November 8: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

November 8, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1892, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Brooklyn is having another quiet election, and the indications are that a very heavy vote will be polled … In New York a large vote is also being polled. Grover Cleveland voted early and there was no effort to challenge his vote, as the Republicans had threatened.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1900, the Eagle reported, “Now that the election is over, the question of a canal somewhere across the isthmus between South America and Mexico will come up. There are indications that the friends of the French Panama route will make a campaign for government acquisition of the French work and abandonment of the Nicaragua route in favor of the one further south. Walter Schlecht, the last member of the Nicaraguan Commission to return, came home on election day. He has spent some time going over the Panama route and said that while it would take the French Company which is working there many years to complete their canal, as it will cost $110,000,000 and they are only spending about $1,000,000 a year, he thought that the acceptance of that route would save the country about two years’ time in the completion of a canal. Mr. Schlecht intimated that the report of the commission would present the facts affecting both routes fully, without recommending either, leaving the government to take its choice.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1921, the Eagle reported, “At 11:45 on Friday, Armistice Day, the entire nation is asked by President Harding to give two minutes to prayer. Church bells throughout the country will toll, calling the people to observance of the hour when the Unknown Soldier will be laid to rest at Arlington. Business and social activities will cease at that moment, and a reverent silence will prevail in all communities. Thousands of school children will gather at Madison Square Garden at 11 o’clock to pay tribute to the fallen heroes and, after two minutes of prayer, President Harding’s voice will be heard through the amplifiers as he delivers his address at Arlington.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1924, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON — Important changes in the leadership of the next Congress will follow as a result of the elections. The failing health of Senator Lodge calls for a new Republican floor leader in the Senate. The election of Frederick Gillett as Senator from Massachusetts throws open the selection of a Speaker in the next House. Shifts in committee chairmanships are to be made when the 69th Congress first meets for organization. New leaders will be coming forward to take the places of those who have passed out of the national political picture.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, the Eagle reported, “The Long Island exhibitors started to hit rough going at the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden yesterday. In the afternoon, Martin Vogel Jr.’s imported chestnut, Demas, hitting a fence in the middleweight hunter class, threw Lib Hyland. Both rider and horse were injured. Susan Bolling, up on Mrs. George P. Greenhalgh’s Big Boy, took the blue … The junior riders have their day at the National today when the National Equitation and the Alfred B. Maclay championships are held. Milton Wuischpard of Plaindome Manor is competing in the Alfred B. Maclay event in which the favored riders are: William Steinkraus of Westport, Conn., Mary Poll of Manhattan, Mary Reinach of White Plains and Jacqueline Bouvier of Manhattan.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “BERKELEY, CAL., NOV. 7 (U.P.) — University of California scientists are getting ‘encouraging results’ from distilling experiments which some day may provide the nation with an unlimited supply of fresh water from the sea. Everett D. Howe, director of the sea water demineralization project at Richmond, warned that many technical problems must be solved before a commercially practical process can be developed to relieve drought-ridden areas.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Brooklyn Heights Press reported, “The Democratic Party swept all four local races Tuesday in the face of Republican victories in top state-wide elections. Voters here re-elected the Congressmen from the two area districts. Rep. John J. Rooney of the 14th Congressional District (Cobble Hill) romped to his eleventh straight term in the House. In a close, dramatic battle, Hugh Carey retained his 15th C.D. seat by edging Republican Francis Dorn by 878 votes, out of more than 109,000 cast … Mr. Carey showed surprising strength in two Republican strongholds, the Heights and Bay Ridge. Although Mr. Carey lost in both places, the wave of Democratic and Liberal votes diluted his red ink enough to materially affect the outcome.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Brooklyn Record reported, “Mario Cuomo will be the guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Brooklyn Chapter of the National Secretaries Association (International) at the Pierrepont Hotel on Wednesday, November 13 at 6:00 p.m. He will discuss ‘Legal Problems in Every Day Life.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1968, the Brooklyn Spectator reported, “Up for election again on Tuesday, for his 24th term in Congress, was 80-year-old Emanuel Celler, of Park Slope, Democrat of Brooklyn’s 10th C.D. which includes parts of Bay Ridge and Flatbush, among other areas. He won.”

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Alfre Woodard
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Basketball Hall of Famer Satch Sanders, who was born in 1938; U.S. Racing Hall of Famer Angel Cordero Jr., who was born in 1942; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Roy Wood (ELO), who was born in 1946; Space Shuttle astronaut Rhea Seddon, who was born in 1947; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt, who was born in 1949; former “Entertainment Tonight” host Mary Hart, who was born in 1950; The Manhattans lead singer Gerald Alston, who was born in 1951; “Crooklyn” star Alfre Woodard, who was born in 1952; celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who was born in 1966; “Melrose Place” star Courtney Thorne-Smith, who was born in 1967; “Party Girl” star Parker Posey, who was born in 1968; “Sharknado” star Tara Reid, who was born in 1975; “90210” star Jessica Lowndes, who was born in 1988; N.Y. Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton, who was born in 1989; and singer-songwriter SZA, who was born in 1989.

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THE SPIRIT OF 76: Edmond Halley was born on this day in 1656. The British astronomer and mathematician observed the great comet of 1682 (now named for him), first conceived its periodicity and wrote in his “Synopsis of Comet Astronomy:” “I may venture to foretell that this Comet will return again in the year 1758.” It did, and Halley’s memory is kept alive by the once-every-generation appearance of the comet. There have been 28 recorded appearances since 240 B.C. The average time between appearances is 76 years. Halley’s comet is next expected to be visible in 2061.

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YA GOTTA HAVE HEART: Christiaan Barnard was born on this day in 1922. The South African native performed the first human heart transplant on Dec. 3, 1967, after years of practicing the procedure, mainly on dogs. The patient, Louis Washkansky, lived for 18 days before dying from an infection. Today heart transplants are performed regularly. Barnard died in 2001.

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

Quotable:

“Suffering isn’t ennobling, recovery is.”

— heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who was born on this day in 1922