MILESTONES: January 5, birthdays for Bradley Cooper, Diane Keaton, Carrie Ann Inaba

Brooklyn Today

January 5, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Bradley Cooper. Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the fifth day of the year.

On this day in 1952, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field. He arrived in New York Harbor via the Queen Mary ocean liner, and then greeted a delegation of Coast Guard and other military personnel. Churchill then boarded a private airplane at Floyd Bennett Field, taking off for Washington, D.C., where he would meet with President Harry Truman … Also in Brooklyn, bookie Harry Gross was scheduled to testify as a witness in the departmental trial of two NYC cops indicted for helping him escape from jail. The charges against the patrolmen included failing to guard him properly. The defense was expected to argue that no collusion was involved and that Gross was being held as a material witness rather than as a prisoner.

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On this day in 1875, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on the start of the trial for the alleged scandalous affair between famed Plymouth Church founder and abolitionist preacher Henry Ward Beecher and the wife of Theodore Tilton. The plaintiff in the case was Tilton, charging the loss of affections and attention of his wife. Beecher was the defendant. The Eagle article describes in some length the personal physical appearances of each party to the case. It also provides descriptions and legal careers for the counsel on each side. The coverage of the case would become a series.

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On this day in 1933, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on the unexpected death of former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge’s wife had found him in their home collapsed and unresponsive. The New England Republican Coolidge had been vice president to Pres. Warren. G. Harding and was thrust into the presidency upon Harding’s death — ironically also from a heart attack. Coolidge became a popular president, restoring the citizenry’s faith in him after a series of political scandals had rocked the nation.

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On this day in 1954, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that popular New York Yankees centerfielder Joe DiMaggio and actress Marilyn Monroe had each disappeared from their usual haunts and were rumored to be getting married in Las Vegas. Indeed, Monroe failed to show up to work on the set of “The Girl in Pink Tights.” Later reports were that the two got married on Jan. 14. Notwithstanding their brief, tempestuous marriage, DiMaggio remained devoted to Monroe and arranged for her funeral when she died of a drug overdose in 1962.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor BRADLEY COOPER, who was born in 1975; former football player WARRICK DUNN, who was born in 1975; Oscar Award-winning actor ROBERT DUVALL, who was born in 1931; choreographer and TV personality CARRIE ANN INABA, who was born in 1968; actress JANUARY JONES, who was born in 1978; Oscar Award-winning actress DIANE KEATON, who was born in 1946; actress PAMELA SUE MARTIN, who was born in 1954; 42nd Vice President of the U.S. and former Sen. WALTER MONDALE, who was born in 1928; and former newscaster and television host CHARLIE ROSE, who was born in 1942.

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KEMMONS WILSON WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1913. The “father of the modern hotel” revolutionized the travel industry by creating the first standardized chain of clean, air-conditioned hotels with swimming pools and ice machines. In 1951 Wilson became angered by the conditions and costs of hotels he encountered during what he called “the most miserable vacation trip of my life.” From this family vacation, the idea for the Holiday Inn chain was born. Named after the 1942 Bing Crosby film, Holiday Inns were strategically located next to the burgeoning interstate highway system, where growing numbers of post-WWII families could travel from one to the next, knowing there would be no unsavory surprises. Today, there are Holiday Inns in every state and in more than 50 countries worldwide. Wilson died in 2003 in Arizona.

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WYOMING INAUGURATED THE FIRST WOMAN GOVERNOR IN THE U.S. ON THIS DAY IN 1925. Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman to serve as the state’s governor upon her inauguration. She had previously finished out the term of her husband, who had died in office. In 1974, Ella Grasso of Connecticut became the first woman to be elected governor in her own right.

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THE ROMAN CATHOLIC POPE AND EASTERN ORTHODOX PATRIARCH MET ON THIS DAY IN 1964. Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras of Jerusalem met in the Holy Land for the first meeting in five centuries between a Roman Catholic pontiff and an Eastern Orthodox patriarch.

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JEANNETTE RIDLON PICCARD WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1895. She was the first American woman to qualify as a free-balloon pilot (1934) and one of the first women to be ordained as an Episcopal priest (1976). Piccard piloted a record-setting balloon ascent into the stratosphere in 1934 with her husband. She died in Minnesota in 1981.

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FIVE-DOLLAR-A-DAY MINIMUM WAGE WAS ANNOUNCED ON THIS DAY IN 1914. Henry Ford announced that all worthy Ford Motor Company employees would receive a minimum wage of $5 a day. Ford explained the policy as “profit sharing and efficiency engineering.” The more cynical attributed it to an attempt to prevent unionization and to obtain a docile workforce that would accept job speedups. To obtain this minimum wage, an employee had to be of “good personal habits.” Whether an individual fit these criteria was determined by a new office created by Ford Motor Company — the Sociological Department.

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“ALL MY CHILDREN” PREMIERED ON THIS DAY IN 1970. The ABC show, created by Agnes Nixon, became TV’s top-rated soap opera by the 1978–79 season. Set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, the show originally focused on the Tyler and Martin families. The story included Erica Kane (Susan Lucci), one of daytime TV’s most popular characters. The show garnered more than 150 Daytime Emmy Awards, including one for Lucci (in 1999) — she was nominated a record 21 times. Other award-winning or longtime cast members included Ruth Warrick as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford, Julia Barr as Brooke English, Michael E. Knight as Tad Martin and David Canary as twin brothers Adam and Stuart Chandler. The show also launched the careers of Kim Delaney, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eva LaRue and Kelly Ripa. The 10,000th episode aired Nov. 12, 2008. ABC canceled the show in 2011 but sold rights for an online version, which lasted another year.

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

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“What is perfection, anyway? It’s the death of creativity.” — actress Diane Keaton, who was born on this day in 1946