December 26: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

December 26, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1876, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Trenton proposes to have a good time tomorrow, celebrating the centennial anniversary of the crossing of the Delaware. It is intended that the affair shall be as nearly as possible an exact representation of the actual engagement. So enthusiastic are the Trentonians over the matter that they are looking far and near for some obliging tramps who will be kind enough to permit themselves to be frozen on the march to that city, in order that the representation may be complete.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1928, Home Talk/The Item reported, “Christmas Day is gone, but no observer, walking through the streets of Brooklyn, would ever suspect it. On every lawn stands a twinkling evergreen, disguised in a glittering web of Christmas tinsel and spangles. Every church and institution in Bay Ridge and South Brooklyn is decorated with Christmas tokens. In every window hangs a wreath, for the great holiday is still with us. Through Flatbush, every crossroads flaunts a giant tree, towering like the Liberty Poles of old, flaming like symbols of the spirit it honors. Merriment filled this section to the brim and flowed over into the rest of Brooklyn with the passing of Christmas Day. Scores of political organizations, social clubs, private gatherings and public groups held functions with Santa as guest of honor. Many of the affairs were for the benefit of the poor and unfortunate.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “‘Just Give Me a Moon Over Brooklyn,’ the catchy melody by an ex-Bensonhurst resident, Terry Shane, was introduced by Guy Lombardo as a special Christmas gift to the borough in his WJZ broadcast last night. The song, which was dedicated during the broadcast to Frank D. Schroth, publisher of the Brooklyn Eagle, was written while Shane was a melancholy GI overseas longing for ‘Flatbush Ave. and Ebbets Field.’ On a leave from Texas, Shane took the song to Lombardo, who added it to the other hits he has introduced when he played it over a nationwide hookup last night. Brooklynites heard the song at 9 p.m. while rains turned the snow in borough streets into slush, but Shane heard it under different circumstances. He’s in Texas, and may have listened with a bottle of cold beer in one hand and a fan in the other.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Eagle reported, “Television viewers may be treated to a second performance of ‘Amahl and the Night Visitors,’ it appeared today, as praise of the opera’s Christmas Eve premiere still poured into the National Broadcasting Company studios in Manhattan. NBC executives were scheduled to meet today to discuss whether the opera, the first ever written expressly for television, can be repeated in the near future. NBC commissioned Gian Carlo Menotti to write the opera, which tells the story of a crippled boy who meets the Three Wise Men on their way to see the Christ Child.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1958, the Bay Ridge Home Reporter said, “Borough President John Cashmore, supported by arguments from Bay Ridge opponents of the Seventh Ave. approach to the Narrows Bridge, won a ‘stay of eviction’ for hundreds of local homeowners last Thursday, Dec. 18, by convincing Mayor [Robert] Wagner and the Board of Estimate to delay a final decision on the approach. Mr. Cashmore’s dramatic maneuver consisted of a map, evidently drawn up in his office on the 17th, which graphically supported his original claim that only six lanes of traffic is necessary for the Seventh Ave. approach, rather than the proposed 12 lanes. Some 500 local homes would be spared, if the route were so restricted, Mr. Cashmore claimed. The additional six lanes, he charged, were planned only for ‘if and when they were needed.’ He estimated such a time wouldn’t come for at least two decades. ‘Meanwhile,’ he warned, ‘the City would destroy real estate values in Brooklyn’ and that taxes would be lost that ‘could not be made up on Staten Island by the bridge for many years.’ ‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ‘if you want to look ahead a quarter of a century, look to the solution of that problem, for the neglect of that problem (of taxes) can only bring upon us the decay of our basic tax structure and the decline of the City of New York.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Duke Fakir (the Four Tops), who was born in 1935; novelist Catherine Coulter, who was born in 1942; anti-crime activist and TV host John Walsh, who was born in 1945; Baseball Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk, who was born in 1947; news anchor Candy Crowley, who was born in 1948; Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, who was born in 1954; “Me Talk Pretty One Day” author David Sedaris, who was born in 1956; “Sherman’s Lagoon” creator Jim Toomey, who was born in 1960; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Lars Ulrich (Metallica), who was born in 1963; Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto, who was born in 1971; musician and actor Chris Daughtry, who was born in 1979; “2 Broke Girls” star Beth Behrs, who was born in 1985; “Game of Thrones” star Kit Harrington, who was born in 1986; and “The Middle” star Eden Sher, who was born in 1991.