History Brooklyn Boro

February 21, birthdays for Ellen Page, Corbin Bleu, Jordan Peele

Brooklyn Today

February 21, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Actress Ellen Page celebrates her birthday today. Photo by Vince Bucci/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 51st day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include David Geffen and Ellen Page, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Druggists May Close at Dusk.”

The article focused on a plan aimed at protecting Brooklyn pharmacies from late-night robberies.

“The plan, if adopted, would have private detectives assigned at night to ‘emergency’ areas — neighborhoods where holdup outbreaks have been frequent — and there would be a central point from which help could be summoned at a moment’s notice,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor CHRISTOPHER ATKINS, who was born in 1961; actor WILLIAM BALDWIN, who was born in 1963; singer and actor CORBIN BLEU, who was born in 1989; actor TITUSS BURGESS, who was born in 1979; singer and musician MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER, who was born in 1958; singer CHARLOTTE CHURCH, who was born in 1986; actor JACK COLEMAN, who was born in 1958; Emmy Award-winning actor TYNE DALY, who was born in 1947; actress CHRISTINE EBERSOLE, who was born in 1953; record company executive DAVID GEFFEN, who was born in 1944; fashion designer HUBERT DE GIVENCHY, who was born in 1927; actor KELSEY GRAMMER, who was born in 1955; actress ASHLEY GREENE, who was born in 1987; actress JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT, who was born in 1979; former U.S. Secretary of the Interior SALLY JEWELL, who was born in 1956; actor GARY LOCKWOOD, who was born in 1937; actress ELLEN PAGE, who was born in 1987; actor and comedian JORDAN PEELE, who was born in 1979; and actor WILLIAM PETERSON, who was born in 1953.

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W.H. AUDEN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1907. The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet is best-known for his poems “Funeral Blues,” “The Shield of Achilles” and “For the Time Being.” He died in Austria in 1973.

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MALCOLM X WAS ASSASSINATED ON THIS DAY IN 1965. Just as he began a speech to his newly formed Organization of Afro-American Unity, the black activist and leader was gunned down by several men standing among the 400-plus crowd in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York City. The assassination occurred barely a week after his Queens home was firebombed. Three men were convicted of the murder in 1966 and sentenced to life in prison (two were released in the 1980s and the third won parole in 2010).

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NINA SIMONE WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1933. The blues and jazz singer was initially determined to become a concert pianist, but instead found a career as a singer of a wide range of musical genres in which she could put her uniquely raw and emotional voice on display. Simone was an ardent supporter of the 1950s and ’60s civil rights movement. She died in France in 2003.

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ERMA BOMBECK WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1927. The humorist and writer authored many books, including “The Grass is Always Greener over the Septic Tank.” Bombeck died in California in 1996.

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THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (BHS) WILL HOST “FICTION BY Black Writers: Who Are the Readers?” tonight at 6:30 p.m. Some of today’s biggest names in fiction are black writers, and yet a predominantly white publishing industry maintains the assumption that black literature lacks marketability. Writer and distinguished academic Elizabeth Nunez will lead a panel discussion challenging this assumption, with Essence Magazine book editor Patrik Henry Bass, Vice President, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Random House’s One World Chris Jackson and President of the Authors’ Guild Roxana Robinson. For more information, visit brooklynhistory.org.

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