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MILESTONES: February 22, birthdays for James Blunt, Rajon Rondo, Drew Barrymore

Brooklyn Today

February 22, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
James Blunt. Photo by Robb Cohen/Invision/AP
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On this day in 1909, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on the return of the American naval fleet cruise from a two-year worldwide cruise that was meant both as a goodwill tour and a statement that the United States’ battleship fleet and personnel were strong. The tour is considered to have been “unquestionably the most significant peace-time naval demonstration in modern history,” wrote Thomas A. Bailey in a 1932 article from the Pacific Historical Review. President Theodore Roosevelt greeted the fleet’s arrival at Hampton Roads, Virginia less than two weeks before leaving office at the close of his second term.

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On this day in 1922, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on the accidental destruction of the semi-rigid airship Roma. The Roma was built in Italy as a T-34 dirigible (steerable aircraft that operates on fuel lighter than air). It was at the time the largest semi-rigid dirigible in the world and was designed for trans-Atlantic crossings. After the U.S. purchased the Roma in March 1921, the Roma had made voyages that carried the US Ambassador. But on Feb. 21, 1922, the Roma crashed over Norfolk, Virginia, when the rudder system, that enabled it to navigate tight spaces, failed. The Roma fell onto high voltage lines and erupted in flames. The victims included 34 dead, 8 injured and three who miraculously escaped unharmed. The Eagle’s front page on Feb. 22 ran the survivors’ stories of escape.

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On this day in 1933, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s front page carried reports of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt’s new cabinet appointees. At that time, Inauguration Day was still held on March 4, so Roosevelt had not yet taken the oath of office. However, the Eagle also covered another assassination attempt against him, when a crude missile mailed to his office was intercepted at the city post office in Washington, DC. The package, containing a “crudely-packaged shotgun shell,” had fallen from a mail sack and burst open. It was addressed simply to “Franklin D. Roosevelt, Washington, D.C.” The same front page carried a story about Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was wounded in the previous week’s attempt on Roosevelt’s life, and who remained hospitalized and in considerable pain.

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On this day in 1954, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page featured a photo of Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy receiving the American Legion’s Amityville Post’s plaque for “distinguished service in the field of anti-subversion.” He was honored by an American Legion post on Long Island.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Hall of Fame golfer Amy Strum Alcott, who was born in 1956; actress Drew Barrymore, who was born in 1975; singer James Blunt, who was born in 1974; Hall of Fame tennis player Michael Te Pei Chang, who was born in 1972; director Jonathan Demme, who was born in 1944; actor Paul Dooley, who was born in 1928; Hall of Fame basketball player Dr. J, who was born in 1950; actor Kyle MacLachlan, who was born in 1959; actress Miou-Miou, who was born in 1950; basketball player Rajon Rondo, who was born in 1986; actress Jeri Ryan, who was born in 1968; U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, who was born in 1972; golfer Vijay Singh, who was born in 1963; and actress Julie Walters, who was born in 1950.

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GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1732. The first U.S. president was the “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen” in the words of politician and Patriot Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee. Washington died in Virginia in 1799.

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TODAY IS INCONVENIENCE YOURSELF DAY. It is a day to inconvenience yourself in an effort to make a positive impact in the world. People are encouraged to enrich their own lives as they show respect to others, the environment and the world around them.

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FRANCIS PHARCELLUS CHURCH WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1839. The journalist and editor is known for writing the most famous editorial in history. As editor of the New York Sun, Church responded to the summer 1897 letter of 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon who desperately asked whether Santa Claus existed. That September, she saw the unsigned editorial response: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus . . .” Church died in 1906 in New York. After his death, the New York Sun revealed that he had been the author of its most famous opinion piece.

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ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1788. Dubbed “the philosopher of pessimism,” the German poet and philosopher was one of the first in his field to suggest that humankind should suppress their natural desires in order to achieve harmony, both cerebrally and universally, in an irrational world. A contemporary of many German Idealists, Schopenhauer’s philosophical works directly challenged idealism in favor of rationalism and influenced later scholars such as Nietzsche and Freud, as well as artists Dvorak, Brahms, Borges and Tolstoy, among others. Schopenhauer died in 1860 in Germany.

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“IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT” PREMIERED ON THIS DAY IN 1934. Frank Capra’s romantic screwball comedy, starring Claudette Colbert as a spoiled runaway heiress and Clark Gable as a cocky reporter on to a good story, was the first film to sweep all the major Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay.

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THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (BHS) will host the launch of “The Business of Brooklyn” today from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and Brooklyn Historical Society come together for a new exhibit on the occasion of the Chamber’s 100th anniversary, sponsored by TD Charitable Foundation. A very special conversation will be led by the current and two former Brooklyn borough presidents. The exhibit will feature a variety of artifacts from businesses that started in Brooklyn throughout the last 150 years, including several from the Chamber’s early days. 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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“If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” — first U.S. President George Washington, who was born on this day in 1732

 

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