NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor and director TONY BILL, who was born in 1940; former basketball player KOBE BRYANT, who was born in 1978; actor SCOTT CAAN, who was born in 1976; actress BARBARA EDEN, who was born in 1934; Tennessee Gov. BILL HASLAM, who was born in 1958; Hall of Fame football player SONNY JURGENSEN, who was born in 1934; basketball player JEREMY LIN, who was born in 1988; actress SHELLEY LONG, who was born in 1949; former New York City Ballet dancer PATRICIA McBRIDE, who was born in 1942; actress VERA MILES, who was born in 1929; actor JAY MOHR, who was born in 1970; first female and first Hispanic Surgeon General ANTONIA NOVELLO, who was born in 1944; political comedian MARK RUSSELL, who was born in 1932; actor RICHARD SANDERS, who was born in 1940; and singer and actor RICK SPRINGFIELD, who was born in 1949.
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THE “STOCKHOLM SYNDROME” BANK ROBBERY OCCURRED ON THIS DAY IN 1973. In a botched bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, Jan Erik Olsson took four hostages and barricaded himself with them and a friend, Clark Olofsson, in the vault. After a six-day siege, the police piped in gas and the hostages were freed. Afterward, it emerged that the hostages were more afraid of the police than of their captors, and Swedish professor Nils Bejerot coined the term “Stockholm syndrome” to explain the phenomenon of hostages identifying and sympathizing with their captors.
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GENE KELLY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1912. The actor, dancer, director and choreographer is best known for his roles in “Singin’ in the Rain” and “An American in Paris.” Kelly died in Beverly Hills in 1996.
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THE FIRST MAN-POWERED FLIGHT OCCURRED ON THIS DAY IN 1977. Bryan Allen pedaled the 70-pound Gossamer Condor for a mile at a “minimal altitude of two pylons” in a flight certified by the Royal Aeronautical Society of Britain, winning a £50,000 prize offered by British industrialist Henry Kremer.
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EDGAR LEE MASTERS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1869. The American poet and author is best known for his “Spoon River Anthology.” He was born in Garnett, Kansas and died in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania in 1950.
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Special thanks to “Chase’s Calendar of Events” and Brooklyn Public Library.
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“I don’t talk trash often, but when I do, I go for the jugular.” — Kobe Bryant, who was born on this day in 1978
