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February 15, birthdays for Amber Riley, Birdman, Jaromir Jagr

Brooklyn Today

February 15, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Actress Amber Riley celebrates her birthday today. Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
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Greetings, Brooklyn.  Today is the 44th day of the year.

 

Notable people born on this day include Jane Seymour and Marisa Berenson, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1948, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Intruder ‘Sent by the Lord’ Held for Sanity Test.”

The article focused on a home intruder who claimed he was sent by God.

“Callender, said by police to have been recently released from the State Mental Hospital at Central Islip, was taken to Kings County Hospital for observation,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include fashion designer ADOLFO, who was born in 1933; actress and model MARISA BERENSON, who was born in 1948; rapper BIRDMAN, who was born in 1969; actress CLAIRE BLOOM, who was born in 1931; author SUSAN BROWNMILLER, who was born in Brooklyn in 1935; cartoonist MATT GROENING, who was born in 1954; hockey player JAROMIR JAGR, who was born in 1972; Grammy Award-winning singer MELISSA MANCHESTER, who was born in 1951; actress AMBER RILEY, who was born in 1986; and actress JANE SEYMOUR, who was born in 1951.

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GALILEO GALILEI WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1564. The physicist and astronomer helped overthrow medieval concepts of the world by proving the theory that all bodies, large and small, descend at equal speed and gathered evidence to support Copernicus’s theory that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun. In 1632, Galilei was tried by the Inquisition and found “vehemently suspect of heresy” because his “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” argued in favor of heliocentrism in contradiction to literal readings of scripture. Galilei remained under house arrest until his death in Florence in 1642. “The Dialogue” was finally published in an uncensored form in 1835, and the Catholic Church issued an official apology to the astronomer in 2000.

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HAROLD ARLEN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1905. The American composer and songwriter is best-remembered for his song “Over the Rainbow,” which earned him an Oscar for Best Song in 1939. His other compositions include “That Old Black Magic,” “Blues in the Night” and “Stormy Weather.” Allen died in New York in 1986.

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SUSAN B. ANTHONY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1820. She was arrested in 1872 for voting in the U.S. presidential election. In the short federal trial that followed in 1873, Justice Ward Hunt found her guilty and ordered her to pay a fine, which she refused. Anthony was integral in the founding of the International Council of Women (1888) and was the first American woman to have her likeness on coinage (1979, Susan B. Anthony dollar). She died in 1906 in New York.

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ANTON J. CERMAK WAS ASSASSINATED ON THIS DAY IN 1933. In Bay Front Park, Florida, an assassin aiming at President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt had his aim deflected by a spectator. Cermak, mayor of Chicago, was struck and killed instead. Joe Zangara, the 32-year-old assassin who had emigrated from Italy in 1923, was executed for the crime at Florida State Prison in 1933.

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THE BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC (BAM) AND GREENLIGHT BOOKSTORE WILL HOST “’Unbound’: Morgan Parker in Conversation With Jenna Wortham” tonight at 7:30 p.m. at BAM Fisher, 321 Ashland Place. Morgan Parker will discuss her book “There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé” with writer and journalist Jenna Wortham, moderated by Rujeko Hockley, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum. Parker uses political and pop-cultural references as a framework to explore 21st-century black American womanhood. The three will discuss Parker’s new collection of poems, using visual art, media and American history as lenses for understanding the multiplicity of black womanhood. The event will include a reading from the book, a discussion, an audience Q&A and a book signing with Parker. For more information, visit thoughtgallery.org/events.

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

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“Independence is happiness.” — women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony, who was born on this day in 1820

 

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