August 9: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 9, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1914, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “LA ROCHELLE, FRANCE — Georges Rignoux, a young inventor of La Rochelle, believes that he is on the high way to solving the problem of ‘television’: in other words, of transmitting pictures of material objects by wire on the same principle that sounds are now transmitted. He has already succeeded in reproducing the letters of the alphabet from one room to another. The telephone of the future, he states, will probably have a mirror attachment, in which the man at the receiver will clearly see the features of the person with whom he is talking. The German scientist, Korn, and others have projected photographs by wire, but M. Rignoux is working on the theory of an instantaneous telephonic transmission that does not necessarily leave an imprint. His apparatus, which he calls the ‘telephote,’ was the subject of a discussion at the French Academy of Sciences.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, the Eagle reported, “BERLIN, AUG. 8 (AP) — Three Far Western youths swept the boards for America in the Olympic decathlon competition today, led by Colorado’s magnificent Glenn Morris, who smashed his own world record, scaling Olympic heights as a climax to his first year in all-round competition. The Fort Collins automobile salesman, who got the idea admiring Jarring Jim Bausch capture another record-cracking Olympic tussle at Los Angeles in 1932, outstripped two Californians, Bob Clark and Jack Parker, while running up the amazing aggregate of 7,900 points. The 24-year-old former Colorado State College football and track star’s performance was capped by a sensational stretch sprint concluding the 1,500 meter run which carried him to the tape in 4:33.2, and gave him sufficient points to beat his own world mark by exactly 20 points. Morris’ exploits in the strenuous two-day, ten-event test enabled him to wipe out the Olympic record set by his former idol, Bausch, by 502 points under the new scoring system. Bausch operated under the old system, but his figures translated total 7,398 points.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “MANILA (U.P.) — Millions of leaflets calling upon the Japanese people to revolt against their leaders and sue for peace were dropped on Japan by American planes today. The leaflet barrage coincided with Russia’s entry into the Pacific war and the dropping of a second atomic bomb on the enemy homeland. It supplemented round-the-clock radio warnings from American propaganda stations in the Pacific to Japan to surrender to save herself from utter destruction. Allied propagandists believed Japan might be ripe for surrender. Soviet Foreign Commissar V.M. Molotov revealed last night that peace was in her mind when he said that Tokyo had asked Moscow to mediate with the Western Allies for her. Emperor Hirohito even sent a personal request to Moscow to do everything possible for a negotiated peace, Molotov said. British political quarters believed Emperor Hirohito himself will sue for peace within a few weeks, a London dispatch said.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (U.P.) — All members of the British royal family have returned to London in anticipation of the birth later this week of Princess Elizabeth’s second child, royal household sources said today.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “DENVER (U.P.) — John Foster Dulles expects foreign policy to be the major issue of the Presidential campaign. Dulles made the prediction yesterday in a statement in which he said that he, Republican Presidential Candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice Presidential Candidate Richard M. Nixon agreed that present foreign policies have put the nation in its ‘greatest peril’ in history. Dulles, author of the foreign policy plank of the G.O.P. platform, has spent most of the past two days here discussing that subject with Eisenhower. ‘I think we all agree (Eisenhower, Nixon and Dulles) that the trend of present foreign policies is to put our nation in the greatest peril it has ever been in the entire course of national history,’ Dulles said. If Russia is permitted to continue to pick up parts of the free world ‘piece by piece’ and build up her power, then Dulles said he did ‘not think general war can be avoided because the Communist leaders will then have a good hope of victory.’ He said he had worked with Gov. Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, Democratic Presidential candidate, and had a ‘very high personal regard’ for him, but that he thought only Eisenhower was capable of doing the job that had to be done in the field of foreign policy.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Cousy, who was born in 1928; “Road House” star Sam Elliott, who was born in 1944; Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Simmons, who was born in 1949; “Working Girl” star Melanie Griffith, who was born in 1957; rap legend Kurtis Blow, who was born in 1959; fashion designer Michael Kors, who was born in 1959; Hockey Hall of Famer Brett Hull, who was born in 1964; “Today” co-anchor Hoda Kotb, who was born in 1964; Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, who was born in 1967; “The X-Files” star Gillian Anderson, who was born in 1968; “Charlie’s Angels” director McG, who was born in 1968; former N.Y. Knicks head coach Derek Fisher, who was born in 1974; “Boston Legal” star Rhona Mitra, who was born in 1976; “Amelie” star Audrey Tautou, who was born in 1976; Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Chamique Holdsclaw, who was born in 1977; “Pitch Perfect” star Anna Kendrick, who was born in 1985; and former N.Y. Giants cornerback Eli Apple, who was born in 1995.

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GOLD STANDARD: Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal of the 11th Olympic Games on this day in 1936. The track and field legend left Berlin having won the 100 meters, long jump, 200 meters and 4×100-meter relay. His record-breaking performance stood until Carl Lewis won gold medals in the same events at the 1984 Summer Olympics in L.A.

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NATIONAL NIGHTMARE: Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to resign on this day in 1974. The resignation, which the president announced to the American people the night before, became effective at noon. Nixon, who was under threat of impeachment as a result of the Watergate scandal, was succeeded by Vice President Gerald Ford.

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

Quotable:

“Do your best when no one is looking. If you do that, then you can be successful in anything that you put your mind to.”

— Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Cousy, who was born on this day in 1928