Today in History

[LizzieMaine]

October 3, 1951

"Bobby Thomson . . . up there swingin'... He's had 2 out of 3, a single and a double, and Billy Cox is playing him right on the third base line. 1 out, last of the ninth . . . Branca pitches, Bobby Thomson takes a strike called on the inside corner. Bobby hitting at .292. He's had a single and a double and he drove in the Giants' first run with a long fly to center. Brooklyn leads it 4 to 2. Hartung, down the line at third, not taking any chances . . Lockman with not too big of a lead at second, but he'll be runnin' like the wind if Thomson hits one. Branca throws . . . . . . There's a long drive . . . It's gonna be, I believe . . . THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! . . . Bobby Thomson hits into the lower deck, of the left field stands! The Giants win the pennant, and they're goin' crazy! They're goin' crazy! Heeeey-oh! . . . [pause while crowd roars] . . . I don't believe it! I don't believe it! I do not believe it! Bobby Thomson . . . hit a line drive . . . into the lower deck . . . of the left field stands . . . and this blame place is goin' crazy! The Giants! Horace Stoneham has got a winner! The Giants won it, by a score of 5 to 4, and they're pickin' Bobby Thomson up, and carryin' him off the field!"

-- Russ Hodges, WMCA radio

 

[Fletch]

You don't know him, but...

...you would like to, I promise. My dear old family friend Alvin W. Hall, Jr., Cmdr. USN Ret., of Ridgefield, CT, turns 88 today.

Al served his country off Normandy on D-Day. Postwar he earned aviator wings and met Dorothy (Dottie) Moye, who had once worked on Bob Hope's office staff. They just recently celebrated their 60th anniversary. Al flew PB4Y Liberators out of Kodiak, AK, on the challenging mission of photographing the Naval Petroleum Reserve. Retiring as full commander, he joined his old buddy, Flying Tiger veteran Noel Bacon, at MGM's film stock operation, Metro-Kalvar Co. Among the sales staff was my dad, who had served under Capt. Bacon at the Naval Photographic Center. Latterly, Al was in the insurance business in Ridgefield, which he pursued well into his 80s.

But probably the most notable thing about Al Hall is due to an accident of birth. For many years his dad, Alvin Sr., was head of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It was this fact, in 1932, that led to 11-year-old Al Jr. earning the distinction he holds today: He is the only living American depicted on a postage stamp.

The 2¢ Arbor Day Commemorative, issued April 22, 1932.

Al's late sister, at left, previously shared the honor with him. The photographic study for the stamp was done in the sideyard of the Hall home on the then-outskirts of Washington, DC.

One helluva 20th century life, and an exemplar of the Greatest Generation. Many happy returns of the day, Al.

 

[Flivver]

Fletch...that's incredible!

As a stamp collector, I knew the "only living American" story of the Arbor Day stamp.

But you actually knew him!

 

[Fletch]

Know him. He and Dottie are quite well. Dottie in particular is the best-preserved and most vivacious octogenarian imaginable.

 

[carter]

Fletch, Thank you for a heart warming tribute to Cmdr. Hall, a truly great American. It's nice to know that he and his wife are quite well. His has been an amazing life. I can only imagine the stories they could tell. Happy Birthday, Sir.

 

[LizzieMaine]

October 19, 1931

3 SLUGGED AT MILL GATES IN STRIKE

Lawrence, October 19 -- Two workers and a girl were slugged and beaten today as 20,000 workers gathered about the mill gates refusing to respond to Governor Ely's request to go back to work, and protesting at the opening of the plants.

A handful of workers reported at the various mills, generally with police to escort them thorough the throngs about the gates. Several persons reported that during the night stones were thrown through the windows at their homes, with notes attached, threatening them with bodily injury if they went to work.

LOWELL POLICE CALLED

Fear of serious trouble, especially from the radical element, led local authorities to call for aid from Lowell, and two sergeants and 37 patrolmen responded at daybreak.

As he was entering the Wood mill of the American Woolen Co., Fred Shone, 65, of 452 Market Street, was hit with a milk bottle which gashed his face deeply. His son, Fred,20, went to his aid and was also beaten.

