August 17: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 17, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

Share this:

ON THIS DAY IN 1852, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Mrs. [Margaret] Taylor, the widow of Gen. [Zachary] Taylor, late President of the United States, died at East Pascagoula, on Saturday night last. This is a case which we believe has not occurred before. A President of the United States and his consort have both died within the term for which he was elected.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1860, the Eagle reported, “Mr. Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the Presidency, said to be the ugliest man alive, in his late Springfield speech said: ‘I appear upon the ground here at this time only for the purpose of seeing you and enabling you to see me.’ If half the stories about Lincoln’s ugly phiz are true, his auditors had decidedly the best of the bargain, and were well repaid for traveling any required distance to see the show. But Lincoln by no means monopolizes the show business. Douglas is engaged in the same game, having already exhibited himself in half a dozen States, and intending to make the tour of the Union. Would it not be well for Barnum to cage these traveling exhibitions, and show them for a quarter a piece, with ten cents added for a speech? It is too bad to allow such sights to go at large, when a good thing might be made of them.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1931, the Eagle reported, “Fliers at Roosevelt Field were greatly interested in a note found in a bottle which may have been written by Nungasser and Coli, the French fliers who set out from France to cross the Atlantic on May 8, 1927, and were never heard from again. The note was in a cognac bottle that floated upon Oak Beach near Fire Island. It was found Friday by John Gaugher and L.V. Allers of Lindenhurst, L.I. Freely translated it read: ‘We are sinking at this moment near Labrador,’ and was signed Nungasser and Coli.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “Prosecuting authorities in Manhattan today held Lucien Carr, 19, Columbia University sophomore, on a charge of murder for a killing which for 24 hours they had refused to believe. Only the finding of the victim’s body, stabbed, tied and weighted with a rock, as Carr had previously declared it, afloat in the Hudson River, convinced them. According to District Attorney Frank S. Hogan, the victim is David Kammerer, 33, of 48 Morton St., Manhattan, formerly an English instructor in St. Louis, where the two had known each other. The Columbia student, frail and blond, walked into the District Attorney’s office Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by a lawyer, and made a detailed confession.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “LONDON (U.P.) ― British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin told the Executive Committee of the United Nations’ Preparatory Commission yesterday that it is ‘almost impossible to assess the effects of the atomic bomb’ on the security organization. A ‘great many of the assumptions on which we worked at San Francisco will have to be radically revised,’ he said.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “JERUSALEM (U.P.) ― Jewish refugees in Haifa harbor today defied British troops seeking to put them aboard ships for Cyprus and a hurry call was sent for reinforcements to remove the Jews from the ships on which they made their way to Palestine. It appeared the British would have to employ force to get the 1,300 deportees aboard the troopships Empire Rival and Empire Heywood, which are due to take them to Cyprus. Indian troops were sent through the port area to reinforce the forces seeking to get the Jews off the ships. Crowds estimated at 10,000 swarmed in the Haifa streets in response to Jewish underground radio broadcasts telling them to ‘take to the streets.’ Suddenly, for reasons unknown, the crowds melted away. Several hundred Jews gathered at the foot of Mount Carmel in Haifa this morning in answer to the Hagana radio call to ‘get out on the streets and demonstrate.’ The crowd gathered quietly, without demonstration, and by 10 a.m. had made no attempt to march on the fortified port, where the radio urged them to go. An explosive atmosphere dominated Haifa, intensified by the impending second transfer of illegal Jewish immigrants to Cyprus and the death sentences imposed on 18 Jewish youths for sabotaging the railroad yards. The second operation was expected within 24 hours. The Hagana radio urged the Jews to stand by in an effort ‘to protect 1,300 of our flesh and blood.’”

***

Belinda Carlisle
Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Robert De Niro
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro, who was born in 1943; Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison, who was born in 1944; “Valley Girl” director Martha Coolidge, who was born in 1946; “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes, who was born in 1949; guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson, who was born in 1954; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Belinda Carlisle (the Go-Go’s), who was born in 1958; “The Corrections” author Jonathan Franzen, who was born in 1959; Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn, who was born in 1960; “Blue Bloods” star Donnie Wahlberg, who was born in 1969; International Tennis Hall of Famer Jim Courier, who was born in 1970; former N.Y. Yankees catcher Jorge Posada, who was born in 1971; former NBA forward Rudy Gay, who was born in Brooklyn in 1986; “The Bling Ring” star Taissa Farmiga, who was born in 1994; and figure skater Gracie Gold, who was born in 1995.

***

FULL STEAM AHEAD: Robert Fulton began the first American steamboat trip on this day in 1807. The 150-mile journey from Albany to New York City took 32 hours. Although detractors labeled his efforts “Fulton’s Folly,” his success allowed him to begin commercial service the following year.

***

IRON GIANT: New York Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig played in his record-breaking 1,308th consecutive game on this day in 1933, passing former Yankees shortstop Everett Scott. Gehrig played in 2,130 straight games before his career was cut short by illness in 1939. He died on June 2, 1941 at age 37. Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. broke Gehrig’s record in 1995.

***

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

Quotable:

“People tend to view history as if it were another planet and think the modern world was invented in 1963. I don’t agree.”

— “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes, who was born on this day in 1949