August 18: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 18, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1898, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON, D.C. ― Lieutenant John J. Pershing, Tenth Cavalry, has been promoted to be major of volunteers. Lieutenant Pershing was highly commended in the report of General Wood for gallantry and courage at the battle of El Caney. He had previous fighting experience, having been with General Miles in the Wounded Knee fighting campaign in South Dakota. He resigned as instructor at West Point to enter active service when the Spanish War began.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1918, the Eagle reported, “ST. LOUIS, MO., AUGUST 17 ― Branch Rickey, president of the St. Louis Nationals, has announced his intention to enlist in the army. He refused to say what particular branch of the service he intends to join. ‘The Government has adjudged my occupation nonessential,’ Rickey said. ‘Now to equalize matters, I am going to engage in the greatest of occupations, namely the service.’ President Rickey is 37 years old and has a wife and four children.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Eagle reported, “NASHVILLE, TENN. — A motion that the Tennessee House table the Suffrage resolution was lost today on a tie vote, 48 to 48. A roll call on adoption of the ratification resolution was then ordered. Ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment was completed today with favorable action by the Tennessee House. The vote in the House was 49 to 47. The Senate ratified the amendment last Friday by a vote of 25 to 4. Speaker Walker, in an attempt to have the action reconsidered, changed his vote to aye and moved that such action be taken. Walker’s change of his vote gave ratification a majority of 50 to 46. Mr. Walker is privileged to call up the resolution for reconsideration at any time within the next two days. Adjournment was taken until 10 o’clock tomorrow … Ratification of the suffrage amendment to the Constitution ends a struggle which began in this country before the Colonies declared their independence. It will eventually enfranchise 27,000,000 women.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, the Eagle reported, “Bing Crosby, baritone, appearing with the Cheer Leaders Quartet on the Old Gold-Paul Whiteman Hour broadcast over WABC at 9 o’clock Tuesday night, will sing three numbers for which he has become well known over the air, ‘Satisfied,’ ‘Vagabond Lover,’ and ‘Good Little Bad Little You’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, A.E.F. (U.P.) ― Three American columns were reported racing through the outer suburbs of Paris on a broad 21½ to 28 miles from the city gates today and front dispatches said the entire German front from Paris to the Channel coast was collapsing in the bloodiest Nazi rout of the Western war. Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s armored forces were across the last natural barriers before Paris and swinging in at a pace that threatened to bring the old French capital under siege within a matter of hours. At the same time, American, British and Canadian armies were on the march in the north, cutting to shreds the last enemy units remaining in the Normandy pocket and plunging through the enemy lines east and northeast of that now-sprung trap. Tens of thousands of panicky Nazis fled before the new Allied push in the north, and United Press War Correspondent Richard D. McMillan reported that the beaten Germans were being ‘hunted like rats.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “JACKSONVILLE, FLA (U.P.) ― A 19-year-old Negro second baseman, Henry Aaron, of the Jacksonville Braves, today was named the South Atlantic League’s most valuable player for 1953. He was selected on 12 of the 16 ballots cast by the league’s sports writers. Aaron, in his second year of organized baseball, is from Mobile, Ala. He was named 1952 rookie of the year in the Class C Northern League, where he hit .336 as shortstop for Eau Claire. Scheduled to join the parent Milwaukee Braves of the National League either at the end of this season or in the Spring, Aaron has been working out in pre-game drills the past couple of weeks in left field.”

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Madeleine Stowe
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Oscar-winning director Robert Redford, who was born in 1936; comedian Elayne Boosler, who was born in Brooklyn in 1952; “Rescue Me” star Denis Leary, who was born in 1957; “Revenge” star Madeleine Stowe, who was born in 1958; TV journalist Bob Woodruff, who was born in 1961; “Fight Club” star Edward Norton, who was born in 1969; “Heathers” star Christian Slater, who was born in 1969; “Malcolm & Eddie” star Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who was born in 1970; “Man Walks Into a Room” author and Brooklyn resident Nicole Krauss, who was born in 1974; former “Saturday Night Live” star Andy Samberg, who was born in 1978; former N.Y. Jets linebacker Bart Scott, who was born in 1980; former N.Y. Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey, who was born in 1980; and “Riverdale” star Madelaine Petsch, who was born in 1994.

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GONE GIRL: Virginia Dare was born on Roanoke Island, N.C., on this day in 1587. She was the first child of English parents to be born in the New World. When a ship arrived in 1590 to replenish the colony’s supplies, the settlers, including Virginia Dare, had vanished without a trace.

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MADE TO ORDER: Montgomery Ward published the first mail-order catalog on this day in 1872. It was only a single sheet of paper. By 1904 the catalog weighed four pounds. The company stopped its catalog operation in 1985 and closed its retail stores in 2000.

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

Quotable:

“People ask me what race I am, but there is no such thing as race. I just answer: ‘I’m a member of the human race.’”

— civil rights activist Amelia Boynton Robinson, who was born on this day in 1911