January 12: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

January 12, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1900, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “When William Penn came to Philadelphia for the second time, exactly 200 years ago, it was not so much as a founder as a reformer. The city which he had planned seventeen years before (in 1682) had passed through a period of prosperity and growth which travelers looked upon with wonder. Taxes were light, trade active, the cost of living cheap and the laws easy, while the 10,000 people in Philadelphia and its vicinity were for the most part substantially and comfortably housed. Yet nowhere else in the colonies was there more disposition than in the infant city to find fault and criticize the rulers. ‘For the love of God,’ he was once moved to exclaim to the grumblers, ‘don’t be so govern-mentish, so noisy and open in your dissatisfaction.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1930, the Eagle reported, “Tangible evidence of the advancing worth of Kings Highway as a business thoroughfare is the increasing fee values due to the ascending rents in its most active shopping section. Recent expansion is occasioning comparison with the best trade streets in the boro and this is looked upon as one of the indications of the rapid growth of population and prosperity in this section. This section of Flatbush is destined to become one of the busiest business areas in the boro. It is the first important cross-boro artery north of Coney Island and is rapidly coming to be a commercial thoroughfare which will be to Flatbush what 125th St. is to upper Manhattan. The highway is now solidly built up with three and four-story brick stores, office buildings and apartment houses on both sides of the thoroughfare from Coney Island ave. to Ocean ave., and the commercial district has extended eastward toward Flatbush ave. Lighted up at night as it is for a portion of the distance with powerful cluster lamps, the scene presented is a brilliant one, as the street is thronged with theatergoers, shoppers and strollers.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “OYSTER BAY — Nelson Doubleday, president of the board of Doubleday & Company, book publishers, Garden City, died yesterday in his home at the age of 59. He had been ill for many months. One of the world’s leading publishers of books, Mr. Doubleday served as president of his firm from 1929 to 1946. He resigned as president two years ago but continued as chairman of the board, a post he had held since 1934. Mr. Doubleday was the son of Frank Nelson Doubleday, who founded the publishing firm in 1897 with S.S. McClure and Mrs. Neltje De Graff Doubleday, who under the pen name of Neltje Blanchan wrote a number of nature books. Entering the publishing business in 1912 in the magazine field, Mr. Doubleday joined his father’s firm when it was known as Doubleday, Page & Co. It became Doubleday, Doubleday in 1927, and Doubleday & Co. in 1945.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “EASTERN FRONT, KOREA (U.P.) — Col. Louis W. Truman of Washington, D.C., second cousin of President Truman, has served his full time as a regimental commander and is being transferred to another post. Remaining behind in his regiment is Pvt. William D. Eisenhower, 26, of Parrotsville, Tenn.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Brooklyn Record reported, “The Annual Luncheon of the St. John’s University Law School Alumni Association will be held on Friday, January 26, at the Hotel Commodore, it was announced by State Supreme Court Justice John E. Cone, President of the Law Alumni Association. The luncheon, according to Judge Cone, will start promptly at noon in the Hotel Commodore East Ballroom and will terminate at 2 p.m. The Law Alumni Committee handling the details for this year’s luncheon include Mario M. Cuomo, Maxine Duberstein and James Starkey. The Annual Law Luncheon, held in conjunction with the New York State Bar Association Annual Meeting, ranks with the Annual Homecoming Day as the best attended regular Law School Alumni activity.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (UPI) — The United States will send a space laboratory to Mars in November, 1964, to try to find out whether conditions on the little planet would support life. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration also announced that Mariner II did such a good job reporting on Venus last month that a second Venus probe also scheduled for 1964 has been canceled. Instead, the next flight to Venus probably will be tried in November, 1965, with a sophisticated, 1,200-pound spacecraft capable of landing an instrument capsule to analyze and detect any micro-organisms in its soil. The unmanned Mars craft, like Mariner II, will weigh nearly 500 pounds and will be launched from Cape Canaveral by an Atlas-Agena rocket. It may carry television equipment to scan Mars’ surface, NASA said, but it will not be able to detect any actual life. The Russians sent a craft to Mars on Nov. 1, and said it carried equipment for taking television pictures and transmitting them to earth. Mars, known popularly for its reddish hue and its so-called ‘canals’ as seen through telescopes, has long intrigued scientists. Many believe that Mars, of all the planets, has the most favorable conditions for life as we know it.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include mentalist Kreskin, who was born in 1935; “Goldfinger” star Shirley Eaton, who was born in 1937; “Brideshead Revisited” star Anthony Andrews, who was born in 1948; Pro Football Hall of Famer Drew Pearson, who was born in 1951; country singer Ricky Van Shelton, who was born in 1952; “Devil in a Blue Dress” author Walter Mosley, who was born in 1952; radio host Howard Stern, who was born in 1954; “The Bronx is Burning” star Oliver Platt, who was born in 1960; Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, who was born in 1960; Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who was born in 1964; singer-songwriter Rob Zombie, who was born in 1965; “Insecure” star Issa Rae, who was born in 1985; and former One Direction singer Zayn Malik, who was born in 1993.