April 20: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

April 20, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1853, a Brooklyn Daily Eagle editorial said, “In a part of our yesterday’s edition we briefly announced the death of William Rufus King, the Vice President of the United States. He died on Monday evening at Catawba, in Alabama, which place he had reached on his way home. He got to Catawba on Sunday morning and died at 6 o’clock on Monday evening. He was 67 years of age on the 7th instant, having been born in 1786 in the State of North Carolina.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1875, an Eagle editorial said, “Lexington and Concord held their Centennials yesterday. The first was the basin that caught the first blood of the Revolution; the second was the theatre of the first resistance. The first was baptism; the second inspiration. Yet young Liberty was so lusty that her birth and baptism and coronation befell in the same day. At Lexington R.H. Dana delivered the oration, and James Russell Lowell recited the poem. At Concord, Ralph Waldo Emerson and George William Curtis spoke, and there were other significant proceedings. The President, his Cabinet, a goodly line of executives and statesmen, and generals not a few took part in the celebration at each place.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1896, the Eagle reported, “An automobile, ridden by a young man, was the center of attention on the cycle path yesterday afternoon. The rider ran his machine through the park, going in at the plaza entrance, taking the east drive as far as the Ocean avenue gate, where he was ordered out by Sergeant Kelly of the park police, who warned him against riding on the boulevard or cycle path without a special permit.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1924, the Eagle reported, “NEW ORLEANS (A.P.) — “‘Marihuana,’ or ‘Marijuana,’ as some spell it, the everyday ‘loco weed’ that formerly grew wild on the deserts of northern Mexico, now is being cultivated on thousands of acres in that country for sale to addicts of the plant in this country, according to Valdo Santos, arrested here with five pounds of it in his possession. Santos was charged with violating a city ordinance against the sale and possession of the product. The weed, which Santos said is being sent from Mexico to agents in all parts of the United States for distribution, is smoked in the form of cigarettes and, according to Santos, ‘the business beats bootlegging because the fines are smaller and I sell it for 35 cents a cigarette.’ Authorities say the stuff has almost every known effect upon persons who use it. In some it produces a feeling of exhilaration or grandeur, but instances have been known where crazed addicts have committed murder.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Eagle reported, “HOLLYWOOD (AP) — Paul Kelly, film juvenile, faced a manslaughter charge today in connection with the death of Ray Raymond, musical comedy star, on his own admission that he had engaged in a fist fight with the actor in a quarrel over Raymond’s wife, Dorothy Mackaye, stage actress. Raymond died at a hospital early yesterday after a fight with Kelly in the former’s home Saturday night. Details of the affair were not revealed until yesterday because Dr. Arthur Sullivan, who attended Raymond, signed a death certificate giving nephritic coma following Bright’s disease as the cause of the actor’s death. Raymond’s body showed several cuts and bruises. The arrest of Kelly, who is 27 years old, followed an investigation by Captain of Detectives Herman Kline when he learned an attempt had been made to withhold the facts regarding Raymond’s death. Deputy District Attorney Ellis Eagan, after questioning Kelly, Miss Mackaye and other witnesses, announced he would request the issuance of a manslaughter complaint against the screen player today, pending the outcome of a Coroner’s inquest tomorrow. Kelly, in a statement to police, told of the fight with Raymond, and frankly professed to be in love with the actor’s wife. ‘I love Dorothy. I always have and always will,’ he said. Miss Mackaye, under a doctor’s care at her home, admitted that it was her friendship for Kelly that caused the trouble between the youth and her husband. ‘I met Paul when he was a kid actor in New York,’ she sobbed. ‘Our friendship was so clean, lovely and beautiful that I didn’t want to give him up.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1943, the Eagle reported, “CHICAGO (U.P.) — Hank DeBerry, former Dodger catcher and for the last nine years a scout for the Giants, has signed to manage a team in the All-American Girls Softball League. DeBerry is the third pilot to be named. The others are Johnny Gottselig, a member of the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, and Eddie Stumpf, former minor league baseball star. The Girls Softball League will be composed of four teams with the cities in the circuit yet to be named.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “The N.Y. Paramount, for the first time this year, will open its doors at 8 a.m. today for the premiere of ‘The Undercover Man,’ a Columbia melodrama, starring Glenn Ford and featuring Nina Foch. The theater has also scheduled an extra show daily to accommodate the holiday crowds. Miss Foch will appear on stage at the 8 and 10:45 performances tonight. The regular stage show offers Duke Ellington’s Band, Billy Eckstine, Howell and Bowser, and Peck and Peck.” (Editor’s note: Nina Foch was born 100 years ago today. The “Executive Suite” star died in 2008.)

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Russia today pressed a series of power moves along Europe’s Eastern front in what diplomats fear may be the start of the long-awaited Soviet cold war offensive. The Moscow-directed campaign extended from the Baltic, where the United States claims Red air force pilots shot down 10 U.S. Navy airmen on a peaceful mission, to the shores of Asia Minor. The Russians fired a new broadside at Washington over the touchy Baltic incident, claiming the United States ordered the Navy plane to fly over Soviet territory and thus was guilty of a ‘deliberate international provocation.’ At the same time, they reopened their war of nerves against U.S.-backed Turkey at the other end of the Iron Curtain with a new demand for control of the Dardanelles. This move caught the State Department completely by surprise. The big push also was evident in the center of the Eastern European front. Communist-dominated Czechoslovakia cracked down on U.S. propaganda activities and demanded the ouster of a U.S. Embassy official on spy charges. And the controlled press of Communist-dominated Poland stepped up its attacks against the Voice of America. The U.S. Senate voted, 66-0, posthumous decorations for the 10 American fliers amid mounting demands that Russia be arraigned before the United Nations. House approval was considered certain but leaders said it probably would not be taken up before next week.”

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George Takei
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Star Trek” star George Takei, who was born in 1937; “Alien” star Veronica Cartwright, who was born in 1949; two-time Oscar-winning actress Jessica Lange, who was born in 1949; actor and musician Clint Howard, who was born in 1959; former N.Y. Yankees captain Don Mattingly, who was born in 1961; “Back to the Future” star Crispin Glover, who was born in 1964; “Lord of the Rings” star Andy Serkis, who was born in 1964; Dream Theater founder Mike Portnoy, who was born in 1967; “Criminal Minds” star Shemar Moore, who was born in 1970; Olympic gold medalist and N.Y. Knicks executive Allan Houston, who was born in 1971; “Scary Movie” star Carmen Electra, who was born in 1972; “Blossom” star Joey Lawrence, who was born in 1976; and supermodel Miranda Kerr, who was born in 1983.

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

Quotable:

“I’ve always been an outsider. In America, I’ve been a European. In Europe, I’m an American. On Broadway, I was from Hollywood; in Hollywood, I was from Broadway.”

— actress Nina Foch, who was born in the Netherlands on this day in 1924