Brooklyn Today for May 31
Good morning. Today is the 151st day of the year. On this day in 1870, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle covered a story on “Decoration Day in Brooklyn,” Decoration Day being an early name for Memorial Day. The article focused on memorial ceremonies at soldiers’ graves in several large cemeteries, including Holy Cross Cemetery, Green-Wood Cemetery, and others. In each case, a clergyman gave an address, a military band played and large numbers of flowers were placed near the grave sites. The article ended with a poem, “Our Heroes.” Poems in newspapers were fairly common at the time – for example, several of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published in her local newspaper during her lifetime. In 1870, of course, memories of the Civil War were still fresh in people’s minds.
Well-known people who were born today include actor-director Clint Eastwood (“Unforgiven,” “Million Dollar Baby”), Hall of Fame football player Joe Namath, actress Brooke Shields (“Pretty Baby,” “The Blue Lagoon”), Church of England special envoy Terry Waite and singer-composer Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary).