ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

ON THIS DAY IN 1901, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Superintendent Stewart of Bellevue Hospital said this morning that reports and rumors of a strike among nurses at that institution were groundless and evidently inspired. He said that he had held a long conference with Mrs. Ada Willard, the superintendent of the Mills Training School. Mrs. Willard told him that, although some of the nurses had resigned, there was nothing in the talk of a strike. The nurses are complaining about the quantity and the quality of the food supplied them, but a number of them seen this morning laugh at the idea of a strike.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1926, the Eagle reported, “For exactly 71 minutes and 15 seconds last night, Tex Rickard’s New York Americans battled the Ottawa sextet on the Madison Square Garden ice to what appeared in all that time would be a scoreless tie. But just when it looked almost certain that the New Yorkers would at least escape defeat in the form of a tie, a young man with the good old Irish name of Clancy spoiled everything. One swift thrust of Clancy’s stick, after 1 minute and 15 seconds of the second extra period had elapsed, did the trick. Ottawa won, 1-0. The game was one of the best and most thrilling played here thus far and was fully worthy of the packed house that looked on in a constant state of seething excitement. Hockey has arrived and is here to stay, if that crowd meant anything. As early as 8:15 p.m., no seats were obtainable in the various reserved sections of the Garden, and at game-time there was not a vacant chair to be seen anywhere. It is said that the new amphitheater seats 17,000 persons for hockey, and if that be the case there were just that many people crowded around the rink.”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (AP) — Latin America and Mexico are conceived as ‘a base’ for Communist ‘activity’ against the United States, Secretary Kellogg said today in a document submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and made public by Chairman Borah. ‘The Bolshevik leaders have had very definite ideas with respect to the role which Mexico and Latin America are to play in their general program of world revolution,’ the document said. ‘They have set up as one of their fundamental tasks the destruction of what they term American imperialism as a necessary prerequisite to the successful development of the international revolutionary movement in the world.’ Secretary Kellogg quoted a resolution of the Third International setting up as one of the purposes of that organization the task of uniting ‘the national struggle against American imperialism in individual countries in a general movement on a scale of the whole American continent, embracing the workers of all countries of Latin America and the revolutionary forces of the United States.’ ‘Mexico is a natural connecting link between the movement of the United States of North America and Latin America,’ the cited resolution continued. ‘Therefore, Mexico must be the center of the Union.’”

***

ON THIS DAY IN 1946, the Eagle reported, “The Army Ground Forces, starring the 82nd Airborne Division commanded by Brooklyn-born Maj. Gen. James M. Gavin, today gives New York its biggest show since General Pershing came home from World War I in 1919. The Weather Bureau predicted the rain would stop by noon, with partly cloudy skies favoring the thousands of persons who will line 5th Ave., Manhattan, for the four-mile parade. Other thousands this morning took up positions along 4th Ave. and Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn to watch mobile guns, tanks and other equipment move from the Brooklyn Army Base to the parade gathering point at Washington Square. The 82nd, billed as a representative division of the ground forces, will head the parade, but units of the 13th Airborne, 17th and 101st Divisions also will be among the 13,000 men in the line of march. Army officials estimated the parade would take an hour and a half to pass any given point. The long line of mobile equipment — 105 mm. guns, jeeps, tanks, half-tracks, command cars and other war vehicles — was to leave the army base, 58th St. and 1st Ave., at 10 a.m. and proceed to downtown Brooklyn and across the Manhattan Bridge. The bridge was to be closed to all other traffic from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m., and again from 4 to 5:15 p.m., when the vehicles come back after the parade. An overhead cover of 100 fighter planes and 50 transports, each of the latter pulling a glider, was scheduled to roar over Washington Square at 1 p.m. to signal the start of the parade.”

***

Zayn Malik.
Photo: Rich Fury/Invision/AP

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Goldfinger” star Shirley Eaton, who was born in 1937; “Brideshead Revisited” star Anthony Andrews, who was born in 1948; Pro Football Hall of Famer Drew Pearson, who was born in 1951; “Devil in a Blue Dress” author Walter Mosley, who was born in 1952; country singer Ricky Van Shelton, who was born in 1952; radio host Howard Stern, who was born in 1954; “The Bronx is Burning” star Oliver Platt, who was born in 1960; Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, who was born in 1960; Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who was born in 1964; singer-songwriter Rob Zombie, who was born in 1965; “Insecure” star Issa Rae, who was born in 1985; former One Direction singer Zayn Malik, who was born in 1993; and N.Y. Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton, who was born in 1997.

Issa Rae.
Photo: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

***

UNDERDOG IS HERE: The New York Jets won Super Bowl III on this day in 1969, defeating the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, 16-7. Quarterback Joe Namath was the game’s Most Valuable Player. It was a great time to be a New Yorker at Baltimore’s expense. In October 1969 the Mets defeated the Orioles in the World Series, and in May 1970 the Knicks beat the Bullets in the NBA Finals.

***

Howard Stern.
Photo: Scott Roth/Invision/AP

TO THE RESCUE: On this day in 1991, Congress passed a resolution authorizing President George H.W. Bush to use force to expel Iraq from Kuwait, which was invaded on Aug. 2, 1990. It was the sixth congressional vote in U.S. history declaring war or authorizing force on another nation.

***

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

Quotable

“To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.” — statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke, who was born on this day in 1729