December 28: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

December 28, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1897, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The wind-up of affairs in the boroughs so soon to become Greater New York is proceeding with less friction and with less scandal than might have been expected. Very naturally, the various boroughs are anxious to finish their business with their citizens in as orderly and liberal a manner as possible. The administrative work of the several governments is honorably coming to an end. Nor are the financial officials subjecting themselves to criticism … The old governments are going out in good form. The new government will come in with the good wishes of the masses of the people.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1900, the Eagle reported, “WICHITA, KAN. — Mrs. Carrie Nation of the County Women’s Christian Temperance Union, who yesterday broke a mirror and wrecked a valuable oil painting in the bar of the Carey Hotel, in her crusade against intemperance, refused offers of bail. Her hearing was set for this afternoon.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “BASTOGNE, BELGIUM, DEC. 27 (Delayed) (U.P.) — An American relief column has lifted the week-long German siege of encircled Bastogne, but the rescued doughboys aren’t overjoyed about it. They are a little peeved that others are going to horn in on their personal fight with the Germans … The doughboys’ attitude reflected that of their commander. Only 24 hours after Bastogne was surrounded, he received an ultimatum from the German commander. The American reply was classically brief and to the point. ‘Nuts!’ he said.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “LAUSANNE (U.P.) — Rita Hayworth gave premature but normal birth today to a 5½-pound Princess. Prince Aly Khan, husband of the 30-year-old Rita, said she ‘had a very tough time of it’ during a six-hour confinement in Montchoisi Clinic but that she was feeling better. He said the baby would be named Princess Jasmine. Aly said the birth, coming exactly seven months and one day after they were married last May 27, was seven weeks premature. ‘I told you,’ he said to a reporter, ‘that premature babies run in my family.’ Doctors had feared they would have to deliver the child by a Caesarean operation, but they announced it was a normal birth. They said both mother and child were doing well. Aly said he spent a miserable time pacing the corridors before the doctor came out and told him, ‘It’s a girl.’ He said he then went in and sat with Rita for an hour. ‘I wanted to be there when they came down and broke the news to her that it was a girl.’ Aly, who has two sons by a previous marriage, said: ‘I am very happy. It is just what I wanted.’ The child was born at 9:35 a.m. (3:35 a.m. Brooklyn time), six hours and 15 minutes after Aly drove the thrice-married Rita from the Lausanne Palace Hotel to the clinic, outracing his police escort in his haste. Rita was dressed only in a mink coat thrown over her pajamas. ‘I was desperately afraid she might have the child in the car racing to the hospital,’ he said. Rita has another daughter, Rebecca, as a result of her previous marriage to Orson Welles. Rebecca was born in Hollywood by Caesarean section five years ago.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “Franklin D. Roosevelt made the greatest impact on the first half of the century in the opinion of American newspaper and radio editors. They voted in a United Press poll to choose the ten personalities whose careers affected the most persons and to the greatest extent. Adolf Hitler ran a close second. One of the conditions of the poll was that the impact made by these persons could be for either good or evil. Hitler was followed by Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford, Nikolai Lenin, the Wright Brothers, Albert Einstein, Joseph Stalin and Louis Pasteur. Pasteur was the only one of the ten who did not live in this century. He died in 1895 but the editors felt that his work on the conquest of disease justified his inclusion in this list. Women received many votes, but none got enough to make the first ten. There was heavy voting for Lise Meitner, the expert of nuclear fission; for Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, and for Mme. Curie for her work on radium.”

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Denzel Washington
Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Oscar-winning actress Maggie Smith, who was born in 1934; musician Edgar Winter, who was born in 1946; “It’s Raining Men” singer Martha Wash, who was born in 1953; “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King, who was born in 1954; Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington, who was born in 1954; Hockey Hall of Famer Ray Bourque, who was born in 1960; former N.Y. Mets outfielder Benny Agbayani, who was born in 1971; former NFL placekicker Adam Vinatieri, who was born in 1972; talk show host Seth Meyers, who was born in 1973; “Ordinary People” singer John Legend, who was born in 1978; former tennis player James Blake, who was born in 1979; “American Sniper” star Sienna Miller, who was born in 1981; and “7th Heaven” star Mackenzie Rosman, who was born in 1989.