History Brooklyn Boro

May 11, birthdays for Cam Newton, Blac Chyna, Andres Iniesta

Brooklyn Today

May 11, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Carolina Panthers Quarterback Cam Newton celebrates his birthday today. AP Photo/Phelan Ebenhack, File

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 130th day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Cam Newton and Boyd Gaines, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Lots of Fun, But Never Again, Says Boy Inhabitant of Hole.”

The article focused on a 15-year-old boy who hid out for weeks in an underground cable splicing room.

“Robert spent only the nights in his subway apartment. Daytimes he begged in Brooklyn and Manhattan. He averaged $3 a day, spending it as fast as he garnered it, for food, sodas, movies, carfare and roller coaster rides,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Model BLAC CHYNA, who was born in 1988; Nation of Islam leader LOUIS FARRAKHAN, who was born in 1933; Tony Award-winning actor BOYD GAINES, who was born in 1953; soccer star ANDRES INIESTA, who was born in 1984; actor JONATHAN JACKSON, who was born in 1982; physician and inventor of the artificial heart ROBERT JARVIK, who was born in 1946; football player MATT LEINART, who was born in 1983; football player CAM NEWTON, who was born in 1989; and comedian MORT SAHL, who was born in 1927.

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SALVADOR DALI WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1904. A leading painter in the surrealist movement, Dali was equally well known for his baffling antics and attempts to shock his audiences. The largest collection of his works resides in the Salvador Dali Museum at St. Petersburg, Florida. He died in Spain in 1989.

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IRVING BERLIN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1888. The songwriter began singing in saloons and on street corners in New York in order to help his family and worked as a singing waiter as a teenager. Berlin became one of America’s most prolific songwriters, authoring such songs as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “White Christmas,” “God Bless America,” “There’s No Business like Show Business,” “Doin’ What Comes Naturally,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “Blue Skies” and “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,” among others. He could neither read nor write musical notation. Berlin died in 1989 in New York.

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MARTHA GRAHAM WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1894. She began her dance career at the comparatively late age of 22 and joined the Greenwich Village Follies in 1923. Her new ideas began to surface in the late ’20s and ’30s, and by the mid-1930s she was incorporating the rituals of the southwestern American Indians in her work. She is credited with bringing a new psychological depth to modern dance by exploring primal emotions and ancient rituals in her work. She performed until the age of 75 and premiered in her 180th ballet, “The Maple Leaf Rag,” in the fall of 1990. Graham died in New York in 1991.

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CHANG AND ENG BUNKER WERE BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1811. The conjoined twins found worldwide fame as the Siamese Twins. They settled on a plantation in North Carolina, bought slaves, were naturalized as American citizens and in 1843 married a pair of local sisters. The couples eventually had 21 children between them. Chang and Eng died hours apart in North Carolina in 1874. They were never separated.

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

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“Those who do not want to imitate anything produce nothing.” — Salvador Dali, who was born on this day in 1904