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November 20: ON THIS DAY in 1947, Princess Elizabeth says ‘I will’ in royal wedding

November 20, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Eagle file photo
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ON THIS DAY IN 1947, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “(UP) — Princess Elizabeth today spoke a tremulous ‘I will’ in ancient Westminster Abbey and with those words the future queen of Britain became the wife of the newly created duke of Edinburgh … Despite postwar austerity and slate-colored skies, it was the most brilliant occasion Britain had known since the days before the war … A million persons lined the historic streets of London — the Mall, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square — for the spectacle … The wedding ceremony was carried by radio to every part of the British Empire, as well as to the United States, while television and movie cameras recorded the occasion. Twenty-seven kings, queens, princes and princesses of the ruling houses of Europe, all the ambassadors accredited to the Court of St. James, statesmen and the great of many lands were present.”

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On this day in 1863, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Mr. Everett at Gettysburg. — Mr. [Edward] Everett has let slip a great opportunity. A great occasion of adding to his fame as a national statesman was presented to him, and he was unwilling or unable to take advantage of it. Standing upon the ground beneath which reposes so many of the best and bravest of the youth of our country, he might have spoken in a voice which, though broken by sadness, might still reach above the roar of cannon, and bring before the offended and offending a more vivid picture of the terrible calamity in which war has involved our country. It was a place and an occasion in which a true orator and a real statesman might rise above the passions of the hour, and it would not have been unbecoming in one free from the trammels of office and in a great measure from allegiance to party, to warn and to advise as well as threaten and denounce.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1879, the Eagle reported, “Miss Emma Thursby, Brooklyn’s favorite and now world famous soprano, is on the high seas, en route for her native land. She will sing at a concert in New York Dec. 1, and visit Brooklyn, singing at the Academy of Music on the following day.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1915, the Eagle reported, “A desecration of the American flag by workmen engaged in repainting the walls of the main corridor of Borough Hall was discovered and indignantly stopped by officials of the borough government yesterday afternoon. In order to protect oil paintings of former mayors of Brooklyn hanging on the walls, the painters covered them with large American flags. The drops of paint fell, not upon the pictures, but upon the Stars and Stripes. Thomas King, watchman in the building and a veteran of the Civil War, was the first to notice the insult. He rushed into the borough president’s office and also notified the Board of Aldermen in their room nearby.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Eagle reported, “Berlin, Nov. 19 (AP) — Nazi Germany broadened its campaign to eradicate all possible traces of Jewry from national life today amid swift financial, religious and international cross-currents. Protestant churches in some parts of the country were ordered to eliminate the German word ‘Jehovah,’ taken from the Hebrew for God, and Old Testament names of Jewish prophets. Wealthy Jews in Nuremberg, according to advices received in Munich, were forced to sign over 90 percent of their possessions to the German labor front and then told to leave the city within three months. A mass eviction of Jews was reported in Vienna. In Berlin thousands clamored in vain for permission to leave while officials debated ways and means of letting them go. Lay teachers of religion in public schools asked that pastors and priests assume such instruction. They explained no German teacher could interest Nordic pupils in ‘Jew-written Psalms’ and Old Testament history. A police order was issued today forbidding Jews to use bridle paths.”

 


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