December 6: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

December 6, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1875, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Last night at the Second Unitarian Church, on the corner of Clinton and Congress streets, the Rev. John W. Chadwick, pastor, delivered the second lecture of his Centennial course, the subject being ‘Benjamin Franklin.’ That the large congregation present were interested in the speaker’s remarks was shown by their earnest and undivided attention to every word he uttered.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1886, the Eagle reported, “The total daily receipts from traffic over the New York and Brooklyn Bridge for the week ending December 5, 1886, was: Monday, $2,965.57; Tuesday, $2,396.94; Wednesday, $2,280.06; Thursday, $2,160.10; Friday, $2,150.56; Saturday, $2,734.98; Sunday, $819.13; Total, $15,507.34.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1931, the Eagle reported, “There will be more than a grid attraction at Ebbets Field today when the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers football teams clash in their interborough battle for the Metropolitan title. A football signed by all the members of the 1931 Notre Dame football team will be awarded to one of the spectators. Proceeds of the sale of tickets will be donated to the Eagle’s 50 Neediest Cases Fund. There is an unusual story in connection with the securing of the signed football. Larry Friedman of the Studebaker auto sale department of 1460 Bushwick Ave. was at the scene of the Notre Dame-Southern California football game a fortnight ago at South Bend. He was struck with the idea of buying a Rockne football and having it autographed by the members of the famous Irish eleven. He secured the names and coming East immediately donated that much-coveted pigskin to The Eagle Fund. Prominent among those who have autographed the football are Hunk Anderson, coach of the Irish, Tom Farr, captain and named on many all-American teams, Marchmont Schwartz, another all-American player and outstanding backfield man, Nort Hoffman and Joe Kurth. If you’re at the game you may get the ball.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1941, the Eagle reported, “Further impetus to the move to make the old Gracie Mansion in Carl Schurz Park, Manhattan, official residence of the Mayor of New York was given today by the approval of Mayor LaGuardia. The Mayor declared himself in favor of Park Department plans to convert the historic old property at 86th St. and the East River, now a museum, into New York’s ‘White House.’ The Mayor said he would be guided by the wishes of the Board of Estimate in the matter.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “TOKYO (U.P.) — The U.S. 8th Army halted its headlong flight just north of the 38th Parallel today and began striking back at Chinese Communist troops who have eased at least temporarily their 10-day offensive. Twenty thousand Marine and Army troops trapped in two pockets south of the Chosin Reservoir reported that the fury of attacks by 65,000 Chinese Communists there had slackened to small-arms fire. The interlude in the ground fighting was filled by United Nations planes, which blasted Red troops moving cautiously south from Pyongyang along secondary roads toward the 8th Army’s new positions south of the Communist capital. A spokesman for Gen. Douglas MacArthur said the 100,000-man 8th Army, which abandoned Pyongyang to overwhelming Chinese Communist forces Monday night, now has stabilized its position between Pyongyang and the 38th Parallel.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (U.P.) — Inflation prices of Yule trappings may make a big dent in your Christmas dollar, but your Christmas tree isn’t likely to cost any more this year than last. That’s what the Department of Agriculture said today after a coast-to-coast survey. The reason: Retailers haven’t forgotten 1943 when rebellious consumers refused to buy trees at inflated prices. That year retailers found a lot of unsold stock on their hands when the Christmas season ended. The department says prices this year are likely to run from $1 to $3.50, depending on the species and size of the tree. On the basis of similar prices retailers last year grossed $50,000,000 on the sale of 28,000,000 trees. Demand is expected to be modestly higher this year. Canada, as in past years, is expected to furnish about 7,000,000 trees for the American market. The rest will be harvested domestically.”

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CoCo Vandeweghe
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “The Pretender” star Patrick Bauchau, who was born in 1938; baseball player and manager Larry Bowa, who was born in 1945; “Poltergeist” star JoBeth Williams, who was born in 1948; “Amadeus” star Tom Hulce, who was born in 1953; comedian Steven Wright, who was born in 1955; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Peter Buck (R.E.M.), who was born in 1956; former N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was born in 1957; “Wallace and Gromit” creator Nick Park, who was born in 1958; filmmaker Judd Apatow, who was born in 1967; “Stargate Atlantis” star Torri Higginson, who was born in 1969; former Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, who was born in 1970; baseball player Adam Eaton, who was born in 1988; tennis player CoCo Vandeweghe, who was born in 1991; and New York Liberty point guard Sabrina Ionescu, who was born in 1997.

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WE THE PEOPLE: The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on this day in 1865, abolishing slavery in the U.S. It reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, save as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

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THE ’60s ARE OVER: On this day in 1969, disaster struck at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California. A free concert for 300,000 fans, featuring performances by the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, the Flying Burrito Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young turned tragic thanks to overcrowding, drug overdoses, and the fatal stabbing of a spectator by a member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, which had been hired to provide security for the event.

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

Quotable:

“Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring … ‘How to Build a Boat.’”

— comedian Steven Wright, who was born on this day in 1955