Dec. 8, birthdays for Nicki Minaj, Gregg Allman, Dwight Howard

Brooklyn Today

December 8, 2014 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Singer Nicki Minaj celebrates her birthday today. Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

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ON THIS DAY in 1905, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “For Football 15 to 8, But Asking a Reform.” The article focused on a conference of 13 representatives that opposed a proposed abolition of college football at the time.

“Football is not to be abolished, not even in the smallest colleges,” the Eagle reported. “By a vote of 15 to 8 the delegates to the MacCracken conference, which began at the Murray Hill Hotel this morning, adopted a resolution declaring that it was the opinion of the 13 college representatives present that football should not be abolished, but reformed.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include The Allman Brothers Band singer Gregg Allman, who was born in 1947; Oscar Award-winning actress for “L.A. Confidential” Kim Basinger, who was born in 1953; former hockey player Gordon Arthur “Red” Berenson, who was born in 1941; political commentator and author Ann Coulter, who was born in 1961; flutist James Galway, who was born in 1939; “Desperate Housewives” actress Teri Hatcher, who was born in 1964; basketball player Dwight Howard, who was born in 1985; singer and rapper Nicki Minaj, who was born as Onika Tanya Miraj in 1984; “Lord of the Rings” trilogy actor Dominic Monaghan, who was born in 1976; former baseball player Mike Mussina, who was born in 1968; singer and songwriter Sinead O’Connor, who was born in 1966; “Deep Impact” actor Maximilian Schell, who was born in 1930; “Smallville” actor Ian Somerhalder, who was born in 1978; and “Eating Raoul” actress Mary Woronov, who was born in Brooklyn in 1946.

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JOHN LENNON was shot on this day in 1980. Deranged gunman Mark David Chapman shot and killed Lennon outside his apartment building as he returned from a recording session. The death of the former Beatle, who was an international peace activist, shocked the world.

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THE SACKETT Street Writers Workshop will be reading at 7 p.m. tonight at BookCourt. The event includes an audience Q&A and book signing. Host and founder Julia Fierro will present Emily St. John Mandel, Will Boast, Dina Nayeri, Leah Umansky and Diane Cooke.

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