December 18: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

December 18, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1894, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The Webster club will debate with the Epworth league of the Bushwick avenue M.E. church on the ‘Annexation of Canada,’ Thursday evening, at the chapel of the Lewis avenue Congregational church, Lewis avenue and Madison street. All welcome.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1917, the Eagle reported, “Santa Claus today brought a big Christmas gift to New York a little ahead of the official season, but one that will receive a universal welcome. It means a little sunshine for everybody. We are going to have real warm weather ― weather that will melt the snow, that will clear the railroad tracks, that will warm the poor in their chilled rooms, that will gladden the hearts of the coal dealers because it will make hauling of precious fuel so much easier and increase the flow of coal. At 2 o’clock today the temperature was 33 degrees, 1 degree above freezing and going up. ‘It has been some little time since we have had a temperature above freezing,’ said the forecaster. December 13 was the last day on which the temperature was above freezing. ‘The low barometric pressure indicates a decided change to warmer and it looks as if the warmer weather may remain with us some days. There may be a change of as much as twenty degrees. There are no storms in sight.’ So cheer up! Pack up your coal troubles in your old kit bag and smile. Who cares for a white Christmas these days?”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1944, the Eagle reported, “PARIS (U.P.) ― The heaviest German counteroffensive of the Western campaign, coordinated with a savage V-bomb barrage, rolled unchecked through the American 1st Army lines to a depth of several miles today, punching through into Belgium and Luxembourg at three or more points along a fluid, 70-mile battlefront. Late field dispatches indicated the Americans were riding the German blow and putting up increasingly stiff resistance as the initial shock of the attack passed. First Army spokesmen, admitting the gravity of the Nazi push, said countermeasures already were being taken to seal off the enemy penetrations. A strict security blackout permitted only the sketchiest details of the enemy advance, but it was evident that in the first 48 hours of their offensive the Nazi gains were being measured in miles at many points.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “The name of the Brooklyn Navy Yard has been changed again in the interest of ‘better efficiency.’ The new name, ordered in a telegram from Washington, is: ‘The New York Naval Shipyard, Naval Base Station, Brooklyn 1, N.Y.’ Seven Brooklynites picked at random and as many Manhattan men-in-the-street, asked for directions to the New York Naval Shipyard, Naval Base Station, Brooklyn 1, N.Y.,’ responded in unison: ‘I don’t know, Bud, but why don’t you go over to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They ought to know.’ At the Brooklyn Navy Yard, actually, they were too busy to answer. They were too busy putting up new signs, with the new name. The most recent official name had been the United States Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn. And before that the official name was the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn. Before and during and since these changes, Brooklynites called the Navy Yard the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The thousands who worked on ships at the yard called it the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Gobs and officers who met in far-off Guam or Marseilles, Korea or Hawaii recalled the time they served in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. P.S.: What the new official name of the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be this afternoon was not known at the time this edition went to press.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “‘Only one man in Hollywood could put me on my feet ― he’s Gene Kelly. He did it by telling me to keep my mouth shut!’ Frank Sinatra is doing the speaking, and he means what he says. ‘There were plenty who told me to use my head,’ smiled the star, ‘but it wasn’t until Kelly came along that I realized I could use my number nines for more than walking.’ This Kelly-Sinatra combination is together again and really ‘go to town’ in a musical titled ‘On the Town,’ now at Radio City Music Hall. ‘Sure, I sing,’ said Sinatra. ‘But I also dance. With Kelly in the musical and also directing it, you don’t think he’d let me get by with doing just something I feel secure about, do you? Not this guy. He’s got me on my feet and stepping lively. But I love it.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1962, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (UPI) ― The United States has sent an Explorer satellite in search of information about the dangers tiny bits of cosmic debris pose to space travelers and their conveyances. The instrument-filled spacecraft was launched at 9:33 a.m. yesterday by a solid-fuel Scout rocket from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Wallops Island, Va., test site. A NASA spokesman said ‘all elements of the launching appeared to be normal.’ If it performs as planned, the satellite will be called Explorer 16, and will have a useful life of about one year. NASA scientists, meanwhile, continued getting information from the Mariner 2 spacecraft as it headed into solar orbit following its rendezvous with the planet Venus. A spokesman said the space agency should be able to determine shortly the exact path Mariner will take in its never-ending voyage through deep space.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones), who was born in 1943; Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who was born in 1946; film critic Leonard Maltin, who was born in 1950; former White Lion drummer Greg D’Angelo, who was born in Brooklyn in 1963; former N.Y. Knicks forward Charles Oakley, who was born in 1963; Oscar-winning actor Brad Pitt, who was born in 1963; “Muriel’s Wedding” star Rachel Griffiths, who was born in 1968; International Tennis Hall of Famer Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who was born in 1971; “Chandelier” singer Sia, who was born in 1975; “Dawson’s Creek” star Katie Holmes, who was born in 1978; “Beautiful” singer Christina Aguilera, who was born on Staten Island in 1980; and “Bad Guy” singer Billie Eilish, who was born in 2001.

Keith Richards
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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SCORE ONE FOR OUR SIDE: The U.S. launched the world’s first communications satellite on this day in 1958. Known as SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay), it broadcast a Christmas message via shortwave radio from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The project served as the U.S. response to the Soviet Union’s Sputnik launches of 1957.

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

Quotable:

“It’s great to be here. It’s great to be anywhere.”

— Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, who was born on this day in 1943