MILESTONES: January 2, Birthdays for Bryson Tiller, Taye Diggs, Dax Shepard

January 2, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Bryson Tiller performs at the 2017 BET Experience at The Staples Center on Friday June 23, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo byWilly Sanjuan/Invision/AP)

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On This Day in History: January 2

On this day in 1897 and 1898, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on the preparations being made for the Great Consolidation of Brooklyn into the City of New York, which took effect on Jan. 1, 1898. This was a monumental restructuring of government resources civic life coined by many Brooklynites as “the Great Mistake,” referring to Brooklyn’s relinquishing its independence. During the 1860s-80s, Brooklyn was arguably the third largest city in the U.S., according to U.S. Census records. During these decades, Brooklyn’s population more than doubled—rising from just under 400,000 to 806,343. The Eagle’s 1897 story indicated that citizens’ objections to the consolidation would not be raised at the proposed public hearings because the number of city commissioners who could not attend would pre-empt the necessary quorum. The 1898 story named the new mayor and commissioners. A related story discussed a proposed railroad and bicycle bridge deemed especially important to Brooklyn.

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On this day in 1923, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that Cabinet member Albert Fall was resigning as U.S. Secretary of the Interior to devote more time to private business interests. Most likely, but unspoken in that story, was that Fall’s resignation was a consequence of the Teapot Dome Scandal over the previous year. President Warren G. Harding had just transferred control of the Teapot Dome petroleum reserves in Wyoming from the Navy to the Department of the Interior, in part due to Fall’s persuasion. Fall had leased the fields out to Mammoth Oil and other companies without competitive bidding. Even though the practice was legal at the time, Fall was implicated because he also received secret monies and gifts from those oil tycoons.

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On this day in 1953, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on a dock strike that had spread to all the piers along the Brooklyn waterfront. The original strikers, members of the A.F.L., demanded a 42 cent pay increase and welfare benefits. But the number of strikers expanded. And Federal Judge Irving Kaufman denied clemency to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who had been convicted of conveying atom bomb secrets to the Soviets. Kaufman refused to change the death sentence, and the Rosenbergs were executed in June 1953.

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Notable people born on this day include former TV Evangelist Jim Bakker, who was born in 1939; actress Kate Bosworth, who was born in 1983; former hockey player Brian Boucher, who was born in 1977; actress Tia Carrere, who was born in 1967; former baseball player David Cone, who was born in 1963; actor Taye Diggs, who was born in 1972; Oscar Award-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr., who was born in the Bronx in 1968; former U.S. Congressman and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who was born in 1942; film director and screenwriter Todd Haynes, who was born in 1961; former baseball player Edgar Martinez, who was born in New York City in 1963; actress Wendy Phillips, who was born in Brooklyn in 1952; actor and comedian Dax Shepard, who was born in 1975; singer Bryson Tiller, who was born in 1993; and model Christy Turlington, who was born in 1969.

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ISAAC ASIMOV WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1920. Although Asimov was one of the world’s best-known writers of science fiction, his almost 500 books dealt with subjects as diverse as the Bible, works for preschoolers, college course work, mysteries, chemistry, biology, limericks, Shakespeare, Gilbert and Sullivan and modern history. During his prolific career he helped to elevate science fiction from pulp magazines to a more intellectual level. Asimov died in New York City on April 6, 1992.

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ROGER MILLER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1936. Country and western singer, songwriter and musician (“King of the Road”), Miller was born in Fort Worth, Texas. Miller won 11 Grammy Awards and a Tony Award. He died Oct. 25, 1992, in Los Angeles.

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SPAIN CAPTURED GRANADA ON THIS DAY IN 1492. Spaniards took the city from the Moors, ending seven centuries of Muslim rule in Spain.

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