History Brooklyn Boro

MILESTONES: July 13, birthdays for Patrick Stewart, Ken Jeong, Yadier Molina

Brooklyn Today

July 13, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Actor Patrick Stewart celebrates his birthday today. Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 194th day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Harrison Ford and Patrick Stewart, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published a front-page article titled “Heat Wave Raises Death Rate from 9 to 12 Per 1,000 Here.”

The article focused on the rise in heat-related deaths in the borough.

“Commenting on the fact that 299 persons died in Brooklyn on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Thomas Duffield, registrar of records, stated that while most of them were in ill health, the hot spell raised the ratio from the normal figure, as was the case in a torrid spell last year,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Oscar Award-winning director and screenwriter CAMERON CROWE, who was born in 1957; actor HARRISON FORD, who was born in 1942; actor ROBERT FORSTER, who was born in 1941; author JANE HAMILTON, who was born in 1957; actor KEN JEONG, who was born in 1969; country singer LOUISE MANDRELL, who was born in 1954; writer and actor CHEECH MARIN, who was born in 1946; musician ROGER McGUINN, who was born in 1942; baseball star YADIER MOLINA, who was born in 1982; inventor ERNO RUBIK, who was born in 1944; Nobel Prize-winning author WOLE SOYINKA, who was born in 1934; former boxer MICHAEL SPINKS, who was born in 1956; actor PATRICK STEWART, who was born in 1940; author DAVID STOREY, who was born in 1933; and former basketball player ANTHONY JEROME “SPUD” WEBB, who was born in 1963.

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THE LIVE AID CONCERTS TOOK PLACE ON THIS DAY IN 1985. The concerts in Pennsylvania and London at Kennedy and Wembley stadiums were seen by 162,000 attendees and an estimated 1.5 billion TV viewers. The shows were organized to raise funds for African famine relief. The musicians performed without a fee, and nearly $100 million was pledged toward aid to the hungry.

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THE FIRST WORLD CUP WAS INAUGURATED ON THIS DAY IN 1930. The first World Cup soccer competition was held in Uruguay with 14 countries participating. On July 30, Uruguay defeated Argentina by a score of 4-2 to take the Cup.

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THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY WILL HOST “BOOK TALK: ‘Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics’” tonight at 6:30. The October 30, 1975 edition of the New York Daily News led off with a startling headline, “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” This blunt declaration referenced a speech by then-President Gerald Ford denying any federal bailout money to the financially troubled city of New York, notorious for poverty and crime throughout the ’70s and ’80s. Historian and New York University professor Kim Phillips-Fein will dive into the crises of this turbulent period in New York’s history, surveying the fiscal policies that led the city to the brink of bankruptcy, the scare tactics used by the powerful to enforce austerity and the lasting effects on the city and nation at large. For more information, visit brooklynhistory.org.

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

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“The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.” — author Wole Soyinka, who was born on this day in 1934