June 2: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

June 2, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1895, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “‘Gowning week’ is the extra vacation allowed the senior girls in many schools in which to prepare graduating dresses. All white is as much a matter of course for these costumes as for bridal gowns, and it is safe to say that the occasion is as important to the young girl as her marriage ceremony later. If something of a coquette, she may peep in the glass and imagine how she will look as a bride, when her simple white dimity shall be exchanged for heavy white satin.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1916, the Eagle reported, “Declaring the burning of the United States flag, by Bouck White and his followers, last night, was ‘an outrage which should not be tolerated,’ Police Commissioner Woods today instructed Deputy Commissioner Lord to consult with District Attorney Swann on the advisability of prosecuting those who participated in the ‘desecration.’ Commissioner Woods then assigned detectives to secure evidence against members of the Church of the Social Revolution, in order that it might be available, if needed by the District Attorney. The Commissioner said today that he knew only of the flag-burning ceremonies through accounts in the morning newspapers. ‘If the report is true,’ said the Commissioner, ‘such an outrage should not be tolerated. I have assigned detectives to investigate the case thoroughly, and have instructed Deputy Police Commissioner Lord to confer with District Attorney Swann on the steps to be taken in the matter. If the District Attorney believes the alleged participants in the desecration should be punished, the Detective Bureau will present all the facts and evidence at his disposal.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Eagle reported, “A shark which appeared to be 40 feet long was sighted by Heber Ridgeway approximately 480 miles from New York when the S.S. Halizones, on which Ridgeway is third mate, was on the return trip from India via Gibraltar recently. Since sharks seldom attain a length of more than 25 or 30 feet, this report is arousing considerable interest among seamen of the Brooklyn waterfront. ‘It was an enormous blighter,’ said Ridgeway, who is British. ‘We slid by within a hundred feet of it and I had plenty of time to look it over and make an estimate of its length. Its dorsal fin was as tall as I am. Soon it dove and did not reappear. Its size was more that of a whale than a shark.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “Whittaker Chambers testified this afternoon at the Alger Hiss perjury trial that he introduced Hiss to the Russian espionage agent, Col. Boris Bykov, in the mezzanine of the Prospect Theater in Brooklyn, a movie house, in January or February of 1937. Chambers declared that Bykov came out of the audience in the theater and sat down between them. He spoke in German and Hiss spoke in English, said Chambers, who recalled that he acted as interpreter. Chambers told Federal Judge Samuel H. Kaufman and a jury in Manhattan that he conducted Hiss to the meeting in the darkened theater after he met him on Chambers St. near City Hall in lower Manhattan. He related how both he and the defendant took the ‘old elevated’ to the 9th Ave. station in Brooklyn, went to the theater, and sat in the mezzanine until Bykov, whom he identified as the head of the Red underground movement in the U.S., came up to meet them. Chambers said that after the meeting, which was by prearrangement with the Red spy, he and Hiss walked out of the theater and toward Prospect Park to Grand Army Plaza. They then took a subway and a taxi to the Port Arthur Restaurant in Manhattan, he said. Previously Chambers testified that he was originally introduced to Hiss in a Washington restaurant by Harold Ware and J. Peters, alleged Red underground leaders. The purpose of the conversation in the restaurant as outlined by Chambers was, ‘I was to head an underground apparatus.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “KATMANDU, NEPAL (U.P.) — The British Union Jack waved today where man never had set foot before — atop 29,002-foot-high Mount Everest. E.P. Hillary, a New Zealand beekeeper, and Tensing Bhutia, a rugged Sherpa guide, reached the summit of the previously unconquered world’s highest mountain last Friday and planted the British flag. They sent down a signal that ‘all is well,’ that man finally had won his greatest physical victory over nature and the elements. Col. H.J.C. Hunt, leader of the British expedition, immediately dispatched a runner to Katmandu, nearest town to Everest’s dangerous slopes, with the glad news that the mission had been accomplished before Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. It took the runner three days to reach here. The news quickly was flashed to Buckingham Palace and Britain’s young queen was awakened to hear it only a few hours before she was scheduled to begin the greatest day of her life. Before she left Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey for the coronation ceremony, the young queen sent this message to the British team: “Please convey to Colonel (John) Hunt and all members of the British expedition my warmest congratulations on their great achievement in reaching the summit of Mount Everest. (Signed) Elizabeth R.”

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Morena Baccarin
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Mike Hammer” star Stacy Keach, who was born in 1941; “Leave It to Beaver” star Jerry Mathers, who was born in 1948; political commentator Jeanine Pirro, who was born in 1951; NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who was born in 1952; “24” star Dennis Haysbert, who was born in 1954; “Saturday Night Live” star Dana Carvey, who was born in 1955; former N.Y. Yankees and Mets pitcher Mike Stanton, who was born in 1967; “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” star Wayne Brady, who was born in 1972; former N.Y. Yankees outfielder Raul Ibanez, who was born in 1972; “Prison Break” star Wentworth Miller, who was born in 1972; “Star Trek” star Zachary Quinto, who was born in 1977; “Unhappily Ever After” star Nikki Cox, who was born in 1978; “Homeland” star Morena Baccarin, who was born in 1979; National Soccer Hall of Famer Abby Wambach, who was born in 1980; “The Farewell” star Awkwafina, who was born in 1988; and “Bizaardvark” star Madison Hu, who was born in 2002.