February 25: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1848, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The announcement of the death of Mr. [John Quincy] Adams in our paper yesterday has proved to be correct. This distinguished statesman, who has been so constantly before the people of the United States for the last sixty years, closed his career appropriately under the dome of the capitol, in the speaker’s room, on Wednesday evening the 23rd of February, at twenty minutes past seven o’clock. It will be remembered that he was seized with illness while attending to his duties in the House, on Monday, the 21st, and just after he had voted on an important question. He was carried into the speaker’s room, to which place medical aid was summoned, but he could not be removed to his own dwelling, and fell appropriately, like a distinguished Roman, in the Senate house. He was scarcely sensible after the attack. On one occasion, however, he opened his eyes and exclaimed, “This is the last of earth — I am composed.’”
***
ON THIS DAY IN 1877, the Eagle reported, “An uncomfortable account of the present condition of Mount Vesuvius was given by professor Boyd Dawkins, at the meeting of the Manchester Geological Society, recently. Professor Dawkins, it seems, visited Vesuvius, a week or two ago, and on arriving at the mouth of the crater found that it was filled with a dense vapor like a fog. A ‘low, roaring noise’ could be heard, and occasionally there was a flash of light, which was probably the reflected glare of lava surging about in the volcano. Undismayed by these symptoms of internal disturbance, the Professor gallantly went down seven or eight feet below the edge of the crater, and found that he could light pieces of paper in holes which he dug with his hammer in the black ash on the inside. Everything, indeed, indicated a tendency to eruption, and, according to the accounts issued by Professor Palmieri, one of the volcano’s periodical attacks of fever may be expected in a comparatively short time. Professor Dawkins is of the opinion that Mount Vesuvius performs the duty of a safety valve to a very large portion of the earth. This may be the case, but the melancholy part of the affair is that the earth should require such a safety valve, and, moreover, that its needs in this respect become more urgent each century of its existence.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.