Police said about ten strikers took part in the attack but only one was arrested. He is Giovanni Di Franco, 27, of Union Street, charged with assault and battery and intimidation.

An unidentified girl was knocked down by a woman striker outside the Wood mill. According to police she was hit on the chin with a Boston bag filled with stones.

Bugles blowing reveille to get the strikers up early in the morning and on to the picket lines lent a militaristic touch. Two mills, the Washington and Wood of the American Woolen Co. had 10,000 strikers parading before them in columns, four abreast.

When the workmen and women appeared without their lunch pails it was evident they were not going to work, and one man who carried his pail had it snatched from him by a girl striker, and the food strewn in the street.

Governor Ely, who urged the mill operatives to accept the wage cut for the present, pending the return of prosperity, is expected to make the strike leaders another suggestion today.


In other news --

BURIAL PLANS FOR EDISON CHANGED

Wizard to Lie in Jersey Near Scene of Fame; Whole World in Tribute.

West Orange, NJ, Oct. 19 -- The greatest scientist of the age was mourned in every country of the world as the body of Thomas A. Edison lay in state today in a glass-topped bronze casket in the lofty-ceilinged library of the Edison Laboratories. He died at his home here early Sunday.

Funeral services for the genius, who literally gave light to the world, will be conducted at Glenmont, his home here, on Wednesday, the 52nd anniversary of what perhaps was the prolific inventor's most beneficent gift to humanity, the incandescent light.

GENIUS OF LIGHT HAS GONE
But his Work and his Light Remain, to Bless the World

THOMAS A. EDISON, GREATEST AMERICAN SINCE LINCOLN

The whole world and the country that loved him sorrowfully bid farewell to Thomas A. Edison.

Wherever there is light after the sun goes down, there is Edison's genius enlightening and LIGHTING the world.

Wherever students, teachers, or any others work after darkness falls, Edison makes their work possible.

He was the genius of light, of electricity, and especially A GENIUS OF WORK.

His inventions are said to have numbered 1300 in all. To enumerate Edison's inventions, his contributions to the welfare of humanity, would require pages. The man who you see above, plain and simple, hard working, unpretentious American, lies in his coffin, but in his own country nearly a million men are earning more than a billion dollars a year thanks to him. And all over the world, millions are employed and well paid, light is spread, existence is made happier and more convenient thanks to the man who is dead.

The nation loses in Edison the greatest American since Abraham Lincoln, and the American who has done more in the way of practical usefulness for the whole world than any American has done. He worked as genius always does. TO REALIZE HIS IDEAS AND MAKE THEM USEFUL, not with any thought of profit.

His work created hundreds of millionaires, has paid millions and billions in dividends and wages, and will continue to pay other billions for endless years to come. But he was content with plain clothes, machinery that he needed for experiments, and enough money to carry on those experiments.

He lived long, worked hard, helped education, provided employment, created new wealth, never ceased working, and never spared himself until death took him, and left the world better and happier than he found it.

What more can you say for any man than can be said for Thomas A. Edison, as the world which he enlightened and LIGHTED bids him farewell. Honor him and think with gratitude of the mother who gave him to America.

 

[LizzieMaine]

October 20, 1931

A day in which, according to the Hearst press, nothing whatsoever of any national importance happened....

2 WOMEN, MAN LOSE LIVES IN CANAL

Husband Of One Victim Fails in Heroic Attempt to Rescue Those Pinned In Car

Lowell, Oct. 20 -- Two women and a man plunged to death in the Dutton St. Canal here early today when the auto in which they were riding crashed through a fence at the end of French Street.

One man, husband of one of the women, extricated himself from the submerged auto by kicking a hole in the roof. His efforts to save the other three, trapped in the submerged car, were futile although he stuck to the task and fought attempts to pull him out of the water.

ATTACK UPON POLICEMAN CHARGED

18,000 Pickets at Mill Gates as Returning Workers Are Beaten

Lawrence, Oct. 20 -- Four arrests were made here today when violence flared again as attempts were made to prevent workers from entering mills that still remain open despite the strike.

