January 16: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

January 16, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1906, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin tomorrow will be celebrated in all the public schools. Superintendent Maxwell, in an order sent to the principals, says: ‘It is fitting that the event should be commemorated in the public schools. On Wednesday, therefore, at the morning assembly, you will provide exercises appropriate to the occasion. The attention of our pupils should be called to Franklin’s achievements as a printer, journalist, scientist, author, diplomatist and statesman.’ The Bureau of Libraries has prepared a brief bibliography on Franklin which has been mailed to the principals. The New York Master Printers Association will have a dinner at the New Grand Hotel, Broadway and Thirty-first street, this evening, in celebration of the anniversary. Addresses will be made by the Rev. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman on ‘Our Debt to Franklin,’ and Postmaster Wilcox on ‘Franklin and the Post Office.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON, JAN. 15 (AP) — A clear majority of administration supporters on the Supreme Court appeared assured today when President Roosevelt nominated Solicitor General Stanley Reed, a veteran defender of the New Deal enactments, to succeed retiring Justice George Sutherland. Senators, who must pass upon the nomination, generally applauded the selection of the bald-headed Kentucky lawyer and dairyman. Even some bitter foes of the president’s defeated bill to reorganize the high tribunal joined in expressing approval. But there were numerous demands that public hearings be conducted before the Senate votes on the appointment, in view of the public furor caused by belated revelations that Justice Hugo L. Black, President Roosevelt’s only other nominee to the court, was once a member of the Ku Klux Klan.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1955, the Eagle reported, “The long-envisioned Narrows Bridge, now closer to reality than ever before, will be a $220,000,000 double-decked, 12-laned colossus presenting a greater engineering challenge than the Golden Gate Bridge. The tremendous suspension span, connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island, may be under construction by the end of this year at the earliest and may be in use by Jan. 1, 1960. Recommended by the Port of New York Authority and the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority after a joint year-long study, the structure will be connected to a proposed 12-lane expressway running north through Bay Ridge along 7th Ave. Plans call for the bridge approaches to be located on the Fort Hamilton Military Reservation in Brooklyn and Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. Permission to use the Government property for approach and anchorage purposes is being sought and a plan is being developed in conjunction with the First Army and the Army engineers for reconstruction and relocation of military installations in the way of the bridge and approaches. Austin J. Tobin, executive director of the Port Authority, reported that the Army has been ‘most co-operative’ in working out the plan. He said the cost of paying the Army for the adjustments would be included in the $220,000,000 figure. The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority holds a Federal Government permit to build a bridge across the Narrows, but under the new plan the Port Authority will build it. The former agency will then lease the bridge and buy it some ten years after it is completed.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1955, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON, JAN. 15 (U.P.) — Senator Prescott Bush said today the public ‘will collect the dividends’ on the Senate Banking Committee’s impending study of the booming stock market. ‘After all,’ the Connecticut Republican averred, ‘the Securities and Exchange Act was passed 20 years ago to protect the public interest. Now is a good time to check and determine how well it is working out.’ Senator Bush said he is sure the inquiry, under the leadership of Chairman J. William Fulbright (D-Ark.), will look conscientiously for the causes in the 15-month bull market which has shot prices up spectacularly.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1959, the Brooklyn Record reported, “New York University’s ‘Sunrise Semester’ scholars may be burning some midnight oil tonight and during the coming week. The video students, located throughout the New York metropolitan area, are preparing for final examinations in the four credit courses NYU has been offering over WCBS-TV (Channel 2) since last September. Because some students are enrolled in more than one of the courses, the examinations have been scheduled on two successive Saturdays — tomorrow and a week from tomorrow. They will be given in Room 508 of NYU’s Main Building at 100 Washington Square East … During the current term ‘Sunrise Semester’ was seen six hours a week — 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. Monday through Friday and 7 to 8 on Saturday — from September 29 thru January 13.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1959, the Record reported, “Nearly half a million telephone customers in New York City will use a new service which enables them to dial their own long distance calls starting early in 1959.”

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Lin-Manuel Miranda
CJ Rivera/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist William Kennedy, who was born in 1928; political commentator Norman Podhoretz, who was born in 1930; opera singer Marilyn Horne, who was born in 1934; Auto Racing Hall of Famer A.J. Foyt, who was born in 1935; Country Music Hall of Famer Ronnie Milsap, who was born in 1943; radio host Laura Schlessinger, who was born in Brooklyn in 1947; “Escape from New York” director John Carpenter, who was born in 1948; “Fame” star Debbie Allen, who was born in 1950; “Smooth Operator” singer Sade, who was born in 1959; En Vogue co-founder Maxine Jones, who was born in 1962; International Boxing Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr., who was born in 1969; model and fashion designer Kate Moss, who was born in 1974; Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was born in 1980; and “DeGrassi: The Next Generation” star Jake Epstein, who was born in 1987.