November 18: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

November 18, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1886, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Ex-President Chester A. Arthur died at 5 o’clock this morning, at his residence, 123 Lexington avenue, New York. Shortly after General Arthur’s relinquishment of the Presidential chair he was taken seriously ill. Many of his friends thought his ailment was gout. Others more knowing attributed it to Bright’s disease of the kidneys. His condition was carefully and anxiously watched by all, but the closest attention failed to save his life. A stroke of apoplexy was the immediate cause of death. The stroke came in the ex-President’s sleep, between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and Mr. Arthur did not rally thereafter. His death was painless, the slow going out of a burned down candle, and for hours before the end came he was unconscious to his surroundings.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Embattled club women threatened today to chain themselves to some of the capital city’s famous tidal basin cherry trees to prevent their removal, and President Roosevelt said if they did they would be carted away — club women, chains, cherry trees and all. As the President spoke in defense of plans to erect a Thomas Jefferson memorial even at the cost of some of the cherry trees on the proposed site, a group of women stormed workers on the project and wrested away their picks and shovels in a mass protest. The attack was slightly misdirected, however, for the rallying point was under a long-leaf pine tree, mistaken in haste for one of the cherished cherry trees. Mr. Roosevelt, when informed that the women planned to chain themselves to the cherry trees, pointedly warned at his press conference that the ladies, chains and the trees summarily would be carted off to some other spot. The women angrily drove workmen from about the pine tree which was being dug up. Half a dozen of the approximately 100 women began filling the excavation, ignoring protests of policemen. After shoveling the dirt back around the tree roots several women sat down around the tree and announced they would stay there until the project was abandoned. Construction of the $500,000 memorial on the basin site would necessitate the removal of some of the famous Japanese cherry trees. Mr. Roosevelt, at his press conference, said that the actual net loss would be merely 88 trees.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “Sugar and coffee plants in Brooklyn were faced with imminent shutdowns as a result of the longshoremen’s strike today and many shipping firms instituted layoffs and reduced work-weeks. As a meeting between shippers and representatives of the A.F.L. International Longshoremen’s Union was set for tomorrow under guidance of the U.S. Conciliation and Mediation Service, it was estimated that the walkout had tied up 230 ships in the harbor and idled 15,000 longshoremen and some 25,000 other workers here. The American Sugar Refining Company, which operates one of the largest refining plants in the East at Grand and S. 5th Sts., Williamsburg, reported that it would have to close down in about 10 days if the stoppage continued to block imports of raw sugar. The National Sugar Refining Company, Long Island City, announced that practically the same situation applied to its plant. Albert Ehlers, Inc., one of the largest coffee wholesalers in Brooklyn, also reported that it would be out of supplies in 10 days. ‘After that, we will have nothing to work with,’ a spokesman declared. The company, at 1300 Flushing Ave., imports coffee beans from South America and usually ships through Bush Terminal. Another large Brooklyn firm, the Dannemiller Coffee Company, 116 39th St., reported that it had on hand a supply estimated to last from 10 days to two weeks.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1960, the Brooklyn Record reported, “Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of President-elect Senator John F. Kennedy, in her role as First Lady, will zoom American fashion to new world leadership, forecasts Herbert Mayer, director of the Mayer School of Fashion Design in New York City. ‘What decisions she makes in the selection of wardrobe for public appearances will have great influence on the prestige of the American designer. Students at the Mayer school already are designing clothes with Jacqueline as their prototype, and I hope she doesn’t let them, and other young American designers, down,’ he said. Indications that she will assist in this prestige building program were expressed by Mrs. Kennedy in a letter to the Fashion Foundation of America, made public by Mr. Mayer, chairman of its education committee: ‘I am very flattered and grateful for the Fashion Foundation of America Award. I shall certainly try to deserve it,’ she stated. The Fashion Foundation of America cited Mrs. Kennedy as among America’s ‘best dressed’ women in its annual Spring selections.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “The Handmaid’s Tale” author Margaret Atwood, who was born in 1939; “Once Is Not Enough” star Brenda Vaccaro, who was born in Brooklyn in 1939; “Dynasty” star Linda Evans, who was born in 1942; “Falcon Crest” star Susan Sullivan, who was born in 1942; “Crooklyn” star Delroy Lindo, who was born in 1952; former “Saturday Night Live” star Kevin Nealon, who was born in 1953; “Big” star Elizabeth Perkins, who was born in 1960; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Kirk Hammett (Metallica), who was born in 1962; news anchor and author Rita Cosby, who was born in 1964; former N.Y. Yankees and Mets outfielder Gary Sheffield, who was born in 1968; “Wedding Crashers” star Owen Wilson, who was born in 1968; former N.J. Nets point guard Sam Cassell, who was born in 1969; commentator and journalist Megyn Kelly, who was born in 1970; “Boys Don’t Cry” star Chloe Sevigny, who was born in 1974; Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz, who was born in 1975; and former “Saturday Night Live” star Nasim Pedrad, who was born in 1981.

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POLLS APART: Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting on this day in 1872. Seeking to test for women the citizenship and voting rights extended to black males under the 14th and 15th amendments, Anthony led a group of women who registered and then voted at a Rochester, N.Y., polling place. In the ensuing federal criminal trial, held in June 1873, she was found guilty and sentenced to pay a $100 fine. She refused to pay.

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STAT’S LIFE: George Gallup was born on this day in 1901. The Iowa native and journalism professor pioneered a statistical method to measure public opinion. He received national recognition for correctly predicting that Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt would defeat Republican challenger Alf Landon in 1936, but also gained notoriety for incorrectly predicting that Republican Gov. Thomas Dewey would defeat incumbent Democratic President Harry Truman in 1948. He died in 1984.

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

Quotable:

“I could prove God statistically. Take the human body alone — the chances that all the functions of an individual would just happen is a statistical monstrosity.”

— statistician George Gallup, who was born on this day in 1901