Men and women workers were set upon and beaten then rescued by police details augmented as a result of last night's disturbances, when stones were hurled through windows of homes as on Sunday night. Raphael Consullo, 42, of 76 Bunker Hill Road, was charged with assault and battery on officer Joseph Dineen and carrying a concealed weapon.

YOUTH SAYS SISTER SLEW TWO GIRLS

Wife of Los Angeles Doctor is Hunted in Arizona Trunk Murder Mystery

Los Angeles, Oct. 20 (INS) -- Breaking down under police grilling, B. J. Kinnell, 22, a university student of Southern California, today confessed, police said, that his sister, Mrs. Ruth Judd, 27, wife of a Los Angeles physician, had admitted killing Agnes Lerol and Hedwig Samuelson, two women friends, and shipping their mangled bodies in trunks from Phoenix, Ariz. to Los Angeles. "My little sister was perfectly justified," sobbed Kinnell in his alleged confession.

Kinnell was unable to explain why his sister committed the double murder, and that "why" was the question officers of Southern California and Arizona sought to answer.

 

[LizzieMaine]

October 25, 1928

750,000 HAIL NOMINEE, DOGGED AT EVERY MOVE BY CHEERING CROWDS

POLICE OFTEN MADE HELPLESS BEFORE THRONGS -- THOUSANDS WAIT HOURS FOR GLIMPSE

CANDIDATE REPLIES TO CHARGES THAT HIS CAMPAIGN ISSUES ARE "STATE SOCIALISM"

By Louis M. Lyons

Al Smith rode into the heart of Boston yesterday and occupied it. To say that he captured it would understate the throbbing delerium with which it was opened to him and then closed about him until this son of another city could feel the pulses of Boston beat in rhythm with his own.

It took Gov. Smith's automobile procession, with the whole police force of Boston acting as interference for it, 1 1/2 hours to penetrate the city's massed population from the South Station around the business district to the Common. It is perhaps a mile. In that hour and a half, Al Smith may feel tat he met Boston personally. If pretty nearly the whole adult population of the city was not pressing in close as it could under the swinging brown derby, then all local police estimates are what Al Smith calls boloney. But he did not call them that. Al Smith says it was the greatest thing he ever heard and saw and felt.

In other news --

M. A. C. CO-EDS RAP FOOD AND "STRIKE"

Amherst, Oct. 24 -- Pres. Roscoe W. Thatcher of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, with its secretary and assistants, has started an investigation of the charges made by co-ed strikers at the institution this afternoon in regard to the food served at the college dining room. The charges were the first intimation of dissatisfaction on the part of the students who regularly take their meals in the dining room to reach the ears of the administration, it was said.

A co-ed, a member of the senior class, whose name could not be learned tonight, carried the news of the strike and its cause to a newspaper representative, stating that she wished the trustees and all the state to know about conditions there. This was at about the time this afternoon that a petition was presented to Pres. Thatcher.

The petition claims a lack of variety and poor preparation, and goes so far as to claim foreign bodies, both mineral and animal, are present in the food. This complaint applies only to the dining hall where meal tickets are furnished and no choice of food is given to the patron. All co-eds are required to eat there, instead of the cafeteria, where upper-class men students take their meals. There have been several cases of sickness among the girls in the nature of intestinal disorder which might come from a dozen different sources. The girls are claiming that the condition of the food has been the cause. The administration asserts that no dining hall employees have been affected. The girls also claim they are eating the same fare that is served to all inmates of state institutions, mental defectives, and convicts.

 

[CigarMan]

Lizzie . . . have anything for October 22nd?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Lizzie . . . have anything for October 22nd?

I don't -- I was digging thru my closet full of newspapers today, and the next date I have coming up is The Lawrence Evening Tribune for November 8th, 1932 -- Election Night! I've got quite a bit coming up in November, including a full week of the London Daily Mirror from 1936, so stay tuned!

 

[Fletch]

How is it you find all these early 30s papers? One would think they all ended up lining overcoats.

 

[carter]

Pinch Hitting

1659: William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, two Quakers who came from England in 1656 to escape religious persecution, were executed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for their religious beliefs. The two had violated a law passed by the Massachusetts General Court the year before, banning Quakers from the colony under penalty of death.

