December 4: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

December 4, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1873, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “A letter from Secretary of the Treasury Richardson has been made public, informing the President of the Centennial Commission that goods brought into the United States through New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Portland (Me.), Port Huron, New Orleans or San Francisco, intended for exhibition at the International Exposition, to be held in Philadelphia in 1876, will be allowed to go forward to such Exposition Building under proper supervision of custom house officers, without examination at such ports of original entry, and at the close of the Exposition will be allowed to go forward from the port from which they are to be exported; and no duties will be levied upon such goods, unless entered for consumption in the United States.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Eagle reported, “Members of this year’s Yale football team and other guests of honor attending the 17th annual Yale barn party in Nick Roberts’ Old Yale Barn will be received at the ‘Y’ dinner in Montclair tonight before proceeding to the festivities of the evening. The purpose of the dinner will be to give the men who have won their letter in college a chance to meet the Yale alumni who have already made their mark in life beyond New Haven. The football team guests will be led by Capt. Clinton E. Frank, ’38, while the graduate Yale celebrities will have Henry Robinson Luce, ’20, magazine publisher, at the head of their guest list … Malcolm Fisher, ’04, chairman of Yale Athletics, is representing the official side of Yale life, and will be accompanied by Ducky Pond, ’25, and coaches A. Earle (Greasy) Neale, Marshall Wells, Ivan B. Williamson, William Renner and Gerald Ford.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle said, “The traffic problem in New York, complicated by its attendant parking puzzle, is one that cannot lightly be dismissed. The automobile is part of an accepted way of life. As long as this is so, there will be tough questions involving the lanes traffic can use and the places automobiles may be left while not moving. When the Board of Estimate diverted some of the funds from traffic remedies to schools and hospitals it was doing the obviously necessary thing. There need be no great argument about which should come first. If the choice between the automobile and essential school or hospital had to be made, the answer was plain. Schools and hospitals must come first. That should not, however, convince anyone that traffic is an unimportant matter. With streets jammed to the point at which it takes hours to travel distances which should be covered in minutes, with $15 fines being handed out for parking violations, with garages and parking lots displaying the ‘no room’ signs early in the morning, it has become an uncertain and unpleasant experience to drive an automobile into the city.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Congress tossed aside the rule book today in the face of frightening war alarms from the Far East and an Administration plea for national unity. The order of the day was speed, speed, speed. Normally, the lethargic machinery cranks slowly into motion. Weeks are needed for committee hearings and decisions. Then there is long drawn-out debate. But the flood of bad news from Korea changed all that. Today, just a week after the lawmakers returned for a lame-duck session that had been expected to accomplish little or nothing, emergency legislation was speeding through the Congressional mill. There was a rare bustle in the two chambers, and a note of critical urgency.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Eagle reported, “TUCKER’S TOWN, BERMUDA (UP) — President Eisenhower today joined British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and French Premier Joseph Laniel for a Big Three conference designed to put the world back on the road to peace. The three Chiefs of State arranged to hold the first meeting of their four-day conference on world tensions late today. It was expected their chief decision in the conference would be to accept — with reservations — a Soviet Russian proposal for a four-power conference of Foreign Ministers in Berlin, probably toward the end of January. The President’s special plane Columbine landed at the United States Air Force Kindley Field base at 11:12 A.M. after a flight of three hours and 10 minutes from Washington. With the President were Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis L. Strauss and a staff of aides. Four thousand persons greeted the President, many standing on packing cases or folding chairs. Mr. Churchill and Premier Laniel arrived three minutes before the plane landed to head the welcoming party.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include game show host Wink Martindale, who was born in 1933; singer-songwriter Southside Johnny, who was born in 1948; Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges, who was born in 1949; “Thirtysomething” star Patricia Wettig, who was born in 1951; singer-songwriter Cassandra Wilson, who was born in 1955; Basketball Hall of Famer Bernard King, who was born in Brooklyn in 1956; Baseball Hall of Famer Lee Smith, who was born in 1957; Oscar-winning actress Marisa Tomei, who was born in Brooklyn in 1964; former “Saturday Night Live” star Fred Armisen, who was born in 1966; rapper and producer Jay-Z, who was born in Brooklyn in 1969; TV personality Tyra Banks, who was born in 1973; and singer-songwriter Kate Rusby, who was born in 1973.

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FIRST IN PEACE: Gen. George Washington said farewell to his troops on this day in 1783. The parting took place at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan, one week after British troops evacuated New York as the American Revolution came to an end. Washington told his men, “I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.”

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THE LION IN WINTER: Bert Lahr died on this day in 1967. Born in 1895, the New York City native got his start in vaudeville at age 15. He was a Broadway star by the 1920s and made his feature film debut in 1931. His long and varied career is overshadowed by one role: a Cowardly Lion in search of courage in 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz.” Lahr is buried in Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens.

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

Quotable:

“Value will always work out in the course of time.”

— Dow Jones & Company founder Charles Dow, who died in Brooklyn on this day in 1902