December 17: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

December 17, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1867, a Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorial said, “The President sent to the Senate yesterday the reasons which controlled him in dismissing [Secretary of War Edwin] Stanton. That functionary appears in a very unenviable light in the narrative which is characterized by all the vigor of Mr. Johnson’s state papers. Stanton, it will be remembered, claimed to hold on to his place under the tenure of office bill, and offered a direct insult to the President by stating that for grave public considerations he declined to resign until Congress met, desiring it to be understood by implication that the Executive could not be trusted to name his successor. It now appears that Stanton was the foremost among the President’s advisors in denouncing the tenure of office law as unconstitutional, and assisted the President, in preparing his veto of the measure, behind which the placeman sought to shelter himself afterwards.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1905, the Eagle reported, “Santa Claus is the one myth that will not down. The tradition of a beneficent spirit — call him by what name you will, Santa Claus, Kriss Kringle, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas or Noel – who comes around on December 25 of each year, and gladdens the heart of children, rich or poor, by mysteriously leaving them the very things they most want, survives in spite of all attacks. The so-called higher criticism has swept away many familiar stories of religion. We are told that the story of the creation of the world in six days has no actual foundation in fact, and naturalists aver that no whale could have had a throat big enough to swallow Jonah. Historians have told us that the story of the cherry tree and George Washington’s hatchet is rank nonsense, and some of us have been convinced. But when the iconoclast tries to shake the children’s faith in the existence of Santa Claus he bumps his head against a wall of absolute faith. ‘No Santa Claus!’ a million childish voices would echo, ‘why every Christmas brings the proof that there is one.’ And that certainly ends the argument.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON, DEC. 17 — Reapportionment of membership in the House to correspond with population changes as recorded in the 1920 census will be considered by Republican members of the House at a caucus tonight. Nearly half a dozen reapportionment measures have been presented since the convening of the present session. The principal one, submitted by Representative Siegel, of New York, chairman of the census committee, provides for a House membership of 483 as compared with a present membership of 435. Representative Hull, Democrat, of Tennessee, has proposed a constitutional amendment which would fix 450 as the permanent maximum membership of the House. The only bill proposing a cut in the present membership was offered yesterday by Representative Blanton, Democrat, Texas, who suggests the size of the House be cut to 304 members. One of the measures bearing on reapportionment, which majority leaders plan to consider at tonight’s meeting, was offered by Representative Tinkham, Republican, Massachusetts. It would direct a Congressional investigation of alleged Negro disenfranchisement in the Southern States and a corresponding cut in the representation of those States in the House.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1943, the Eagle reported, “What excitement occurred at the Philharmonic-Symphony concert in Carnegie Hall last night came not from the fact that Harold Barlow was indisposed and Leonard Bernstein again became a pinch-hitter, but from the performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto by Albert Spalding. For classic restraint and purity of style, this was certainly one of the finest performances Mr. Spalding has ever given. Because of its refinement, hearing the concerto became a refreshing experience.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “Quonset hut developments in a 100-acre tract in Canarsie, 20 acres in Ulmer Park, Gravesend, more than 100 acres of Idlewild Airport property and a large area in the North Bronx were envisioned today as the city’s solution to the housing problem for veterans and their families. Suggestion that 5,000 of the rounded-roof metal huts, used in the Aleutians and the Pacific Islands by the services, be acquired by the city for temporary housing came in a comprehensive report prepared by Mayor-elect William O’Dwyer’s Emergency Committee on Housing. The report, which estimated the Quonset hut developments, to house 10,000 families, would cost about $26,000,000 was studded with other proposals for easing the housing crisis … In all, the report accounted, through its various proposals, for housing 43,000 families, or 140,000 persons, in temporary dwelling units until permanent homes can be provided.”

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Ernie Hudson
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Avalon” star Armin Mueller-Stahl, who was born in 1930; Pope Francis, who was born in 1936; “Ghostbusters” star Ernie Hudson, who was born in 1945; “American Pie” star Eugene Levy, who was born in 1946; Oscar-winner Wes Studi, who was born in 1947; Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers, who was born in 1949; “Independence Day” star Bill Pullman, who was born in 1953; former N.Y. Mets pitcher Bob Ojeda, who was born in 1957; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Mike Mills (R.E.M.), who was born in 1958; “The Walking Dead” star Laurie Holden, who was born in 1969; “American Horror Story” star Sarah Paulson, who was born in 1974; “Saving Private Ryan” star Giovanni Ribisi, who was born in 1974; “Resident Evil” star Milla Jovovich, who was born in 1975; boxer Manny Pacquiao, who was born in 1978; and “Raising Hope” star Shannon Woodward, who was born in 1984.

Milla Jovovich
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

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

Quotable:

“God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.”

— Pope Francis, who was born on this day in 1936