1775: King George III spoke before both houses of the British Parliament to discuss growing concern about the rebellion in America, which he viewed as a traitorous action against himself and Great Britain. He began his speech by reading a "Proclamation of Rebellion" and urged Parliament to move quickly to end the revolt and bring order to the colonies.

1858: Theodore Roosevelt, the future 26th president of the United States, was born in New York City.

1873: A De Kalb, Illinois, farmer named Joseph Glidden submittted an application to the U.S. Patent Office for his clever new design for a fencing wire with sharp barbs, an invention that would forever change the face of the American West.

1904: At 2:35 PM New York City Mayor George McClellan takes the controls on the inaugural run of the city's innovative new rapid transit system: the subway.

1914: Author and poet Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales.

1918: Under pressure from the government of Chancellor Max von Baden, Erich Ludendorff, the quartermaster general of the German army, resigned on October 27, 1918, just days before Germany called for an armistice, bringing World War I to an end after four long years.

1932: Poet Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, MA.

1940: French Gen. Charles de Gaulle, speaking for the Free French Forces from his temporary headquarter in equatorial Africa, called all French men and women everywhere to join the struggle to preserve and defend free French territory and "to attack the enemy wherever it is possible, to mobilize all our military, economic, and moral resources...to make justice reign."

1946: The travel show Geographically Speaking made it's debut, sponsored by Bristol-Myers. The show, which presented travel films, was the first television program with a commercial sponsor. It ran until December 1, 1946.

1954: Disneyland, Walt Disney's first television series, premiered on ABC.

1954: Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio divorced after DiMaggio allegedly struck Monroe following the filming of her famous "skirt scene" in The Seven-Year Itch. The scene, showing Monroe laughing as a blast of air lifts her skirt, infuriated DiMaggio, who felt it was exhibitionist.

1962: Complicated and tension-filled negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union finally resulted in a plan to end the two-week-old Cuban Missile Crisis. A frightening period in which nuclear holocaust seemed imminent began to come to an end.

 

[LizzieMaine]

How is it you find all these early 30s papers? One would think they all ended up lining overcoats.

I got most of them haunting flea markets back in the '70s and '80s, when such things were appallingly cheap. There was one guy who had insulated his attic with rolled-up copies of the New York Daily News and Boston Daily Record -- some still in the original mailing wrappers -- and I got a stack of maybe a hundred issues for $20. Most of those will be coming up in December, January, March, April, and May. I've also got two bound volumes of the NY Herald Tribune from 1930, but they're a lot less interesting than the tabloids and Hearst rags.

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 8, 1932

DEMOCRATIC GAINS ARE INDICATED

Voters Turning Out in Tremendous Numbers Throughout The Country

(By the Associated Press)

A flood tide of balloting threatening to override even the new high total of four years ago inundated the nation’s polling places today as the torturous political currents of 1932 converged at the general elections.

Dispatches from thousands of Associated Press reporters showed that with few exceptions the qualified voters were turning out in tremendous numbers in the nation’s 120,000 polling districts. The early returns, far too meagre to be decisive, showed several instances of Democratic gains. Little New Ashford, Mass., first to report, gave Hoover 24 and Roosevelt 8, where four years ago it had given Hoover 28 and Smith 3. From Livermore, N. H. came a count of Roosevelt 13 and Hoover 1. Four years ago it was Smith 6 and Hoover 4. Roosevelt ran 2 to 1 in the first precinct to report in Joplin, Mo. and was far ahead in early returns from all Southern states.

1 O’CLOCK VOTE HERE IS HEAVY

Largest Vote In History Indicated Today

The Lawrence electorate poured into the polls for the state and national elections in such numbers as to indicate by 1 o’clock the certainty that the total vote for the day would be the largest in the city’s history. The total vote at that hour was 14,594, which was nearly 1,200 greater than the record-breaking 1 o’clock total of 13,392 in the 1928 election.

VOTERS ESCAPE DEATH WHEN FLOOR COLLAPSES

Fifteen Citizens and a Policeman Hurled into Basement of Fall River Polling Place -- Officer is Hero

Fall River, Nov. 8 (AP) -- Fifteen voters and a policeman were hurled into the basement of a polling place here today with a red hot coal stove hovering above them when a portion of the precinct flooring collapsed. The policeman, John W. Higginson proved the hero of the hour. While the bruised and lacerated voters scrambled about the basement of the place, which had no outside exit, Higginson called to men above to quit the building and finally, after calming his companions in the cellar helped them one by one to climb to safety. The stove, although in a precarious position, remained upright.

A number of ballots which the voters had been marking were hurled with them into the debris and were later gathered up by city clerk Emil Gergeron for destruction. A number of the voters failed to remain to complete their voting after the accident.

EAGLE-TRIBUNE ELECTION RETURNS WILL BE GIVEN BY STEREOPTICON AND PUBLIC ADDRESS TONIGHT

Follow the crowds to the Eagle-Tribune for the best and most complete service. National, State, and Local returns will be flashed on the screen as soon as received after the polls close.

TELEPHONE 4171 FOR RETURNS

 

[Fletch]

This evening in 1932 also saw the first broadcast of election returns on television - a modest program from the small studio of W2XAB, the CBS experiment station in New York, viewable to several thousand hobbyists in large parts of the country over low-resolution, shortwave equipment.

Information is extremely limited, but it is known that political reporters were interviewed and artists made charcoal sketches of candidates in front of the scanning spotlight. Vote tallies probably appeared over a moving screen news ribbon, made with a typewriter and scanning lens.

That October, a Democratic "stage and screen" committee had presented a variety program over the station, which included an appearance by famous singer Helen Morgan. The New York Times' report survives.

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 10, 1932

WIDESPREAD DAMAGE AND DELAYED SHIPPING REPORTED

Surf Fifty Feet High at Winthrop Crashes Sea Wall and Cellars Are Flooded -- Entire Seaboard Suffers.

Boston, Nov. 10 (AP) -- An increase in the intensity of a heavy northeast storm which has scoured the coast for the past three days today caused widespread damage, delayed shipping, and sent mountainous seas crashing against waterfronts and resulted in suspension of classes in school in this city and many other communities. Surf 50 feet high broke against the sea wall at Wintrhop and many cellars were flooded.

CAPE COD DAMAGE

The New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad reported a washout between Woods Hole and Falmouth which delayed a Boston-bound train, and there was considerable damage to Cape Cod estates. The islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket were reported isolated by the gale.

The field at the East Boston airport was under water, and all flying activities ceased.

(Note that the headline is "NORTHEASTER," not "NOR'EASTER." The latter word is not a true New Englandism at all, but is a ridiculous affectation popularized in the 1980s by Philistinish cable-TV weathercasters, most of whom wouldn't know a real Northeaster if it blew them out to sea. The actual and proper New England pronunciation is "No'theastah.")

Elsewhere in the news:

PRESIDENT HOOVER WILL RETURN TO PRIVATE LIFE

Present Chief Executive Says He Will Leave Public Office Definitely and Will Live In California

Palo Alto, Calif. Nov. 9 (AP) -- Herbert Hoover, private citizen and business man, was the ticket President Hoover wrote for himself today as of next March 4th. As the final straggling returns from Tuesday's polls poured in, showing more clearly the overwhelming victory of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the chief executive told newspaper correspondents quietly, but with a smile, that after the inauguration of his opponent, he would definitely leave public office and return to private life.

Mr. Hoover received newspapermen in the living room of his spacious home following what he termed his "best night's sleep in years."


WINDOWS BROKEN BY BITING HORSES

Lawrence, Nov. 10 -- Two horses attached to an ice wagon engaged in a biting match shortly before 11 o'clock this morning and crashed into the building at 103 Hampshire Street, breaking two large windows. George Smaha of 351 Oak Street, the driver of the team, was endeavoring to stop the biting affair when the harness broke. He was slightly injured by the glass.

 

[Story]

George S. Patton born in 1885.

*

The BBC's 5XX Long Wave transmitter changed its frequency on Armistice Day 1928 whilst the BBC mediumwave stations changed in January 1929.

