September 22: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

September 22, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

Share this:

ON THIS DAY IN 1853, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said, “All that is earthly must fade. This is an annual lesson taught by the falling leaf, the withering frost, the silence which pervades the air, and the wreck and decay of vegetation as each recurring autumn assumes her reign. Another autumn is upon us now. The tassels of corn are dead, and the husks of the standing ears have lost their green. The scythe is shearing the hay fields of their last burden. Small yellow leaves that have exhausted their vitality before the advent of the frost are dropping, one by one from the trees. Flower stalks that but a few short weeks ago since stood green and glowing, bearing proudly up their wealth of Floral beauty, now stand stark and dead. The first faint intimations of approaching dissolution rests upon all vegetation, yet, amid these scenes, the fruits of autumn are spread upon every side. Apples bend from the boughs, nuts wait upon the trees for the loosening fingers of the frost, wains go creaking home laden with homely roots, the granaries are already filled, and soon, housed and garnered, the products of the year will await the grateful use of man and animal.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1907, the Eagle reported, “Under lowering clouds, but with the spirit of revelry still unsubdued, gay, blithesome, rollicking Coney Island last night tripped and danced and cavorted and capered out the season of 1907. Just as officially the carnival of Mardi Gras ended on Friday night, so the pleasure ground of the greater city will not officially close until tonight when the myriad lights in Dreamland and Luna Park are extinguished to be turned on no more this year, but in the minds of the public whose patronage makes Coney Island possible, both the festival and the season ended last night, and thousands of people gathered there from far and near to participate in the celebration. It was a very different going out from that which was chronicled last year. Then the Mardi Gras festival culminated in a series of semi-riots, which sent scores to hospitals and more to the police stations. Disorder reigned supreme. But last night the crowds, though numbering nearly 200,000 and possessed of the hilarious spirit, were contented to confine their frolicking to limits within the law.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “PASADENA, CAL. (U.P.) — A bearded psychiatrist predicts that man may build machines with complex mechanical minds and space ships may explore the planets independently of human direction. What’s more, said Dr. Warren S. McCulloch, professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois Medical School, ‘when the machines become really complex, they may also become neurotic if badgered by frustration in solving problems.’ At the same time man learns more about the mind, he is also learning to build thought machines so efficient they may some day take over civilization, McCulloch warned a symposium on cerebral mechanisms at California Institute of Technology. Some ‘electronic brains’ already have temporary memory banks, and as more efficient vacuum tubes are devised the machines will acquire permanent ‘memories’ to endow them with judgment, he claimed. Special circuits will give them curiosity and an ‘instinct’ for self-preservation, he predicted.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “PORTLAND, ORE. (U.P.) — Senator Richard M. Nixon interrupted his campaign tour today to fly to Los Angeles and give the nation a television report on his $18,000 political fund. The G.O.P. Vice Presidential nominee received a long distance telephone call from his running mate, Dwight D. Eisenhower, last night and talked with the Presidential nominee for about 20 minutes. Early today he told newsmen he was suspending his whistle-stop tour of the Pacific Northwest to make the television speech and give ‘a complete statement of my entire financial history.’ The young California Senator appeared wan and pale at the after-midnight news conference and later received a massage by a physician. When asked if Eisenhower had asked him to resign from the Republican ticket, Nixon paused, then said, ‘I will resume my tour.’ Some observers felt this meant that Nixon would make the television speech in an attempt to justify his acceptance of the fund from wealthy constituents and then resume his campaign — still a candidate. Others felt Nixon might remove himself from the race, but still continue to campaign for Eisenhower. Nixon’s top aides would not comment on whether he will be dropped from the ticket.”

***

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Mickey” singer Toni Basil, who was born in 1943; “American Graffiti” star Paul Le Mat, who was born in 1945; Pro Football Hall of Famer Harold Carmichael, who was born in 1949; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer David Coverdale (Deep Purple), who was born in 1951; “You Light Up My Life” singer Debby Boone, who was born in 1956; musician and author Nick Cave, who was born in 1957; “Con te partiro” singer Andrea Bocelli, who was born in 1958; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Joan Jett, who was born in 1958; “Happy Days” star Scott Baio, who was born in Brooklyn in 1961; “Dynasty” star Catherine Oxenberg, who was born in 1961; U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer and former N.Y. Rangers goalie Mike Richter, who was born in 1966; “Smallville” star Laura Vandervoort, who was born in 1984; and “Harry Potter” star Tom Felton, who was born in 1987.

***

LADY JUSTICE: The first all-woman jury in the colonies was empaneled on this day in 1656. At the General Provincial Court at Patuxent, Maryland, the jury heard the case of Judith Catchpole, who was accused of murdering her child. The defendant claimed she had never even been pregnant. After all the evidence was heard, the jury acquitted her.

***

EXECUTIVE DECISION: President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on this day in 1862. It stated that, as of Jan. 1, 1863, “all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever, free.”

***

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

Quotable:

“If you start worrying about the people in the stands, before too long you’re up in the stands with them.”

— Baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda, who was born on this day in 1927