January 10: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

January 10, 2025 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1883, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “It is stated that General Grant has accomplished the primary object of his visit to Washington. He went there to confer with Mr. Trescot and the Mexican Commissioners with regard to the proposed commercial treaty with Mexico. It is said that the plans which he prepared had been approved by the commission and now only await ratification by the two governments to constitute a treaty.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1896, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON, D.C. ― It is expected that within a short time the secretary of state will ask for an appropriation from congress to carry out the recommendations of the board of survey that has recently completed the work of gathering facts to find the boundary line between Alaska and the British possessions in Canada. In 1892 the United States and Great Britain entered into an agreement to make surveys in southeastern Alaska for the purpose of determining facts necessary for marking out the dividing line between these two countries in Alaska. The surveys were completed last summer and the reports of the surveying parties were transmitted, together with the maps and data, to the state department at Washington, and to the foreign office at Ottawa. Now that all the facts are at hand, it only remains for congress to appropriate money for the marking out of the divisional line. The reports of the surveyors are of course confidential documents, and have not yet been made public. From maps of this territory that have been published from time to time by the Canadian authorities, it is apparent that England has been slowly encroaching on the American possessions, and each succeeding map that has been issued represents the territory owned by this country as greatly diminished.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1926, the Eagle reported, “GODTHAAB, GREENLAND (AP) ― Greenland is the loneliest continent in the world. Tucked away in the Arctic circle, with its fingers frozen and its ears frostbitten from one end of the year to the other, it ekes out its existence catching seals and eating fish. These are the conclusions of members of an official expedition sent out by the Danish Government to make a complete exploration of the island. The expedition found the Eskimos clothed, for the most part, in garments they make themselves from the skins of animals. Except for a few simple sports they have little amusement. There are but a few hundred Europeans on the great continent. If Greenland were placed in the United States its length would run from New York to Denver, and its breadth from Cleveland to Florida. And yet its total population of 12,000 would not make a good sized American town.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1936, the Eagle reported, “Persistent safety campaigning brought a 30 percent accident reduction in Brooklyn since 1934, Capt. William M. Kent, commanding officer of the New York City police department’s safety bureau, disclosed in an address before the Brooklyn Rotary Club in the Hotel Bossert yesterday. He said the city automobile accidents in 1935 had been reduced 20.4 percent, that injuries had been cut by 20.7 percent and deaths by 6 percent. Greater results, however, were obtained in Brooklyn, where injuries had dropped 27 percent and deaths five percent. These gains had been made despite a 15 percent upward trend in accidents throughout the country, the safety bureau chief stated. He outlined a 10-point program to reduce accidents further. His plan included: improved traffic signal control, effective use of stop signs at through streets, improved routing around streets congested beyond capacity, establishment of adequate speed regulations, solution of the problem created by 2,000 particularly bad intersections. Also, improved parking regulations, increase in efficiency in the relationship between warnings, tickets, arrests and convictions; improved taxi operation, a survey to determine how many man hours are necessary at a given point to reduce accidents, prohibition of turns where necessary because of unsafe conditions or congestion. Captain Kent told the Rotarians that 291,000 persons had been killed and 10,000,000 injured in the United States during the last ten years. … Emphasizing New York’s traffic problem, he cited figures which showed that 700,000 local vehicles use city thoroughfares daily. This figure is augmented by a visiting army of 200,000 motorcars and trucks daily.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Eagle reported, “ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, PHILIPPINES (UP) ― A mighty American invasion army of at least 100,000 men and a powerful array of tanks and guns captured San Fabian and several other towns on Luzon’s Lingayen Gulf today and struck out for Manila, a little more than 100 miles away, against only scattered Japanese resistance. A naval armada of 1,000 or more ships, including 800 transports, was pouring a constant stream of reinforcements into four expanding beachheads, apparently mainly between San Fabian and Lingayen, the latter 107 miles north of Manila and the site of three airfields. A front dispatch said one beachhead already was 15 miles long. A field dispatch said thousands of soldiers from Ohio, California and many other States landed a few hundred yards from the main Lingayen airdrome and within a half hour were 300 yards inland, still largely unopposed. The airdrome since may have been overrun. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who returned to Luzon with his assault troops soon after H-hour at 9:30 a.m. yesterday, told United Press war correspondent William B. Dickinson this morning that the invasion was progressing ‘better than could be expected’ with all units making excellent progress. San Fabian was captured without opposition in the early hours of the invasion, a dispatch from Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid’s flagship reported. Other towns also have been seized, but their names were withheld temporarily for security reasons.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1949, the Eagle reported, “Mayor O’Dwyer today fought to avert two strikes called for 12:01 a.m. Thursday which would cut off the city’s fuel supply in mid-Winter and disrupt many phases of the city’s economic life. The Mayor’s three-man mediating committee was to parley this morning with representatives of the tugboat workers who yesterday empowered their negotiating committee to call a walkout if no agreement was reached before the deadline. At 2 p.m. a second committee will meet with representatives of 2,500 fuel truck drivers. Their strike, if it comes, would cut off the supply of coal and oil for both domestic and industrial use. The tugboat workers and the fuel truck drivers are operating without contracts, which expired New Year’s Eve, but both unions have agreed to extend the negotiating period. The votes to strike indicated the impatience of the men with the drawn-out negotiations. A two-section meeting of tugboat workers yesterday afternoon and evening in the headquarters of the United Marine Division, Local 333, of the International Longshoremen’s Association, A.F.L., at 107 Washington St., set the Thursday deadline. The decision to strike was announced by John J. Corrigan, the unions’ counsel, who denied there was any dissension within the tugboat union. Mr. Corrigan reported that the employers’ last offer of a 10 percent wage increase evoked ‘extreme dissatisfaction’ when it was relayed to the tug men.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1955, the Eagle said, “A release from Swedish American Line says the line’s luxury cruise liner Kungsholm, which sailed on a 97-day ’round-the-world cruise, on Saturday will pass through ‘the legendary Panama Canal’ on its way back. We thought the Canal was real.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include opera singer Sherrill Milnes, who was born in 1935; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Rod Stewart, who was born in 1945; opera singer James Morris, who was born in 1947; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Donald Fagen (Steely Dan), who was born in 1948; International Boxing Hall of Famer George Foreman, who was born in 1949; Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Pat Benatar, who was born in Brooklyn in 1953; “Sunny Came Home” singer Shawn Colvin, who was born in 1956; Crash Test Dummies singer Brad Roberts, who was born in 1964; “The Frighteners” star Trini Alvarado, who was born in 1967; International Boxing Hall of Famer Felix Trinidad, who was born in 1973; “Person of Interest” star Sarah Shahi, who was born in 1980; and former N.Y. Giants safety Landon Collins, who was born in 1994.

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PUBLISH OR PERISH: “Common Sense” was published on this day in 1776. Thomas Paine’s 50-page pamphlet sold 150,000 copies within a few months of its first printing and had a great influence on the authors of the Declaration of Independence.

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THE CURTAIN RISES: “Masterpiece Theater” premiered on this day in 1971. PBS’s long-running anthology series consists of highly acclaimed original and adapted dramatizations, many of which are produced by the BBC. Notable programs include “Upstairs Downstairs” (1974-77), “I, Claudius” (1978) and “Downton Abbey” (2011-16). The series is now titled “Masterpiece.”

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

Quotable:

“Sure the fight was fixed. I fixed it with a right hand.”

— former heavyweight champion George Foreman, who was born on this day in 1949