Brooklyn Through the Ages: March

March 1, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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By John B. Manbeck

March 1, 1925: Trial of Gravesend’s corrupt “Boss” John Mckane comes to a close, sending him to prison.

March 2, 1918: U.S. officials raid Bethel Home (122 Columbia Heights) and Brooklyn Tabernacle (13 Hicks Street) and seize two vans of pacifist literature.

March 3, 1862: Alfred M. Wood, Brooklyn’s first Civil War hero and later mayor of Brooklyn, honored with parade and reception.

March 4, 1912: Ground broken in Crown Heights for Ebbets Field.

March 5, 1891: Wiley G. Overton appointed as first African American policeman in Brooklyn.

March 6, 1776: General Lord Stirling supersedes General Charles Lee in American Revolutionary Army; Stirling becomes a hero of the Battle of Brooklyn.

March 7, 1959: Zack “The Indian” Wheat, member of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team for 17 years, voted into Baseball Hall of Fame.

March 8, 1862: The ironclad warship USS Monitor, built in Brooklyn, fights Confederate Merrimac at Hampton Roads.

March 9, 1945: Fifty hurt as wooden trolley car crashes on Brooklyn Bridge.

March 10, 1959: Twenty-five-bed pavilion for Brooklyn Thoracic Hospital opens.

March 11, 1906: St. Marks Methodist Episcopal Church (Ocean Avenue and Beverley Road) dedicated.

March 12, 1888: Blizzard of ’88 strikes Brooklyn.

March 13, 1822: First Presbyterian Church incorporated.

March 14, 1905: Bill for demolition of Kings County Penitentiary in Crow Hill (now Crown Heights) passes both houses of state legislature.

March 15, 1910: Establishment of new police precinct between Avenues H and J in Flatlands for “better protection against burglars.”

March 16, 1955: Brooklyn Daily Eagle ceases publication after 114 years.

March 17, 1668: Kings County Court of Sessions moves to Town of Gravesend from Town of Flatbush until 1685.

March 18, 1955: New York World Telegram & Sun publishes elaborate Brooklyn section after Eagle’s closing.

March 19, 1859: Brooklyn Academy of Music incorporated.

March 20, 1905: Havermeyer sugar plant in Brooklyn closes, idling 2,000 men.

March 21, 1677: Governor Edmund Andros grants patent separating New Lots from Flatbush.

March 22, 1906: Rapid Transit Commission approves extension of Ft. Hamilton subway route to Coney Island.

March 23, 1947: Annual Forsythia Day inaugurated to celebrate official borough flower.

March 24, 1911: Fire sweeps Barren Island, now Gateway National Recreation Area, ruining 100 homes.

March 25, 1907: Fire in Sheepshead Bay Race Track stable kills 11 thoroughbred horses, with loss estimated at $100,000.

March 26, 1905: Fanny Crosby Day in Brooklyn celebrated for 85th birthday of blind hymn composer.

March 27, 1732: Brooklyn slave woman and her two children offered for sale: “speaks good English and Dutch, educated in all kinds of business for city or country.”

March 28, 1906: Out of 1,000 words sent by wireless from Coney Island to Ireland, 572 are received 3,200 miles away.

March 29, 1941: Ingersoll Memorial Library — named after a Brooklyn borough president — today’s Brooklyn Public Central Library at Grand Army Plaza, dedicated.

March 30, 1647: Hans Hansen Bergen, early Norwegian settler, receives large waterfront grant in Breuckelen and Boswijck (Bushwick).

March 31, 1918: Daylight Savings Law takes effect in Brooklyn.