Sun. November 11th 1928 : 5XX Daventry from 187 kHz to 192 kHz (1562.5 m)

www.bbceng.info/Technical Reviews/Development_of_the_BBC_AM_Transmitter_Network4.pdf

 

[Story]

Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.

image from http://www.battlefield-tours.com

 

[LizzieMaine]

November 12, 1936

ON THE ARM OF HER SON

The King helping Queen Mary down the steps as they left the home office from which she had watched him lead the nation's homage as King, for the first time, in yesterday's Armistice Day ceremony at the Cenotaph. Beside them is Sir John Simon, the Home Secretary, and following are the Duke and Duchess of York, the Duke of Kent, and the Duchess of Gloucester.

THE KING PLANTS A WOODEN CROSS TO HIS FATHER'S MEMORY -- NIGHT VISIT IN POURING RAIN

In pouring rain and a few minutes after the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey had been floodlit last night, the King arrived, unnoticed and unheralded, and planted a plain wooden cross with the inscription "In Memory of his Majesty King George V."

Women who brushed slowly by him were unaware of his identity. Some children were among the first to recognise him. After standing bareheaded, the King walked along the pathways by the side of the field, trudging with other mourners through pools of water and bending down with them to examine some of the miniature fields of red poppies set in the form of a cross.

The visit was entirely free from any formality, and it was not until some little time after the King's arrival that the news was whispered round.

Earlier in the day, as Big Ben struck the hour of eleven, the King had for the first time led his country and Empire in the great act of rememberance at the Whitehall Cenotaph.

To Queen Mary, at a window overlooking the Cenotaph, this Armistice Day was the most poignant of all. On her way to the service, the King had been at her side taking her arm as they walked.

Also in the news --

"SEE YOU SOON" CRY TO WIFE AFTER MURDER TRIAL

-- By A Special Correspondent --

A young father left a cell beneath the Old Bailey yesterday with a cheery "See you soon" to his wife as the iron bars clanged shut behind him. Then he went home to tell his four-year-old son Peter that his mother would not be back home for some time.

The mother, Marguerita McNicholl, aged thirty-two, a native of Blackpool, of Gledwood-drive, Hayes, Middlesex, had been found guilty but insane on a charge of murdering her son Colin, aged three and a half months. She had strangled Colin in his cot, with his brother's woolen orange and black striped tie. Medical witnesses said in evidence that the distraught woman was suffering from lactational insanity when she killed her child. Now she was normal again.

Mr. MacNicholl hopes and believes she will be released soon. "I have seen her and told her to cheer up. She will soon be back with us," he said after the reunion in the cell. "We talked about the future together. My wife has suffered great hardships. She is still suffering now, but we hope that will all be over soon. She is normal now. Every word I said about my wife being a loving wife and good mother is true."

WOMAN HAUNTED BY PENNY FOR ELEVEN YEARS

For eleven years, Miss C. Stovold, aged twenty-six, of New Cross Road, London, has been haunted by a penny.

In May 1925, Miss Stovold discovered in her purse a penny across the face of which was engraved "No. 12, II." Underneath are the initials "T. S." and "RF, 12, 1917."

"Since then," Miss Stovold said, "the penny has followed me persistently. It has even pursued me across the Atlantic. I changed it on a boat going to Canada, and three years later, on my return in another boat, there it was waiting for me. Twice the coin has come into my possession in wool shops. Looking in my purse yesterday, there it was again. How it came to me this time is a mystery to me."

YOUR SHOPPING BASKET

These are cheap now:

Rabbits, skinned and trussed -- English Wild -- 1s and 1s 2d each.

Norfolk Ducks -- 10d per lb.

Veal, Loin -- 1s 2d per lb.

PEACE PACT WITH ITALY A STEP NEARER

Before the end of this month the Anglo-Italian entente will be brought a bit nearer. Signor Grandi, Italian ambassador, leaves London shortly to attend the Grand Council.

In Rome he will discuss with Signor Mussolini a definite peace pact with Great Britain's desire to retain the status quo in the Mediterranean.

 

[scotrace]

"Lactational Insanity?"