March 10: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

March 10, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1863, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “In compliment to the Emerald Isle the Secretary of War has named one of the new vessels the ‘Shamrock.’ The Shamrock will be launched on St. Patrick’s Day.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1916, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — Representative Griffin is going to endeavor to have the House Military Appropriation bill amended, so that members of the National Guard in the employ of the Government may be granted leaves of absence with pay so that they can attend maneuvers and encampments. Mr. Griffin will take up this matter at the request of several employees of the Brooklyn Navy Yard who are members of the New York militia. ‘As the National Guard is to take a prominent part in the future military policy of our Government,’ said Mr. Griffin today, ‘I believe this is a splendid time to pass a law granting leave of absences to Government employees so that they can attend their National Guard encampments and maneuvers.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1922, the Eagle reported, “George Wright, star shortstop of the Cincinnati Red Stockings, played throughout the entire season of 1869 for a salary of $1,200. The Red Stockings played fifty-seven games that year, of which they won fifty-six and tied one, a record which has never been duplicated. Wright was the highest paid member of the team. Babe Ruth, home run hitter extraordinaire, signed on Sunday a contract with the New York American League Club which will net him approximately $75,000 during the coming season. The contract is for three years, with a renewal option for two seasons additional. If continued for the full five years, George Herman Ruth will receive a total of not less than $375,000. These figures give an idea of the development of professional baseball in this country during the past fifty years.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1924, the Eagle reported, “LONDON — The Caliphate from now on will be personified by the Turkish Parliament, according to an announcement by Mustapha Kemal Pasha, President of Turkey, as given in an Exchange Telegraph dispatch from Constantinople. The president is said to have made this known in notifying the Mohammedan leaders in India of the Turkish Government’s decision to abolish the Caliphate.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, Eagle columnist Marcia Nardi said, “All through the ages the human imagination has played with the fascinating thought of a man-made man. Who does not remember the penny arcades of his childhood and the mechanical gypsy whose head moved up and down while she told your fortune? In the famous Greek myth on which Bernard Shaw has based one of his plays, Galatea, the marble statue of the sculptor Pygmalion, comes to life. The fancy of Mary Shelley in her novel ‘Frankenstein’ also played with the living creation not of art but of scientific skill. Some seasons ago, a Hungarian playwright wrote a drama in which a scientist created a number of mechanical men called robots, so cunningly contrived that they could do almost anything a human can do. Of course, the flesh and blood creations of the Greek myth and Mary Shelley’s novel still are and probably always will be nothing more than fairy tales. But today the robots of the Hungarian’s play are facts. Captain Alban J. Roberts, an Englishman, invented one that recently became a highly successful vaudeville actor by leading a chorus number made up of live chorus girls. At the London Radio Show, Captain John Richards exhibited another robot, which was able to move his head, sit up, stand up and, by means of a radio unit concealed inside of him, gave the uncanny impression of being able to speak. Before the advent of either the Richards or the Roberts robot, London had seen still another robot, which the public knew as Mr. Televox, and whose function was to answer the telephone. Mr. Televox has crossed the ocean and shown this country he can actually talk. In fact, before this winter is out, America will have been invaded by a whole army of salesmen-robots which have been called ‘almost human automatons,’ and of which the Associated Press says: ‘They will do everything but slap the customer on the back and ask him how his family is.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1932, the Eagle reported, “Gov. A. Harry Moore of New Jersey may call out the State National Guard to aid in the search for the Lindbergh baby. Yesterday a detail of troopers was thrown into the area immediately surrounding the Lindbergh home, outside Hopewell, N.J. A check of all known residences in the vicinity was started. But the Governor, who believes the kidnaped baby is alive and well and will be returned eventually, took ‘under consideration’ a further suggestion, made by The Eagle’s correspondent now in Trenton, for a National Guard mobilization to make a thorough search of every square yard of ground within ten miles of the Lindbergh home. A report today that the baby had been found in Bridgeport, Conn., and was actually on its way to Hopewell in a blue sedan was denied both at Bridgeport and at the Lindbergh home. Advancing in deployed formation over a wide front, the national guardsmen could question every inhabitant in this wild area, search every shack or other possible hideaway, it was pointed out to the Governor by The Eagle correspondent. If the kidnapers instead of taking the obvious course of removing themselves and the baby as far away as possible found a hiding place close by — and the terrain is sufficiently irregular for them to be safe there — only a systematic advance in deployed military formation could dislodge them.”

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Barbara Corcoran
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Walker, Texas Ranger” star Chuck Norris, who was born in 1940; “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” star Katharine Houghton, who was born in 1945; Boston founder Tom Scholz, who was born in 1947; businesswoman and media personality Barbara Corcoran, who was born in 1949; “Basic Instinct” star Sharon Stone, who was born in 1958; “A Different World” star Jasmine Guy, who was born in 1962; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jeff Ament (Pearl Jam), who was born in 1963; music producer Rick Rubin, who was born in 1963; “Buffalo Stance” singer Neneh Cherry, who was born in 1964; singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, who was born in 1966; “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm, who was born in 1971; rapper Timbaland, who was born in 1972; musician and actress Carrie Underwood, who was born in 1983; “House” star Olivia Wilde, who was born in 1984; and “Saturday Night Live” star Ego Nwodim, who was born in 1988.