MILESTONES: August 31, birthdays for Larry Fitzgerald, Chris Tucker, Joe Budden

August 31, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Larry Fitzgerald. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin

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ON THIS DAY IN 1945, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Adm. Badger’s Flagship, Yokosuka, Aug. 31 (U.P.) — Fifty percent of the 1,500 Allied war prisoners already rescued from camps in the Tokyo area were treated so brutally by the Japanese that they need hospital care, Cmdr. Harold E. Stassen revealed today. Most prisoners said they were beaten regularly by Japanese seeking information. Some showed torture scars on their hands, apparently the result of thumb screws or similar devices. Stassen, former governor of Minnesota and a member of Adm. William F. Halsey’s staff, said there were many reports of prisoners dying from beatings and lack of care. No instances of deliberate executions yet have been reported, however, he said.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “Mayor [William] O’Dwyer bid an emotional adios to the city which took him in as a homespun-dressed immigrant from County Mayo and gave him the highest honor in her keeping. As seven bands added to the fiesta spirit of the ceremonies marking his abdication to become ambassador to Mexico, the mayor reviewed his record and said he was ‘willing to accept the judgment of history’ on it. An estimated crowd of 50,000 persons, including 20,000 city employees given a half-holiday in honor of the occasion, crowded City Hall Park to hear the mayor’s farewell address, delivered at a not far distance from where George Washington made his farewell address to the people of the United States.” Before serving as the 100th mayor of New York City from 1946-1950, O’Dwyer was the Kings County district attorney from 1940-45. Hounded by accusations of ties to organized crime figures, he resigned as ambassador to Mexico in 1952. He died in 1964.

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ON SEPT. 1, 1874, the Eagle reported, “Some idea of the amazing number of locusts out west is formed by the fact that on the line of the St. Joseph and Denver railroad, between Oxtail and Beetle, they covered the track two inches deep, and although the engineers put on a powerful head of steam and tried to drive through them, the train was nine hours going 11 miles. On the same road a train pulled out of Seneca on time, but encountering the locusts, was driven back and had to wait until the myriads of insects had crossed the line. As this was in Kansas, the grain crops there are threatened as well as in Minnesota and Iowa. Of the extent of the ravages no present conjecture can be formed, but in the regions occupied by homestead settlers the suffering is severe.”

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ON SEPT. 3, 1902, the Eagle reported from Lenox, Massachusetts, “A terrible accident overtook President [Theodore] Roosevelt’s coach, a short distance from Pittsfield, about 10 o’clock this morning. After a short visit to the home of ex-Sen. [Henry L.] Dawes, the president started on the long drive to Lenox. He had not gone far when an electric car ran into the coach, throwing everyone to the ground and badly damaging the vehicle. The president received a cut on the head and Gov. [Winthrop M.] Crane was bruised. William Craig, the secret service man, was instantly killed. The president was able to resume his journey to Lenox, but sent word ahead that there should be no cheering.”

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ON SEPT. 3, 1930, the Eagle reported, “Further mystery was thrown over the disappearance of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater when it was reported that he had been seen about a week and a half ago by employees of the apartment house at 40 Fifth Ave., Manhattan, where he had an apartment. Although it was previously reported that Justice Crater had dropped out of sight on Aug. 6 or Aug. 7, apartment house attaches said that in the intervals he came to his apartment on the fourth floor of the house while his private chauffeur waited below. The chauffeur told the doorman that he was going to drive the justice to Maine, where Mrs. Crater had been since early June.” Declared legally dead in 1937, Crater was never found.

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ON SEPT. 3, 1943, the Eagle published a United Press story which read, “Secretary of Navy [Frank] Knox said today that more than one-third of Japanese cargo tonnage in existence at the outbreak of war and acquired since then has been sunk. Knox met reporters awaiting word of new blows against the Japanese by an American task force which blasted Marcus Island. Vice Adm. John S. McCain, deputy chief of naval operations, had warned the uneasy enemy that the Marcus attack was a ‘token’ prelude to the destruction of Japan itself … McCain said in a radio address last night that the Navy is now ‘poised to strike on the surface, under the surface and in the air,’ against Japan.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include former basketball player JENNIFER AZZI, who was born in 1968; football player LARRY FITZGERALD, who was born in 1983; singer DEBBIE GIBSON, who was born in Brooklyn in 1970; Olympic skier TED LIGETY, who was born in 1984; singer VAN MORRSION, who was born in 1945; former Olympic track athlete EDWIN CORLEY MOSES, who was born in 1955; former baseball player HIDEO NOMO, who was born in 1968; violinist ITZHAK PERLMAN, who was born in 1945; actress SARA RAMIREZ, who was born in 1975; soccer player PEPE REINA, who was born in 1982; Hall of Fame baseball player FRANK ROBINSON, who was born in 1935; actor JACK THOMPSON, who was born in 1940; singer GLENN TILBROOK, who was born in 1957; and actor and comedian CHRIS TUCKER, who was born in 1972.

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CHARLES BAUDELAIRE DIED ON THIS DAY IN 1867. The French poet, translator and essayist died after suffering a stroke in Belgium. His most famous work was “The Flowers of Evil,” a book of lyric poetry about the industrialization of Paris in the 19th century.

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WILLIAM SHAWN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1907. As editor of The New Yorker for 35 years, Shawn was firm in his direction of editorial policy for the magazine, which in turn had an impact on the literary and reportorial styles of writers throughout the country. Shawn died in New York City in December of 1992.

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TODAY IS IN ANNIVERSARY OF THE KLONDIKE ELDORADO GOLD DISCOVERY. Two weeks after the Rabbit/Bonanza Creek claim was filed, gold was discovered on Eldorado Creek, a tributary of Bonanza, in 1896. More than $30 million worth of gold (worth $600-$700 million in today’s dollars) was mined from the Eldorado Claim that year.

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JAMES COBURN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1928. The Academy Award-winning actor rose to fame as the knife thrower in “The Magnificent Seven” and became known for his tough-guy roles in films such as “The Great Escape” and “Our Man Flint.” He also received an Oscar for his supporting role in “Affliction.” Coburn died in Los Angeles in 2002.

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PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES DIED ON THIS DAY IN 1997. The princess, along with her companion Dodi Fayed, died in a car crash in Paris. Although press photographers had been pursuing her car, French courts determined that the paparazzi were not responsible for the crash, but rather a driver operating under the influence of alcohol. Diana, a very popular British royal who worked on behalf of many charities, was mourned the world over.

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

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“To handle a language skillfully is to practice a kind of evocative sorcery.” — poet Charles Baudelaire, who died on this day in 1867