August 24: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

August 24, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1918, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Branch Rickey, president of the St. Louis National League Club, has been appointed a major in the Chemical Warfare Service of the U.S. Army for overseas service. Christy Mathewson, manager of the Cincinnati Reds, has been notified that his application for a commission in the Chemical Warfare Service for overseas duty has been approved, and he has been ordered to take the physical examination. Rickey and Mathewson are both college graduates, Mathewson from Bucknell and Rickey from the University of Michigan. They are two among a number of former college athletes who have recently been appointed to the Chemical Warfare Service.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Eagle reported, “The subcommittee on location of the Airport Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, headed by Harry F. Guggenheim, president of the Guggenheim Foundation for the Promotion of Aviation, is planning a preliminary survey on Friday of more than 50 sites which have been proposed for a Brooklyn airport, according to word received today. Following this initial survey more detailed inspections from both the ground and air of those sites not eliminated will take place. Among the locations being considered are the island areas along Flatbush ave. in the vicinity of Barren Island. The land included in this proposed site, about 800 acres, is now owned by the city.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1943, the Eagle reported, “Nation-wide rationing of stoves will begin today, the Office of Price Administration discloses. Purchasers will be required to obtain certificates of need from their local rationing boards and dealers will be allowed to obtain new stoves only by presenting to the wholesalers certificates of retail sales, the OPA announced.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “BERLIN (U.P.) ― High level negotiations are under way to ‘pacify’ the border between the Soviet and Western sectors of Berlin where violence flared over the weekend, it was learned authoritatively today. The secret negotiations, which high American and Russian officials were said to be watching closely, are aimed at settling on a local level the inflammatory issues raised by a series of Soviet kidnaping raids into the American and British sectors. Soviet charges that American and British military police have sheltered ‘black marketeers and gangster elements’ from Russian arrest also are being aired, it was said. The discussions still were being handled by junior officers, it was said, but they were lifted from their original informal status when Maj. Gen. Alexander Kotikov, Russian commandant in Berlin, replied favorably to an American suggestion that the whole business might be settled easily. The proposal now being studied was said authoritatively to call for: 1. Withdrawal of all but normal Soviet, American and British military police patrols from the Potsdamer Platz area where the three occupation sectors meet; 2. Joint Soviet-American-British raids on the black market centering along the sector borders, thus making sure that the black marketeers cannot escape by crossing from one sector into another.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “Diana Lynn has been signed by Universal to co-star with Ronald Reagan in ‘Bedtime for Bonzo,’ an original story by Raphael David Blau and Ted Berkman, dealing with a young couple who raise a monkey as they would a child to prove a scientific point. Miss Lynn last appeared for the studio in the recently released ‘Peggy.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON, AUG. 23 (U.P.) — Inflation continues at a rising tide throughout the nation with no guarantee it will ease up after the new administration takes office in January. Economic stabilization officials predicted today the cost of living, which has jumped to an all-time high, will rise another 1½ to 2 percent by the time a new president is inaugurated Jan. 20. And they see no slackening off in the early months thereafter. Exactly what the incoming administration — be it Republican or Democratic — can or will do to meet the issue remains in doubt. Neither Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the GOP candidate, nor Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson, the Democratic standard bearer, has said whether he wants the price-wage control law extended or what he would do about future rent controls. Many economists say Truman deficit spending is a prime cause of inflation. The government, by President Truman’s latest estimate, will operate in the red at a rate of $10,300,000,000 this fiscal year.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Classical Gas” composer Mason Williams, who was born in 1938; “Fatal Attraction” star Anne Archer, who was born in 1947; “Ender’s Game” author Orson Scott Card, who was born in 1951; former NFL head coach Mike Shanahan, who was born in 1952; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who was born in 1955; former heavyweight boxer Gerry Cooney, who was born in 1956; “Three Men and a Baby” star Steve Guttenberg, who was born in Brooklyn in 1958; Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., who was born in 1960; Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin, who was born in 1965; Basketball Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, who was born in 1965; “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, who was born in 1972; “Chappelle’s Show” star Dave Chappelle, who was born in 1973; “One Tree Hill” star Chad Michael Murray, who was born in 1981; former N.Y. Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner, who was born in 1983; and “Harry Potter” star Rupert Grint, who was born in 1988.

Dave Chappelle
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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FIRE IN THE SKY: Mount Vesuvius erupted on this day in A.D. 79. The volcano in southern Italy destroyed the cities of Pompeii, Stabiae and Herculaneum. Pliny the Younger, who escaped the disaster, wrote of it to the historian Tacitus: “Black and horrible clouds, broken by sinuous shapes of flaming winds, were opening with long tongues of fire.”

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ANARCHY IN THE U.S.A.: British forces briefly invaded and raided Washington, D.C., on this day in 1814. The soldiers burned the White House, the Capitol and most other public buildings. President James Madison and other high U.S. government officials fled to safety until the invaders departed the city two days later.

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IT’S A SMALL WORLD, AFTER ALL: On this day in 2006, at the annual International Astronomical Union meeting at Prague, Czech Republic, 424 astronomers voted to demote Pluto from planet status. They determined that Pluto is instead a dwarf planet.

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

Quotable:

“If your dream is only about you, it’s too small.”

— filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who was born on this day in 1972