MILESTONES: March 16, birthdays for Lauren Graham, Blake Griffin, Judah Friedlander

Brooklyn Today

March 16, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Lauren Graham. Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 75th day of the year.

On this day 1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that nine chimpanzees had been found unconscious on the property of Dr. William Lintz and his wife Gertrude at 8365 Shore Road in Bay Ridge. Police and firefighters were called, in addition to the Kings County Lighting Company, and inhalators were used to successfully revive eight of the chimps, which were felled by coal gas. Gertrude Lintz was known in the neighborhood for her large menagerie that also included “two gorillas, 30 St. Bernards, 200 rabbits, 300 pigeons, 400 tropical fish, three canaries, a pair of owls, one Sealyham terrier and an African gray parrot,” according to the Eagle. She was later the owner of the famed gorilla Gargantua, who became a star of the Ringling Brothers circus. In the 1997 feature film “Buddy,” Lintz was portrayed by Rene Russo.

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On this day in 1883, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “A dispatch to Reuter’s Telegram Company, dated Paris, 5:30 o’clock this morning, says Karl Marx, the founder of the International Workingmen’s Association, died yesterday at Argenteuil. No further details regarding his death have been received.” On March 18, the Eagle reported, “A large mass meeting of socialists, communists and working men, to do honor to the memory of Karl Marx, was held last evening at Cooper Institute, New York.” On March 21, the Eagle published a dispatch from Paris which read, “M. Lissagaray, a son in law of the late Karl Marx, and manager of the newspapers Le Citoyen and La Batille, has been convicted of inciting to disorder and sentenced to imprisonment for three months in default of bail.” Another dispatch stated, “M. Waddington will represent France at the coronation of the Czar at Moscow.”

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On this day in 1912, the Eagle reported on the final sinking of the USS Maine and the return of its dead to the U.S. The 1898 explosion that sank the ship in Havana Harbor and killed 260 crew members is cited as a cause of the Spanish-American War, which began in April of that year. Fourteen years after its destruction, the Maine was raised and towed out to sea, where it was submerged again, and the remains of 65 crew members were returned to Washington, D.C., after a funeral procession in Havana. “Then came the 34 cases containing the caskets, with the 65 bodies, covered with wreaths of palms and flowers, each on the shoulders of six Cuban artillerymen,” the Eagle reported.

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On this day in 1932, the Eagle reported that New York Yankees outfielder Babe Ruth had re-signed with the team, agreeing to a one-year, $75,000 contract after a conference with owner Col. Jacob Ruppert. Although it was $5,000 less than Ruth made in 1931, it was identical to the salary of the president of the U.S. “Babe, I wish you success this year and for many years to come,” Ruppert said. “I hope and believe that with you and the young talent we have on the club, the Yanks will win the pennant.” Ruth thanked Ruppert and declared, “We are a cinch to win the pennant.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Oscar Award-winning filmmaker BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI, who was born in 1941; actor ERIK ESTRADA, who was born in 1949; actor JUDAH FRIEDLANDER, who was born in 1969; actor VICTOR GARBER, who was born in 1949; actress LAUREN GRAHAM, who was born in 1967; basketball player BLAKE GRIFFIN, who was born in 1989; football player TODD HEAP, who was born in 1980; writer ALICE HOFFMAN, who was born in 1952; actress ISABELLE HUPPERT, who was born in 1955; actress KATE NELLIGAN, who was born in 1951; actor ATAN TUDYK, who was born in 1971; and gameshow host CHUCK WOOLERY, who was born in 1942.

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ROSA BONHEUR WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1822. The French painter and sculptor is best known for her paintings of animals. With the income from the sale of her art, she purchased the castle of By near Fontainebleau at Melun, France, where she died in 1899. Bonheur’s “The Horse Fair,” which she painted in 1853, was purchased by the American millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt for $53,600, a record price at the time. In 1865 Bonheur was awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion d’Honneur, the first woman so honored. An early bohemian and feminist, Bonheur defied female convention of the day by dressing in pants and smoking cigarettes.

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JAMES MADISON WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1751. As the fourth president of the U.S., Madison was forced to flee the capitol when British forces invaded Washington, D.C. and burned his residence and most other public buildings in 1814. He died in Virginia in 1836.

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TODAY IS NO SELFIES DAY. Every day millions take a self-portrait with their cell phone cameras and post the pictures on social networks. No one knows why. Here is just one day where nobody takes a selfie. It is observed on the birthday of Philippe Kahn, the inventor of the cellphone camera and the first person known to transmit a photo: a birth picture of his daughter taken in 1997 with his cellphone.

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GEORG SIMON OHM WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1789. The German physicist is lauded for his eponymous law, which states the exact relationship of potential and current in electric conduction. Ohm’s Law made it possible for scientists to calculate the amount of current, voltage and resistance in circuitry, establishing the science of electrical engineering. Lord Kelvin recognized Ohm’s contribution by dubbing the unit of resistance the “ohm” and its reciprocal, the unit of conductance, the “mho.” Ohm died in Germany in 1854.

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TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE MY LAI MASSACRE. The 1968 atrocity was the most-publicized such incident of the Vietnam War. According to findings of the U.S. Army’s investigating team, approximately 300 noncombatant Vietnamese villagers (at My Lai and Mykhe, near the South China Sea) were killed by infantrymen of the American Division.

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

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“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance.” — fourth U.S. President James Madison, who was born on this day in 1751