February 14: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

February 14, 2025 Brooklyn Eagle History

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ON THIS DAY IN 1872, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said, “If really ‘the happy birds do woo’ on St. Valentine’s, amatory industry is more active in this city today than ever before. For the sparrows are now numerous beyond precedent. Certain sections, from which they seemed almost to have disappeared not long ago, are again crowded with them. This brief migratory eccentricity of the birds has not been explained. Sparrow habits are worthy the study of the curious in natural history, and it is to be hoped some local ornithologist will make a specialty of the subject.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1912, the Eagle reported, “There is a boy in Glen Ridge, N.J., who has a novel method of saving money for a college education. The incident came to light through a letter received some time ago by the Title Guarantee & Trust Company asking whether the company would accept three thousand pennies in payment of three installments on account of a $200 mortgage certificate. The youngster receives each day from his grandfather ten pennies, from his father five pennies and from his mother five pennies. He has made this arrangement with himself that all of the Lincoln pennies he receives will be saved toward his college education but that he is entitled to spend the ordinary pennies. As a result, the family make every effort to find all the Lincoln pennies possible. The company was willing enough to receive the pennies in payment of the certificate. Yesterday the company received another letter from the boy’s father asking whether the company would receive two thousand additional pennies which had been accumulated in the same way. The pennies were received as they were neatly wrapped in packages.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1913, the Eagle reported, “W. R. Grace’s new steamship Santa Cruz sailed yesterday from the New York Dock Company’s Pier 33, Atlantic Dock, on her maiden voyage for San Francisco and Seattle. She is the first of four passenger steamships that the firm is having built for the West Coast trade, via the Panama Canal when the latter is opened for traffic. Until this event takes place they will follow the Straits of Magellan route.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1913, the Eagle reported, “The will of Louis Bossert, the Brooklyn lumber merchant and hotel proprietor, was this afternoon filed for probate in the Surrogate’s Court by Lawyer Frank Obernier of 44 Court street, who for over thirty years had been the testator’s personal friend and attorney. The value of the estate, though not given officially, is said to be between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000. With the exception of three bequests of $5,000 each to semi-charitable objects, and one of $10,000 to a relative, the entire property is distributed among the widow, Mrs. Phillipena Krippendorf Bossert, and the six children.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1928, the Eagle reported, “At a concert to be given in honor of the great violin makers of the past on the night of Feb. 28 in the Metropolitan Opera House, the entire collection of rare violins, violas, cellos and double basses owned by Rodman-Wanamaker will be played by a selected group of noted musicians. The Wanamaker collection is one of the most comprehensive of its kind in existence and was assembled by Mr. Wanamaker in honor of the stringed instrument master craftsmen. The most famous instrument in the collection is the last violin made by Stradivarius in 1737, the year of his death. The violin is known as ‘The Swan.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, the Eagle reported, “Some high prices have been paid at Sotheby’s for old letters and manuscripts, but the one which brought the most recently was a short letter signed by Benjamin Franklin. It was addressed to a sister, Jane, and brought $5,750. It discussed construction of an addition to his home. Another Franklin letter to his sister brought $4,000. Two autographed letters by Giuseppe Verdi, composer, were purchased for $1,900. An autographed musical score, ‘To Eric,’ by Arnold Bax (1910), brought $4,200, and the same amount was paid for a musical manuscript by Gustav Holst.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1933, the Eagle reported, “ALBANY – Governor Lehman today ordered the State Athletic Commission to investigate the death of Ernie Schaaf, the contender for the world’s heavyweight crown, felled in the ring by Primo Carnera. ‘When I have all the facts in the case before me I will decide what the next step is to be,’ said the Governor. While the Governor was acting, a strong sentiment for a legislative investigation of the matching of Carnera against Schaaf was growing in both the Senate and Assembly. ‘The Legislature, which sanctioned boxing, cannot sit idly by in the face of this situation,’ said Assemblyman Arthur Swartz, Republican, of Buffalo. ‘Someone should be responsible for unevenly matched opponents.’ Assemblyman Saul Streit, Tammany Democrat, said he will introduce a bill throwing the utmost restrictions around bouts in which the opponents are of unequal weights. ‘Something must be done to prevent tragedies like this one,’ said Streit. Assemblyman Louis Cuvillier, Manhattan Democrat, called on the State Athletic Commission to prevent unequal matches. ‘A good little man frequently can defeat a good big man,’ said Cuvillier, ‘but it does the former no good to be hit by the latter. I believe opponents always should be matched evenly as to height, weight and age.’ Senator Blumberg, Republican, and Assemblyman William Breitenbach, Democrat, both of Brooklyn, joined hands this afternoon in the preparation of a bill to prevent the matching of two men in the ring when there is more than 40 pounds difference in their weights.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle said, “For the first time since 1942, our dashing Dodgers are holding Spring training drills in Florida and that’s a sure way of indicating that peacetime baseball has returned once again. It was back in 1941 that Brooklyn won the National League championship but when the team went South the next Spring many of its stars had entered the armed forces. Today most of these great players who brought the pennant to our boro in 1941 have been reunited and it’s good to see such stars as Reese, Reiser, Lavagetto and Riggs back in baseball uniform again. Perhaps that’s an omen, an indication that we’re pennant-bound again.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, who was born in 1941; former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was born in 1942; “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” actor Andrew Robinson, who was born in 1942; journalist Carl Bernstein, who was born in 1944; sportscaster Pat O’Brien, who was born in 1948; magician Teller, who was born in 1948; motivational speaker and former baseball player Dave Dravecky, who was born in 1956; opera star Renee Fleming, who was born in 1959; Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly, who was born in 1960; “Just Shoot Me!” star Enrico Colantoni, who was born in 1963; “Shaun of the Dead” star Simon Pegg, who was born in 1970; former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who was born in 1972; Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas, who was born in 1972; former N.Y. Mets and Yankees pitcher Tyler Clippard, who was born in 1985; and “The Good Doctor” star Freddie Highmore, who was born in 1992.

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THE CIRCLE OF LIFE: George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. was born on this day in 1859. In response to a challenge to American engineers to create a monument that would dwarf the new Eiffel Tower, he built the Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. When the exposition opened, 38,000 people a day had their ups and downs. Ferris died in 1896.

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YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: James Bond died on this day in 1989. The noted ornithologist wrote the influential “Birds of the West Indies” in 1936. In 1953, while searching for a name for the protagonist of his novel “Casino Royale,” author Ian Fleming, who enjoyed birdwatching, chose the name Bond … James Bond.

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

Quotable:

“No place epitomizes the American experience and the American spirit more than New York City.”

— former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was born on this day in 1942