polish and, particularly a specific Polish refugee accent.

See previous milestones, here.