September 16: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 16, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1906, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “MILAN — The fifteenth Universal Peace Congress was inaugurated this afternoon in the large hall of the Villa Reale, which was crowded with delegates from all parts of the world … After the inaugural address, Consul Dunning read the following message from President [Theodore] Roosevelt: ‘To the Members of the Peace Conference, Milan: Giving utterance to the aspirations of the American people that the great cause of peace among nations shall prevail, and sharing the hopeful desire of my countrymen that the labors of the present International Peace Conference, at Milan, will mark a further advance towards realizing the aims of the advocates of universal peace, I congratulate the conference upon its auspicious meeting.’ … The reading of President Roosevelt’s message was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm. All the delegates rose and many of them shouted: ‘Long live Roosevelt and America.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1921, the Eagle reported, “Franklin D. Roosevelt, former assistant secretary of the Navy, who was taken to the Presbyterian Hospital, Manhattan, yesterday, suffering from a mild attack of infantile paralysis, was said at the hospital this morning already to be improving. His condition is not regarded as serious. Mr. Roosevelt was brought to New York on a special car from his summer home on Campobello Island, Bay of Fundy, and met at Grand Central by an ambulance from the hospital. He has been suffering for the past month from the ailment and lost the use of both legs below the knees. Dr. George Draper, of 116 E. 63rd St., Manhattan, Mr. Roosevelt’s physician, said the patient shows signs of improvement and that his stay in the hospital will probably be brief. ‘You can say definitely that he will not be a cripple,’ he said. Mr. Roosevelt sent word to reporters this morning that he spent a comfortable night.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Eagle reported, “Ceremonies celebrating the 152nd anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution begin today with the reading of Governor [Herbert] Lehman’s Constitution Day proclamation by Frederick A. Cone, past president of the New York Chapter, sons of the American Revolution, on the site of the old Federal Hall, Wall and Nassau Sts., Manhattan. Members of nine organizations tracing their origin to revolutionary days will hear Laurens Morgan Hamilton speak at the exercises. The annual Brooklyn Constitution Day celebration will be held in the Music Grove in Prospect Park tomorrow afternoon. The anniversary also will be observed at the World’s Fair at ceremonies in the Court of Peace at 3 p.m.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1940, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (AP) — Sam Rayburn, 58-year-old Texas Democrat, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives by acclimation today while the body of his predecessor, the late William B. Bankhead of Alabama, lay in state at the foot of the House rostrum. Members of a Democratic conference held just before the election said there was no discussion regarding filling the majority leadership which Rayburn is vacating and some expressed belief that nothing would be done about it immediately. Representative Patrick J. Boland of Pennsylvania, the Democratic whip, told newsmen, however, he would be a candidate for the floor leadership and expressed the opinion that the party would caucus soon after the funeral to decide the matter.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1943, the Eagle reported, “WAUPUN, WIS. (U.P.) — John Flammang Schrank, 67, former New York bartender who shot and wounded Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 because he was seeking a third Presidential term, died last night in the State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. During his 31 years of confinement, Schrank never had a visitor and received no mail. Bedridden for the last several months, he died of bronchial pneumonia and hardening of the arteries.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, A.E.F. (U.P.) — United States 1st Army tanks and troops poured through a widening gap in the Siegfried Line east of tottering Aachen today and overran German positions beyond it in a fast-breaking drive aimed squarely at Cologne. Supreme Headquarters said Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges’ battering ram advance had smashed entirely through the Siegfried belt of fortifications. A 500-mile Allied line from the Swiss border to the North Sea is moving forward against the Nazis. U.S. 1st Army Headquarters reported that American patrols entered Aachen today, but withdrew under German fire. Nazi propagandists in a sudden change of tune said the ‘so-called West Wall’ was a thing of the past and had been replaced by more modern fortifications — an apparent attempt to explain away the sudden breaching of the last big defense line before Berlin.”

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Alexis Bledel
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Oscar-winning actor George Chakiris, who was born in 1932; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Betty Kelly (Martha and the Vandellas), who was born in 1944; “St. Elsewhere” star Ed Begley Jr., who was born in 1949; “The Wrestler” star Mickey Rourke, who was born in 1952; Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Yount, who was born in 1955; magician and actor David Copperfield, who was born in 1956; Baseball Hall of Famer and former N.Y. Yankees outfielder Tim Raines, who was born in 1959; former “Saturday Night Live” star Molly Shannon, who was born in 1964; singer-songwriter Marc Anthony, who was born in 1968; “Parks and Recreation” star Amy Poehler, who was born in 1971; rapper and singer-songwriter Flo Rida, who was born in 1979; “Gilmore Girls” star Alexis Bledel, who was born in 1981; and singer-songwriter Nick Jonas, who was born in 1992.

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ANARCHY IN THE U.S.A.: New York City’s financial district was attacked on this day in 1920. The J.P. Morgan Bank at Wall and Broad streets was bombed by unknown assailants who used a horse-drawn cart filled with dynamite and 500 pounds of iron sash weights. Thirty-eight people were killed, more than 140 were seriously injured and hundreds more were slightly injured. The perpetrators were never caught, but Italian anarchists were suspected.

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WE LOVED THEM: The Beatles released “She Loves You” in the U.S. on this day in 1963. The song reached No. 1 for two weeks in March 1964 and was one of five Beatles songs that held the top five spots on the American charts simultaneously.

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

Quotable:

“The wealth of the country, its capital, its credit, must be saved from the predatory poor as well as the predatory rich, but above all from the predatory politician.”

— railroad executive James J. Hill, who was born on this day in 1838