March 15: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

March 15, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1885, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “DUBLIN, MARCH 14 — At a meeting tonight of thirty Parnellite members of the Municipal Council, at which Lord Mayor O’Connor presided, it was resolved to move at the meeting of the Council on Monday to present an address to the Prince and Princess of Wales, setting forth that in the present condition of the country, while desirous that no discourtesy shall be offered to the royal visitors, the corporation should abstain from taking an official part in their reception.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1901, the Eagle reported, “Isaiah T. Montgomery, a man who was once a slave of Jefferson Davis, and who is now the Mayor of Mound Bayou, a negro town which he has built up in the Yazoo Delta, in Mississippi, is to be one of the guest speakers, along with Bishop Potter, Booker T. Washington and Paul Lawrence Dunbar, at the meeting to be held in Madison Square Garden Concert Hall, Monday evening, March 18, at 8:30, for the benefit of Tuskegee Institute.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1912, the Eagle reported, “President Taft has lengthened somewhat his lead over Colonel Roosevelt in the third day’s canvass of the Eagle of the enrolled Republicans of Brooklyn. The returns today give Taft 135 votes and Roosevelt 120. This gives to Taft an aggregate of 450 and to Roosevelt 326 votes, a plurality of 124.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1914, the Eagle reported, “Students at Brooklyn College are making plans for a very busy campaign on the diamond this season. The Blue and White candidates have been practicing in the gymnasium for the past three weeks and everything points to a strong team being developed. Seven members of last year’s nine will be seen in the line-up, the veterans being Captain ‘Larry’ Kelly, second base; ‘Jim’ McCaffrey, first base; Andrew Torre, catcher; ‘Joe’ Torre, third base, and Rodier and Lynch substitutes. ‘Tom’ Byrne and ‘Bill’ Harvey, who played centerfield and shortstop, respectively, last season, will join the team after the University of Pennsylvania relay carnival on April 25.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1935, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — Cosmic rays, as sources of industrial power, must join split atoms in the limbo of impracticable dream-schemes. Justification for cosmic ray investigations must be found in their value as aids in our better understanding of the universe and the eventual better conduct of life. This was the basic philosophic theme of an address on cosmic rays delivered here last night by Dr. Thomas H. Johnson, researcher at the Bartol Foundation, Swarthmore, Pa., under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, of which he is also an associate. ‘The total energy falling upon the earth’s surface in the form of cosmic radiation is about one-thousandth that of starlight, one-billionth that of sunlight,’ said Dr. Johnson. ‘If the cosmic ray energy were equal to that of sunlight, the latter would still prove to be the better source of power, for the extreme penetrating ability of the cosmic radiation prevents its concentration for conversion into useful forms of work.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, NAPLES (U.P.) — Allied land and air forces launched a tremendous offensive against the German mountain stronghold of Cassino today and leveled the mile-square stone village with three and one-half hours of the heaviest aerial bombing ever concentrated in so small an area. Mustering every plane in their Mediterranean arsenal from tiny Spitfires to giant Flying Fortresses and Liberators, the Allied airmen sent 1,400 tons of bombs crashing down on Cassino in a deluge unbroken from the moment the first wave went over until noon when the 5th Army’s ground troops moved into the shattered enemy positions which had held their advance in central Italy toward Rome for weeks. Another 1,400 tons of high explosives and fragmentation bombs were dumped on Nazi gunners crouching in foxholes and trenches in the hills north and northeast of Cassino. The twin aerial blow, combining a weight of explosives not surpassed even in the heaviest of the mass raids on Berlin, was the opening phase of the ‘big push’ by the Allied 5th Army to crush the Nazis’ stubborn resistance in the mountains of central Italy. Observers said Cassino, the focal point of the German defense, was wiped from the earth under the air assault and the storm of shellfire from massed artillery which followed it.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “Supreme Court Justice Thomas C. Cuff and representatives of the Port of New York Authority and eight major airlines of the United States were to meet today in the judge’s chambers in Queens to discuss the deadlock over future air operations at the New York International Airport at Idlewild. It was learned that Justice Cuff was trying to act as a mediator in order to permit the giant new Boeing Stratocruisers to operate at Idlewild even if other points in the dispute are still unsettled. Because of their weight the big liners, civilian versions of the B-50 bomber which went around the world non-stop, can be used only in the New York area at Idlewild. The authority reportedly agreed to build temporary accommodations for Stratocruisers if the airlines suspended all lawsuits against it for two years, negotiating meanwhile. The airlines, in turn, have offered to put up temporary accommodations of their own and continue bargaining but the authority has refused this.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON, MARCH 14 (U.P.) — The American Medical Association’s House of Delegates, acting after a friendship pledge from President Eisenhower, today approved his plan to create a new department of health, education and welfare. Unanimous support was voted the plan after Mr. Eisenhower told the medical men he is opposed to compulsory or socialized medicine and that his administration does not intend to become ‘the big poo-bah’ by creating the new department. The A.M.A. said Mr. Eisenhower’s plan is a ‘step in the right direction,’ words sharply at odds to the ones they accorded former President Truman when he twice submitted to Congress similar plans. Mr. Eisenhower handed to Congress Thursday a plan to reorganize the sprawling Federal Security Agency into the new department and bring its head, Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby, into his Cabinet.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (UPI) — Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. yesterday defended his automobile driving record before a Senate committee considering his appointment as undersecretary of commerce. Roosevelt told a determined Republican questioner he did not think loss of his driver’s license for traffic violations constituted a ‘public-be-damned’ attitude. He got the license back by attending a traffic school. The son of the late President was questioned at length by Sen. Winston L. Prouty, R-Vt., on the loss and subsequent restoration of his driver’s license and his 1956 legal representation of the Dominican Republic, led then by dictator Rafael Trujillo. But despite Prouty’s questioning, Senate Republicans made it clear Roosevelt’s nomination would be approved. Prouty conceded that Roosevelt’s motoring violations, five in all, were mostly minor — involving wrong turns, passing flashing red lights or a stop sign — but asked the appointee: ‘Does it not suggest a public-be-damned attitude with respect to use of the streets and highways?’ Roosevelt replied that it ‘depends on who you ask it of. If you ask me, I’d say no.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Taxi” star Judd Hirsch, who was born in 1935; jazz musician Charles Lloyd, who was born in 1938; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead), who was born in 1940; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Mike Love (The Beach Boys), who was born in 1941; “Crash” director David Cronenberg, who was born in 1943; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sly Stone, who was born in 1943; former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green, who was born in Brooklyn in 1945; Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider, who was born in 1955; Baseball Hall of Famer Harold Baines, who was born in 1959; “Wishing Well” singer Terence Trent D’Arby, who was born in 1962; “Soap” star Jimmy Baio, who was born in Brooklyn in 1962; Poison singer Bret Michaels, who was born in 1963; “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria, who was born in 1975; and rapper and actor will.i.am, who was born in 1975.