February 14: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

February 14, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1849, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Department of the Interior. — Congress has now under consideration a project, which it is said will pass, to add a new department and a new cabinet office to the government. This step has been taken by the advice of the secretary of the treasury, and the new department will greatly relieve the pressure on those now in existence. There is to be a secretary, with a salary of six thousand dollars, and a chief clerk of two thousand. It is to take from the state department the census and the patent office; from the treasury, lighthouses, pensions, etc.; from the war department, invalid pensions, Indian offices, etc.; from the navy, naval pensions; and from the executive, the control of the penitentiary and the public building grounds.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1861, the Eagle reported, “Yesterday it was officially announced that Abraham Lincoln has been elected President of the United States for four years from the 4th of March next. This was pretty generally expected throughout the country; our own mind was pretty well satisfied of the fact by reading an ‘extra’ in the grey twilight of a cool and crisp morning about the 7th of November last. There were rumors in the party papers of all sorts of plots to prevent the counting of the electoral vote, but the event proved they were altogether groundless. The ceremony was performed in the usual way, and no improper manifestations were indulged in.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1866, the Eagle reported, “To-day is Ash-Wednesday, the commencement of Lent, the solemn Christian fast of forty days. In the Episcopal Churches appropriate services take place without any sermon, and in the Cathedral (Trinity) a choral penitential service will be held. In the places of worship of the United Church of England and Ireland a curious form of service is introduced on this day. It is called ‘A Commination, or denouncing of God’s anger and judgment against sinners,’ and fulminates all the curses found in the book of Deuteronomy. In the early ages, when public penance was imposed, it was customary on this day for the offender to stand outside the church covered in a coarse garment, with ashes sprinkled on his head, and listen to the lamentations of those within the sanctuary. In the Catholic Churches, the faithful approach the altar and are marked by the priest with the sign of the cross and are at the same time reminded that they are but dust, and unto dust they will return. To-day is also St. Valentine’s day, a much degenerated festival, the only observance of any note consisting merely of the sending of jocular anonymous letters to parties whom one wishes to quiz … Until within a few years ago the ridiculous missives now so plentiful on each recurring Valentine’s day were unknown, but the comic spirit of the age, particularly in this country, has run the Saint’s reputation to the verge of bankruptcy. Beyond awaking the Post Office clerks and gladdening the hearts of a few incipient gentlemen and ladies the day in no wise differs from its fellows.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1891, the Eagle reported, “General William Tecumseh Sherman died at 1:50 o’clock this afternoon. The hopes that had been created by his rallying yesterday were founded upon nothing more substantial than the fact that he was resting easily. From the moment that daylight arrived all hope passed away from the minds of the anxious watchers. The last hours of the great soldier’s life were marked by no incident. He simply sank silently and rapidly to the grave.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1912, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — As the White House clocks were striking ten, President Taft today signed the proclamation admitting Arizona to the Union. In signing the proclamation President Taft added the forty-eighth star to the flag, and brought within the sisterhood of states the last bit of territory within the confines of the continental United States. To perpetuate the scene for future Arizonans the moving picture men invaded the White House for the first time. The President’s office was filled with officers of the new State, Government officials and others interested.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “HOLLYWOOD (U.P.) — Margaret Woodrow Wilson, eldest daughter of the World War President, died in India, where she had been studying religious teachings of Sri Aurobindo, her sister, Mrs. Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, confirmed today. News of Miss Wilson’s death came in a cablegram, which said she had died Feb. 12 of uremia. She was 57. Mrs. McAdoo said any arrangements to return her sister’s body to the United States will probably have to wait until after the war. An accomplished musician and vocalist, Miss Wilson went to India four years ago after announcing she was seeking refuge from a troubled world. She entered the religious colony at Pondicherry, a French town in southern India, and declared she never would return to the outside world. Her main study was the religious philosophy of 71-year-old Aurobindo, who wrote extensively on ancient Hindu religion.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “Puccini’s ‘Tosca’ has been recorded frequently, but never with the vibrancy and urgent excitement engendered by Victor de Sabata in the new two-disc set from Angel. We have always had the feeling that de Sabata was more at home in the opera house than on the concert stage, and this, his first operatic recording, certainly bears out the contention. Brilliantly recorded at La Scala in Milan, it enlists the services of a superb Tosca, Maria Callas; an excellent Cavaradossi, Giuseppe di Stefano, and a good, if not always sufficiently evil Scarpia, Tito Gobbi. Though there is considerable competition from other albums, this is likely to be the definitive ‘Tosca’ for some years.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, a Brooklyn Heights Press editorial said, “Within the walls of Plymouth Church 110 years ago Henry Ward Beecher urged a boycott that was to integrate a segregated, horse-drawn bus that passed the church on Orange St., on its way to the Fulton Ferry. Within the walls of Plymouth Church last Sunday evening Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led a similar boycott a century later in Montgomery, Alabama, made a stirring presentation for racial equality. That the stigma of racial prejudice is still with us is apparent to anyone who can read the written laws of the South and the unwritten laws of the North. That this stigma must be banished forever should be apparent to anyone with the moral sense to distinguish right from wrong.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, who was born in 1941; former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was born in 1942; “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” actor Andrew Robinson, who was born in 1942; journalist Carl Bernstein, who was born in 1944; sportscaster Pat O’Brien, who was born in 1948; magician Teller, who was born in 1948; motivational speaker and former baseball player Dave Dravecky, who was born in 1956; opera star Renee Fleming, who was born in 1959; Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly, who was born in 1960; “Just Shoot Me!” star Enrico Colantoni, who was born in 1963; “Shaun of the Dead” star Simon Pegg, who was born in 1970; former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who was born in 1972; Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas, who was born in 1972; former N.Y. Mets and Yankees pitcher Tyler Clippard, who was born in 1985; and “The Good Doctor” star Freddie Highmore, who was born in 1992.