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August 17: ON THIS DAY IN 1948, Yankee Stadium farewell for Babe Ruth

August 17, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Eagle file photo
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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Eagle reported, “Boston, Aug. 17 (U.P.) – Harry Dexter White, 56, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 1945 to 1946 and one of the key figures in the current spy hearings in Washington, died at his summer home in Fitzwilliam, N.H., yesterday, his family disclosed today. White, who had been in government service since 1934, died of a heart seizure, relatives said … White was the highest ranking former government official accused before the House Un-American Activities Committee in its Soviet spy hearings … White had been doubly accused. Elizabeth T. Bentley said he was one of 30 wartime government officials who supplied information to a Soviet espionage network for which she was courier.”

On that same day, it was also reported, “Those who cheered Babe Ruth alive will be able to see him once again – in the Yankee Stadium, ‘the House that Ruth built.’ There in the Bronx arena George Herman Ruth climbed to the heights of baseball glory. There he batted most of the 60 home runs of a single season, a glittering record. There he became the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the beloved of millions of fans of all ages. And there he was taken today to lie in state, beginning at 5 p.m., for the host of his admirers to pass by his casket for a last farewell.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1884, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Mr. L.B. Proctor, who spent nearly three years in this city in connection with the enterprise of Munsell’s History of Kings County, and who is now in Albany engaged upon the revision of Hammond’s political history of the State of New York, was on a visit to Brooklyn during the past week and left for the Capital on Thursday evening. Mr. Proctor has made such a mark for himself in the work he has done in digging up the musty records of this county and setting them in order in Munsell’s book, and his biographical sketches of the bench and bar for the same volume, as must always commend him to the respect of Brooklynites.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1858, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published the following dispatch: “To the Directors of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, New York: Cyrus Station, N.F., Aug. 16, 1858. Europe and America are united by telegraph. Glory to God in the highest; on Earth peace, and good will towards men. [Signed] Directors Atlantic Telegraph Co., Great Britain.” Also published was Queen Victoria’s message to President James Buchanan: “To the Honorable President of the United States — Her Majesty desires to congratulate the President upon the successful completion of this great International Work, in which the Queen has taken the deepest interest.” The president responded: “To Her Majesty Victoria, Queen of Great Britain — The President cordially reciprocates the congratulations of Her Majesty the Queen, on the success of the great International Enterprise accomplished by the science, skill and indomitable energy of the two countries.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1860, the Eagle reported, “Mr. Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the presidency, said to be the ugliest man alive, in his late Springfield speech said: ‘I appear upon the ground here at this time only for the purpose of seeing you and enabling you to see ME.’ If half the stories about Lincoln’s ugly phiz are true, his auditors had decidedly the best of the bargain, and were well repaid for traveling any required distance to see the show. But Lincoln by no means monopolizes the show business. Douglas is engaged in the same game, having already exhibited himself in half a dozen States, and intending to make the tour of the Union. Would it not be well for Barnum to cage these traveling exhibitions, and show them for a quarter a piece, with 10 cents added for a speech? It is too bad to allow such sights to go at large, when a good thing might be made of them.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Eagle reported, “Ray Chapman, star shortstop of the Cleveland American League baseball team, who was hit on the head at the Polo Grounds yesterday by a ball pitched by Carl Mays of the Yankees, died today at the St. Laurence Hospital in Manhattan. As a result of Chapman’s death, members of the Detroit and Boston baseball teams are signing a petition demanding that Mays be banished from organized baseball … Chapman is the first major league ball player who has been killed in a game — a remarkable record considering that there has been one or more major leagues since 1876 … Will the killing of Chapman destroy the nerve of Mays? That remains to be seen.”

 

 

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