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MILESTONES: September 15, birthdays for Heidi Montag, Dan Marino, Oliver Stone

Brooklyn Today

September 15, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Heidi Montag. Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP
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On this day in 1919, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that debate began in the U.S. Senate on the German Peace Treaty. The Eagle reported that the treaty “became the first great document of its kind to be discussed in the Senate in the full light of publicity.” Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a Republican, was opposed to the treaty and to Democratic President Woodrow Wilson. The bitter fight between Lodge and President Wilson led to the Senate’s defeat of the treaty in 1919-20, according to the U.S. Senate’s history webpage. (Lodge was the grandfather of Henry Cabot Lodge II, John F. Kennedy’s losing opponent in the 1952 Massachusetts Senatorial election.)

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On this day in 1940, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page announced that Congress approved a mandatory draft for men ages 21-35. This marked the first time in U.S. history that a peacetime draft bill won final Congressional approval. (The U.S. wasn’t at war until Dec. 7, 1941.) Meanwhile, President Franklin Roosevelt requested an additional $1.73 billion be budgeted to fund the defense program. On that same front page was another article announcing that the president would fix a day that fall on which “16,500,000” men were to be conscripted in the first phase. This figure of 16.5 million must have been a typo, whereas the total number of conscripted men was limited to just “900,000 in the Army at any one time.”

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On this day in 1947, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that Acting Secretary of Agriculture Norris E. Dodd asked Americans to participate in a voluntary rationing of meat, dairy and other protein to prevent a famine in Europe during the coming winter. He called on the citizenry’s ability to makes sacrifices to avert mass starvation oversea. In other front-page headlines, prominent Brooklyn Heights clergyman the Rev. Dr. Phillips Packer Elliott, pastor of First Presbyterian Church here, addressed the Heights Fellowship’s weekly forum on a trip that he and a group of ministers had taken to the region of Europe that had become Yugoslavia. The group discovered that young child orphans being raised in government institutions were being denied any religious tutelage and were “in danger of developing a religion of [Josip Broz]Tito,” then the president of Yugoslavia. Elliott contrasted this situation with other aspects of Yuglosav society which did enjoy religious freedom. And a plan to extend the Belt Parkway, to alleviate traffic conditions, was sent to Construction Coordinator Robert Moses. That link would become the Prospect Expressway, and would carry a price tag of $11.4 million.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include author CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE, who was born in 1977; actor DAVE ANNABLE, who was born in 1979; actor JOSH CHARLES, who was born in 1971; comedian NORM CROSBY, who was born in 1927; actor TOM HARDY, who was born in 1977; PRINCE HARRY, who was born in 1984; Oscar Award-winning actor TOMMY LEE JONES, who was born in 1946; former football player DAN MARINO JR., who was born in 1961; actress CARMEN MAURA, who was born in 1945; TV personality HEIDI MONTAG, who was born in 1986; opera singer JESSYE NORMAN, who was born in 1945; Hall of Fame baseball player GAYLORD JACKSON PERRY, who was born in 1938; actor BEN SCHWARTZ, who was born in 1981; Hall of Fame football player WILL SHIELDS, who was born in 1971; and director and screenwriter OLIVER STONE, who was born in 1946.

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AGATHA CHRISTIE WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1890. Nicknamed the “Duchess of Death,” Christie is regarded as the creator of the modern detection fiction genre and the world’s most popular mystery writer. She is famous for her detective stories, notably those featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, and her works have been translated into more than 100 languages. Second only to Shakespeare in number of books sold, Christie was named Dame of the British Empire in 1971. Her play “The Mousetrap” set the world’s record for longest continuous run. She died in 1976.

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GREENPEACE WAS FOUNDED ON THIS DAY IN 1971. The environmental organization committed to a green and peaceful world was founded by 12 members of the Don’t Make a Wave Committee of Vancouver, British Columbia, when the boat Phyllis Cormack sailed to Amchitka, Alaska to protest U.S. nuclear testing. Greenpeace’s basic principle is “that determined individuals can alter the actions and purposes of event he overwhelmingly powerful by ‘bearing witness’ — drawing attention to an environmental abuse through their mere unwavering presence, whatever the risk.”

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ROBERT BENCHLEY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1889. The popular humorist and comedian of the 1920s and ’30s, with Dorothy Parker and Robert Sherwood, formed the core of the Algonquin Round Table of wits in New York City. Benchley was also an editor and drama critic at such magazines as Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. He began to present his comedy pieces on stage and eventually made many into short films, beginning a small acting career. His work “How to Sleep” won the Academy Award for Best Short. Another popular piece was “The Treasurer’s Report.” Benchley died in New York in 1945.

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THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (BHS) will host “Bourbon!” tonight at 5 p.m. September is National Bourbon Heritage Month and a chance to celebrate an American classic. But do you know the Brooklyn story of bourbon and whiskey? Or have you ever wondered where the word “bourbon” began? (Hint: France) Join BHS for a fun evening of French music, Brooklyn drinks and far-reaching talks, all in the name of bourbon. 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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“It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.” — mystery writer Agatha Christie, who was born on this day in 1890

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