October 17, ON THIS DAY in 1945, triumphant U.S. Navy returns to NYC
ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “A spearhead of the mighty U.S. fleet which blasted the fighting forces of Japan out of the Pacific streamed into New York Harbor today for the most triumphal welcome since Admiral Dewey returned from Manila after the Spanish-American War. Paced by the mighty 20,000-ton carrier Enterprise, 10 ships arrived for the celebration of Navy Day, Oct. 27. They were the vanguard of the 50 fighting ships which President [Harry] Truman will review in the Hudson River after commissioning the super-carrier Midway at the Brooklyn Navy Yard … Their coming yesterday was heralded yesterday afternoon by a spectacular flight of 101 fighter planes and torpedo bombers from the decks of the carriers. Taking off far out at sea, the planes came roaring over lower Manhattan and Brooklyn to land at Floyd Bennett Field.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1859, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Baltimore, Oct. 17. A dispatch just received here from Frederick, dated this morning, states that an insurrection has broken out at Harper’s Ferry, where an armed band of Abolitionists have full possession of the Government Arsenal. The express train going east was twice fired into, and one of the railroad hands and a negro [were] killed while endeavoring to get the train through the town. The insurrectionists stopped and arrested two men who had come to town with a load of wheat, and using their wagon, loaded it with rifles and sent them into Maryland. They number about 250 whites, aided by a gang of negroes. At the last accounts from there fighting was going on.”