February 15: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

February 15, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

Share this:

ON THIS DAY IN 1884, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The Assembly this morning passed resolutions of sympathy with Mr. [Theodore] Roosevelt in his recent double bereavement, and after a few remarks by different members the House adjourned. General Husted offered the resolution and made a feeling speech. He was followed by Assemblymen Haggerty, Johnson, Hunt, Van Allen, O’Neil and Heath. It was a solemn occasion. There were but few dry eyes when the motion to adjourn was carried by a rising vote. Mr. Roosevelt is universally liked by his colleagues. The Senate was in session just fifteen minutes when a motion to adjourn was rushed through.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1903, the Eagle reported, “Many young folks in Brooklyn did not receive the valentines which were mailed to them yesterday. The carriers made their last trip last evening several hours behind schedule time and were compelled to abandon their trips in order to comply with the postal regulations, which provide that they shall not work longer than eight hours. If they broke the rule, they would forfeit their day’s pay.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1906, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — Miss [Alice] Roosevelt is sharing the fate of nearly every bride who plans an elaborate trousseau. Up to noon to-day the great, much-talked-about bridal gown had not arrived. It was due here on Wednesday morning, and the frantic messages which have gone out from the White House must convey some idea to the New York modiste of the enormity of trifling with the hopes of the daughter of the President of the United States. Miss Roosevelt is less concerned than the members of her family. She spent the morning at the milliner’s, and afterward stopped in at Senator Kean’s, where several of her cousins are guests. This delay about Miss Roosevelt’s wedding gown may almost be termed a national disappointment, because had it arrived on schedule time, the bride intended to have her photograph taken in it. Now there is little likelihood of its coming until some time to-morrow, and Miss Roosevelt has positively declined to make any engagements for photographs with the final details to arrange. She will have a very busy day, and to-morrow every moment is engaged.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1928, the Eagle reported, “After a year spent in studying the club quarters of the country’s principal athletic clubs, plans have been formulated for the clubhouse of the newly organized Downtown Athletic Club in Wall st. and lower Manhattan. Facilities have been planned for more than a score of indoor sports. Among the features planned are an 18-hole indoor golf course, a full-sized swimming tank, gymnasia, track, boxing and wrestling rings, handball and squash courts. The club was organized by men prominent in the business and financial district centering about Wall st. Although membership is restricted, it has already passed the 1,000 mark.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, NAPLES (U.P.) — American Flying Fortresses and big siege guns of the 5th Army poured a drumfire of death into the ancient Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino today and front reports said the two-way bombardment had knocked out the powerful German defenses inside the shrine and on the surrounding mountain slopes. The merciless bombing and shelling was launched only after American troops had suffered bloody losses for almost two weeks to save the shrine from destruction, while swarms of Allied bombing planes began what appeared to be an all-out offensive to smash the German armies in western Italy. Simultaneously, an Allied headquarters spokesman declared that the German offensive against the Allied beachhead below Rome had ended in ‘costly failure.’ More than 100 Flying Fortresses, flying in four waves, sprayed tons of high explosives and fragmentation bombs over German gunners crouching inside the stone-walled Benedictine monastery. American infantrymen, who for weeks had been at the mercy of Nazi artillery directed and fired from the abbey, watched with satisfaction and awe as the bombs tumbled from the bellies of the high-flying Forts. Observers said no one could have remained alive under that hail of bombs.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “TERRE HAUTE, IND., FEB. 14 (U.P.) — Mordecai (Three-Finger) Brown, whose crippled-looking right hand once tyrannized the hitters of the National League, died today. Brown, whose pitching wizardry stemmed from his stubborn refusal to let a boyhood injury hamper him, died at 71 at a hospital after a year-long illness caused by diabetes. His wife, who was his childhood sweetheart, was beside him. He was of a generation which hailed as its heroes Frank Chance, Orville Overall, Chief Bender and others now in the national pastime’s Hall of Fame. Like many of them, he was a farm boy, and when he was in his prime, pitching for the Chicago Cubs of 1904-1912, the word that he was to pitch on a Sunday was good enough to bring other farm boys flocking into Chicago on the trains to see the ‘Three-Fingered’ one on the mound.”

***

Megan Thee Stallion
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Matt Groening
Paul A. Hebert/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Charly” star Claire Bloom, who was born in 1931; feminist author Susan Brownmiller, who was born in Brooklyn in 1935; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Mick Avory (the Kinks), who was born in 1944; “Maus” author Art Spiegelman, who was born in 1948; “Don’t Cry Out Loud” singer Melissa Manchester, who was born in 1951; “Live and Let Die” star Jane Seymour, who was born in 1951; “Eve’s Bayou” star Lynn Whitfield, who was born in 1953; “The Simpsons” creator Matt Groening, who was born in 1954; guitarist Jake E. Lee, who was born in 1957; Pro Football Hall of Famer Darrell Green, who was born in 1960; Space Shuttle astronaut Leland D. Melvin, who was born in 1964; “Family Guy” star Alex Borstein, who was born in 1971; “Xena: Warrior Princess” star Renee O’Connor, who was born in 1971; former N.Y. Rangers right winger Jaromir Jagr, who was born in 1972; Incubus singer Brandon Boyd, who was born in 1976; “Glee” star Amber Riley, who was born in 1986; and rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who was born in 1995.