April 21: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

April 21, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1926, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “LONDON (AP) — The Duke and Duchess of York are the proud possessors of a girl baby. The little Princess made her advent into the world at 2:40 o’clock this morning in the childhood bedroom of the Duchess in the town house of her father, the Earl of Strathmore. The baby is the first child of the Duke and Duchess. The Duke of York is the second son of King George and Queen Mary. The Duchess was formerly Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. The couple were married in Westminster Abbey, April 4, 1923 … Although it is a somewhat remote contingency, there is a possibility that today’s baby one day may sit on the throne as a British sovereign. Should both the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York die before King George, with neither leaving an heir, the Duke of York’s daughter would stand in the same position with respect to the crown as did Queen Victoria when William IV died … The news of the birth of the Princess was immediately telephoned to the King and Queen at Windsor Castle … A message also was telegraphed to the Prince of Wales, who is on the Continent. He is the eldest uncle of the little Princess and has high regard for the Duchess, whom he calls ‘Queen Elizabeth.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “Brooklyn’s Jewish housewives checked their larders today, while rabbis, cantors and choirs prepared for religious services and Jewish charitable and welfare organizations distributed hundreds of baskets of food to the needy, all in anticipation of the Jewish Passover, which begins at sundown tomorrow night with the Feast of Seder, the oldest and one of the happiest holidays in the Jewish calendar. The Passover holiday, also known as Pesach, lasts eight days, or until a week from Tuesday, at sundown. Many of the reformed Jews keep the holiday only seven days. It is a happy festival for the Jews because it commemorates their exodus from Egypt after 400 long years of bondage under the Pharaohs. It is a ‘festival of deliverance,’ and religious leaders this year will stress again its peculiarly current significance when Jews in Central Europe are persecuted and are forced to degrading labor as were the Israelites in Egypt.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “Barring snowstorms or heat waves, next Sunday should be ‘Forsythia Time’ in this borough, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden announced yesterday. The garden has been famous for years for its forsythia shrubs, which grow in abundance in all parts of the garden and burst into radiant yellow bloom at about this time of year. This year the blossoming of the forsythia is given added importance, since Brooklyn has adopted it as its official plant. Today’s visitors to the garden will see the vanguard of the naturalized daffodils whose annual blooming on Boulder Hill is a horticultural event. The hill will probably be covered with hosts of these handsome yellow flowers next Sunday, ten days later than the usual date. Many of the earlier rock-garden flowers are already in bloom. These include squills, glory-of-the-snow, early rockcress, snowflake, leather saxifrage, netted iris and others. Crocuses are near the end of their blooming period. Dr. H.K. Svenson, curator of the herbarium at the garden, will conduct the first trip in ‘Native Plants Under Cultivation’ on Tuesday morning. The course deals with native flowers of the New York area. The course in ‘Wild Flowers and Ferns of the New York Region’ will begin Saturday, with Miss Hester M. Rusk as instructor.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (U.P.) — The Royal Air Force sent its strongest fleet of the war against Europe last night, boosting to nearly 17,000 tons the weight of bombs dropped on the Continent in four days of preinvasion bombardment by about 9,000 Allied planes. More than 1,100 British bombers hit Cologne, the outskirts of Paris and two rail centers serving the invasion coast, and jabbed lightly at Berlin in what appeared to be the most powerful bombing broadside of all time. American Marauders, medium bombers and Havoc assault planes, supported by Spitfires of the British Tactical Air Force, carried the record offensive against the Continent into its fifth day with daylight blows on northern France. The Nazi controlled Paris radio said this afternoon that delayed action bombs dropped during the night still were exploding ‘almost every moment’ and asked: ‘How many more of these nights of terror shall we have to endure before the invasion starts?’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Eagle reported, “If the new A.F.L. dock union wins the forthcoming waterfront election, the old International Longshoremen’s Association probably will stage another ‘wildcat’ walkout, according to Lawrence E. Walsh, executive director of the Bi-State Waterfront Commission. There is no immediate prospect for peace no matter which side wins, Walsh said last night. ‘The certainty of further upheavals is no reason for discouragement,’ he said. ‘They speed reform — they don’t delay it.’ Peaceful changes can’t be expected, he said, when corruption is as intrenched as it is on the New York waterfront. He said even the recent I.L.A. stoppage had been a step toward better conditions because it showed that at least 5,000 A.F.L. dockmen would pass through I.L.A. picket lines to go to work.”

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Andie MacDowell
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include comedy legend Elaine May, who was born in 1932; former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, who was born in 1935; Bronze Star recipient and 1973 American League Rookie of the Year Al Bumbry, who was born in 1947; “Godfather of Punk” Iggy Pop, who was born in 1947; American Theater Hall of Famer Patti LuPone, who was born in 1949; “Taxi” star Tony Danza, who was born in Brooklyn in 1951; “24” star James Morrison, who was born in 1954; N.Y. Mets World Series hero Jesse Orosco, who was born in 1957; “Groundhog Day” star Andie MacDowell, who was born in 1958; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Robert Smith (The Cure), who was born in 1959; “Mad TV” star Nicole Sullivan, who was born in 1970; “X-Men” star James McAvoy, who was born in 1979; broadcaster and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who was born in 1980; and former Brooklyn Nets center Jarrett Allen, who was born in 1998.

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

Quotable:

“It is through the lens of history that we should view the conflicts of today, and so give us hope for tomorrow.”
— Queen Elizabeth II, who was born on this day in 1926