Milestones: December 19, 2023

December 19, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

The Williamsburg Bridge, as pictured about six months before it opened in 1903.
Photo courtesy Municipal Archives, City of New York

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WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE OPENS — BROOKLYN HAD MUCH TO CELEBRATE ON DEC. 19, 1903, AS ANOTHER BRIDGE OPENED CONNECTING BROOKLYN AND MANHATTAN ACROSS THE EAST RIVER. The first crossing, the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, had opened 20 years and 7 months earlier. This new Williamsburg Bridge, at its opening, stretched 1,600 feet, and was the world’s longest suspension bridge, until the 1920s. It was designed by Leffert L. Buck and Henry Hornbostel and took over seven years to complete.

According to the NYC DOT, which is currently doing rehabilitation on the roadways, the Williamsburg Bridge originally carried rail, trolley, carriages and pedestrians, and was one of the last major bridges designed for the horse and carriage. By the 1920s, when the automobile became a major mode of transportation, the trolley tracks were replaced with roadways.

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POOR RICHARD AND MRS. DOGOOD — BENJAMIN FRANKLIN OF PHILADELPHIA FIRST PUBLISHED POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK ON DEC. 19, 1732. This book was a periodical that was published continuously for 25 years and became one of the most popular publications in colonial America, with sales averaging 10,000 copies a year. Poor Richard’s Almanack was filled with proverbs preaching industry, prudence and other virtues. Raised in Boston, Ben Franklin had been apprenticed at age 12 to a printing shop owner, his own brother, who was reportedly cruel to the young lad. However, his apprenticeship also gave young Ben access to materials and equipment to start printing newspapers, one of which was the acclaimed Pennsylvania Gazette, and also the official currency for the colony of Pennsylvania.

At age 16, Ben Franklin began secretly submitting essays and commentary to his brother’s newspaper, posing as “Silence Dogood,” a fictitious widow who offered homespun musings on everything from fashion and marriage to women’s rights and religion. Mrs. Dogood’s writings became so popular that she began receiving marriage proposals from eligible bachelors, and thus had to disclose “her” real-life identity.

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HONG KONG CEDED BACK TO CHINA — GREAT BRITAIN ON DEC. 19, 1984, PLEDGED TO RETURN JURISDICTION OF HONG KONG TO CHINA. Meeting in the Hall of the People in Beijing, China, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang signed an agreement that committed Britain to return Hong Kong to China in 1997. In exchange, China would guarantee a 50-year extension of its capitalist system. China had in 1898 leased Hong Kong to Great Britain for a 99-year term. These agreements followed years of strife, including in 1839 when Britain invaded China during the First Opium War, to end opposition to British interference in the peninsula’s affairs. The agreement then took effect 12 ½ years later, at midnight on July 1, 1997, when Hong Kong was peaceably handed over to China in a ceremony many international dignitaries attended. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, then-Prince Charles, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright represented Britain.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at the time called the agreement “a landmark in the life of the territory, in the course of Anglo-Chinese relations, and in the history of international diplomacy.” Hu Yaobang, the Chinese Communist Party’s secretary-general, called the signing “a red-letter day, an occasion of great joy” for China’s one billion people.

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FILMED ON LOCATION OF THE TRIALS — THE MOVIE “JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG” OPENED ON DEC. 19, 1961. The film, based on the real-life war crimes trials of Nazi leaders, and was filmed on location in Nuremberg, Germany, starred Maxamillian Schell, Spencer Tracy, Richard Widmark, Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, a young Werner Klemperer, Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland, under the direction of Stanley Kramer. Only one take was needed to film Spencer Tracy’s eleven-minute monologue.

Maximilian Schell won an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role. The movie was also nominated for Best Picture.

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TOLKIEN’S RING TRILOGY — “THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING,” THE FIRST “LORD OF THE RINGS” FILM, WAS RELEASED IN THEATERS ON DEC. 19, 2001. The first “Lord of the Rings” movie from J.R.R. Tolkien’s eponymous novel series, this film was also part of a series of three epic fantasy adventure films produced in consecutive years (2001, 2002 and 2003). The next films in the trilogy were “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the King.” “Fellowship” included an ensemble cast of acclaimed actors Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellan, Cate Blanchett, and John Rhys-Davies.

The movie grossed $47 million during its opening weekend and $871 million in box office sales worldwide.

See previous milestones, here.