Brooklyn Today for July 30
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Good morning. Today is the 211th day of the year. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of July 30, 1873, had an article focusing on the historic African-American area of Weeksville, part of today’s Bedford-Stuyvesant. The Eagle, in language typical of the condescending attitudes of that era, described Weeksville as a place characterized by “disorderly houses,” saloons and wooden tenements, where goats and packs of dogs roamed trash-filled streets. The unnamed Eagle writer does admit that the residents had well-maintained “truck” gardens of corn, tomatoes, beans and peas; and also raised geese and chickens. He also mentioned that the residents had been petitioning the city for years to fill in several ponds that appeared after every rainfall, and that the city was finally doing so.
Well-known people who were born today include singer-songwriter Paul Anka (“You Are My Destiny,” “Diana,” “My Way”), producer Peter Bogdanovich (“The Last Picture Show,” “Paper Moon”), law professor Anita Faye Hill, Hall of Fame basketball player Chris Mullin, and former California governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger (“The Terminator”),
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