March 18: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

March 18, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1905, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “St. Patrick’s Day in New York City was more notable this year than ever before because the president of the United States came on from Washington and made a speech to the Friendly Sons at their annual banquet held at Delmonico’s last night. The president got one of the most cordial receptions ever given him in New York and he won the admiration of every Friendly Son when he offered a toast to Patrick McDonnell, a youngster two hours old, whose father sent the following telegram to Grandfather Peter McDonnell, one of the diners: ‘Peter McDonnell, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. Patrick just arrived, tired after parade, Sends his regrets to President.’ … President Roosevelt, before he went into his speech proper, said: ‘Now, I want you to join me in drinking the health of Patrick McDonnell and Peter McDonnell and, above all, Mrs. McDonnell.’ There was a great cheer and the grandfather hid his blushing countenance behind a napkin.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1906, the Eagle reported, “The Aero Club of America has received a report from Wilbur and Orville Wright, the brother aeronauts of Dayton, Ohio, who in private trials have made some remarkable aeroplane flights. Their experiments began back in 1900 and have continued up to the present time. Previous to the year 1905, the Wrights experimented at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with man-carrying gliding machines and with a man-carrying motor flyer, which, on the 17th day of December, 1903, sustained itself in the air for 59 seconds, and advanced against a 20-mile wind a distance of 852 feet. Flights to the number of more than 100 had also been made at Dayton, Ohio, in 1904, with a second motor flyer. On these flights, a complete circle made for the first time on the 20th of September, and two flights of three miles each made on the 9th of November and the 1st of December, respectively, were the more notable performances. The object of the 1905 experiments was to determine the cause and discover remedies for obscure and rare difficulties which had been encountered and which it was necessary to overcome before it would be safe to employ flyers for practical purposes.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1913, the Eagle reported, “A large delegation of the members of the Juvenile League were the guests of Street-Cleaning Commissioner Edwards today, at a lecture and motion picture entertainment, in the Jefferson Theater, 811 Myrtle avenue. Reuben S. Simons lectured on the duties of young citizens, and the national anthem was sung. The pictures unfolded a good lesson in the practice of ‘cleaning up.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1928, Eagle columnist Frederick Boyd Stevenson said, “Many of us are speculating as to who will head the Democratic and the Republican presidential tickets. We, for the most part, have been looking at it from the personal standpoint of the various candidates considered as being possibilities in the great race. Once in a while the query is raised: Is such and such a man qualified nationally and internationally to fill the bill? But, in the main, we are looking at it in the light of individualism. Individualism is important, but that individualism should extend to an intimate knowledge of the great issues with which this country is confronted today, and other great issues with which it may be confronted tomorrow. Men and measures are both important, but the man who is to head this nation must measure up to the measures.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1931, Home Talk/The Item reported, “Steady progress on the removal of overhead wires from streets all over the borough has been made, so that all such wires and the poles on which they are strung will be removed by 1938, Home Talk was informed Monday by Deputy Commissioner Harry T. Woods, of the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity. This statement was made in response to the protests by the Bay Ridge Chamber of Commerce that telephone poles make local streets ugly and should be removed. Anthony Huber, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, stated that while many of the wires of the Brooklyn Edison Co. had been removed, the telephone wires and the poles remained, with no apparent effort being made to rush the work. ‘The city is working in cooperation with the electric and telephone companies,’ Commissioner Woods said. ‘It is possible to do only one street at a time. The entire borough has been zoned for the work, with progress being made in an orderly fashion.’ Commissioner Woods said that the entire cost of the change was being borne by the telephone and electric companies, the city not being involved. He added that the city could not force the work to be done, although it issued permits for the work. The work was started in 1926, the commissioner said, with several Bay Ridge streets being used as models for the work. According to Mr. Huber, the poles should be removed to back yards with most of the wires placed underground. Many of the poles now in the streets are on Colonial rd., he said, and destroy the appearance of the houses bordering it.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “KEY WEST, FLA. (U.P.) — President Truman, who feels that his greatest accomplishment has been to prevent World War III, once bluntly rebuked his Secretary of State, James F. Byrnes, for taking too much authority in handling U.S. foreign policy. This and other intimate details of Mr. Truman’s years in the White House were revealed today in ‘Mr. President,’ a book by William Hillman. Mr. Truman believes that ‘Twelve years in Washington is enough for any man,’ the book discloses. And he advocates revolutionary changes in the structure of the Federal Government to ‘help cure senility and seniority — both terrible legislative diseases nationally.’ He would limit the service of U.S. Senators to two six-year terms, increase the House term to four years and limit each Representative to 12 years in Congress. This contrasted with a flat White House denial last April that Mr. Truman had ever regarded such a plan seriously.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “TAMPA (UPI) — An overflow crowd of 8,359, largest in Tampa’s history, saw the Cincinnati Reds beat the New York Yankees, 6-3, yesterday. Wally Post and Gordy Coleman socked homers for the Reds, who combed Yankee hurlers Jackie McCullen, Al Downing and Bud Daley for 12 hits. Jim Maloney, Jim Brosnan and Bill Henry teamed up to stop the Yanks on eight hits. Rookie Pete Rose’s single, a balk, and Gene Freese’s single gave the Reds a run in the first inning.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “New York, New York” co-writer John Kander, who was born in 1927; Hockey Hall of Famer Guy Lapointe, who was born in 1948; “Child’s Play” star Brad Dourif, who was born in 1950; Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen, who was born in Brooklyn in 1951; “Save the Best for Last” singer Vanessa Williams, who was born in 1963; Olympic gold medal-winning speed skater Bonnie Blair, who was born in 1964; Alice in Chains founder Jerry Cantrell, who was born in 1966; “Living Single” star Queen Latifah, who was born in 1970; “Younger” star Sutton Foster, who was born in 1975; football player and broadcaster Brian Griese, who was born in 1975; Maroon 5 founder Adam Levine, who was born in 1979; Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Rebecca Soni, who was born in 1987; “Emily in Paris” star Lily Collins, who was born in 1989; and “Big Time Rush” star Ciara Bravo, who was born in 1997.

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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.

Quotable:

“My first-grade teacher told me I was the dumbest student she ever had. She did me a favor. If she told me I was very smart, I wouldn’t have tried to improve.”

— businessman and philanthropist Ernest Gallo, who was born on this day in 1909