August 31: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1915, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “CHEYENNE, WYO. — Funeral services for Mrs. John J. Pershing and her three daughters, who perished in a fire at the Presidio, San Francisco, last week, were held here today, Bishop N.S. Thomas officiating. Commercial activity in the larger Wyoming towns ceased during the services out of respect for the dead. The funeral party from the Presidio included General John J. Pershing, United States Senator Warren of Wyoming, father of Mrs. Pershing, and other members of the Warren family. One grave received the four bodies.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1919, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON, AUG. 30 — President Wilson, in the speeches he is to make on his trip beginning on Wednesday, next, is expected to urge the American people to demand early action by the Senate on the Treaty of Peace. It is not believed that he will endeavor to create public sentiment demanding the ratification of the Treaty without reservation in the resolution of ratification. The President, however, will be in a position to strengthen the determination of many Republican Senators from the section of the country he is to traverse to stand firm against the ‘irreconcilables’ in the Committee on Foreign Affairs who have amended the Treaty and who will fight to have the Senate accept the amendment. It is the opinion of Senators who have canvassed the situation in their body since the announcement by the President of his intention to go to the country that it is hopeless for him to expect to create sufficient public sentiment as to have the effect upon members of changing their opinions and securing the ratification of the Treaty without reservations. There are now a sufficient number of Senators to pass the Treaty without textual changes. As it is viewed here, the thing for the President to do is to ask the American public to demand speedy action at the same time urging that no textual changes be made. The President is understood to have no objection to reservations or interpretations in the resolution of ratification. Of course, it is generally expected here that the strongest argument to be used by President Wilson in his demand for speedy action will be to the effect that as long as the Treaty is left unratified, no relief from the high cost of living can be expected by the American people. Since the administration took up the high cost of living problem, it has laid stress upon the fact that very little, if any, relief can be expected until the Treaty is ratified and peace is declared.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1925, the Eagle reported, “CHICAGO (AP) — ‘Babe’ Ruth, figuratively spanked by Manager Miller Huggins of the New York Yankees, was unable to see Baseball Commissioner K.M. Landis today and returned to New York to present his case against Huggins to Colonel Jacob Ruppert, owner of the Yankees, and Ed Barrow, business manager. Ruth hoped to make his situation clear to Colonel Ruppert. He had also planned to appeal to Commissioner Landis and would have taken up his $5,000 fine and indefinite suspension with the commissioner unofficially, but the commissioner was at his summer home at Burt Lake, Mich. ‘I’m sorry,’ Ruth said when told that the commissioner would remain in Michigan two or three days. ‘I would have liked to have talked things over.’ The ‘Bambino’ said, shortly before climbing aboard the 20th Century Limited, that he would telegraph former Judge Landis and communicate with him later. ‘Under the rules, I guess I can’t do anything for ten days anyway,’ said Ruth.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, the Eagle reported, “Yesterday was another great day for Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor, who was master of ceremonies at the unveiling of the massive head of Thomas Jefferson, carved in granite alongside of that of George Washington on Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Borglum was irritated because he had to wait until President Roosevelt and his party attended church before the great head could be unveiled, but the occasion was another triumph for the sculptor. Borglum’s daring scheme of creating the world’s largest piece of sculpture is a success, and in ages to come, it may be found that he has given America its most enduring monument.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Eagle reported, “Rhubarb, the first cat to be starred in a film, covers himself with glory in ‘Rhubarb,’ which opened yesterday at the Globe Theater. Ray Milland and Jan Sterling take their roles as co-stars with an alley cat in high, entering into the spirit of the hectic events with zest. As a result, everybody has fun with ‘Rhubarb.’ The picture is made from the book ‘Rhubarb,’ by H. Allen Smith, a farcical story about a cat that inherits $30,000,000 and a Brooklyn baseball club from an eccentric millionaire who is impressed by the cat’s belligerence … The cast is uniformly good, with special bows to Gene Lockhart as the millionaire, William Frawley, James Hayward and Anthony Radecki and Leonard Nimoy as a couple of ballplayers.”
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Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Van Morrison, who was born in 1945; violinist and conductor Itzhak Perlman, who was born in 1945; former N.Y. Giants coach and two-time Super Bowl champion Tom Coughlin, who was born in 1946; Scorpions founder Rudolf Schenker, who was born in 1948; “Pretty Woman” star Richard Gere, who was born in 1949; “Earth Girls Are Easy” star Julie Brown, who was born in 1954; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gina Schock (Go-Go’s), who was born in 1957; Squeeze co-founder Glenn Tilbrook, who was born in 1957; “Lost in Your Eyes” singer Debbie Gibson, who was born in Brooklyn in 1970; “Rush Hour” star Chris Tucker, who was born in 1971; swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Ian Crocker, who was born in 1982; and N.Y. Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson, who was born in 1996.
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THE PARTY’S OVER: Solidarity was founded on this day in 1980. The Polish trade union was formed at the Baltic Sea port of Gdansk. It was outlawed by the Communist government and many of its leaders were arrested. Led by Lech Walesa, Solidarity persisted in its opposition to the Communists, and on Aug. 19, 1989, Polish President Wojciech Jaruzelski astonished the world by nominating for the post of prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a former deputy in the Polish Assembly and editor in chief of Solidarity’s weekly newspaper, bringing to an end 42 years of Community Party domination.
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GOODBYE ENGLAND’S ROSE: Diana, Princess of Wales, and her companion, Dodi Fayed, died in a Paris car crash on this day in 1997. Although press photographers had been pursuing their car, French courts determined that the paparazzi were not responsible for the crash but rather a driver operating under the influence of alcohol. Diana’s funeral was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people.
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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.
Quotable:
“Anywhere I see suffering, that is where I want to be, doing what I can.”
— Diana, Princess of Wales, who died on this day in 1997
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