MILESTONES: March 26, birthdays for Steven Tyler, Nancy Pelosi, Kenny Chesney

Brooklyn Today

March 26, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Steven Tyler. AP Photo/Lukas Barth

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 85th day of the year.

On this day in 1942, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Gen. Douglas MacArthur today replied to the pledge of the Brooklyn Chapter, American Red Cross, to supply a healing stream of blood plasma from 75,000 blood donations to the armed forces in the next 18 months through its new blood donor center at chapter headquarters, 57 Willoughby St.” MacArthur sent a telegram from Melbourne, Australia, thanking the organization for “your inspiring action.”

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On this day in 1911, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle had extensive coverage of the devastating fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Greenwich Village the previous day. One-hundred forty-six people, many of them “girls from the East Side,” were “crushed to death on the pavements, smothered in smoke, or shriveled crisp,” the Eagle reported. “The fire spread with such rapidity that it was impossible for all of the 800 people penned in the eighth, ninth and tenth floors of the building, which was supposed to be fireproof, to get out.”

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On this day in 1915, the Eagle reprinted a cablegram from Christian missionaries in Persia which stated: “Gulpashan destroyed. Its men shot, women assailed. Sixty men taken from French Mission compound and five from American compound; hanged. Allen beaten. Hanging pole erected in French Mission yard. Massacre imminent. Implore State Department that Consul at Tabris proceed to Urumiah.” Another dispatch read, “Turkish troops have committed further acts of violence at the American Mission in Urumiah, Persia … Mr. Paddock transmits a message from Missionary Robert M. Labaree at Urumiah, to the effect that the Turkish Consul at Urumiah forced his way into the mission compound with a number of Turkish regular troops, and removed some Assyrian Christian refugees, who were then massacred.”

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On this day in 1917, the Eagle reported that, in Russia, “The murdered monk, Gregory Rasputin, in a solid silver casket, engraved with the names of the Czarina and her four daughters, was found today hidden in the private apartments of the deposed Czarina in the palace.”

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On this day in 1920, the Eagle reported, “Residents of Fort Hamilton will be deprived of the soldiers monument they have been planning to erect on the plot of ground at the intersection of 4th and 5th Aves., unless the design submitted by the Fort Hamilton Memorial Association is changed to meet with the Municipal Art Commission’s approval.” Dedicated in 1921, the monument was originally named Fort Hamilton Memorial Park. The name was changed in 1998 to Fort Hamilton Plaza. It is also derisively referred to as “Pigeon Park.”

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On this day in 1934, the Eagle reported, “Charges that more than 1,500 of the city’s 36,000 school teachers are mentally unbalanced, and that many of these are actually insane, were hurled today by Dr. Emil Altman, chief medical officer and alienist of the city school system.”

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On this day in 1943, the Eagle reported, “An emergency shipment of 1,000,000 extra pounds of beef, in addition to ‘regular’ supplies, has been started on its way from the mid-West to New York City to cope with the meat shortage, Mayor LaGuardia announced today. The entire shipment will reach the city for sale in butcher shops Monday.” The Office of Price Administration, “according to the mayor, invoked emergency powers vested in it to act when a food shortage ‘interferes with the morale of the civilian population in the war effort.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include sportscaster and former football player MARCUS ALLEN, who was born in 1960; actor and director ALAN ARKIN, who was born in 1934; actor JAMES CAAN, who was born in 1940; country singer KENNY CHESNEY, who was born in 1968; TV personality LEEZA GIBBONS, who was born in 1957; actress JENNIFER GREY, who was born in 1960; author and poet ERIC JONG, who was born in 1942; actress CATHERINE KEENER, who was born in 1960; actor T.R. KNIGHT, who was born in 1973; actress KEIRA KNIGHTLEY, who was born in 1985; singer and actress VICKI LAWRENCE, who was born in 1949; actor JOSH LUCAS, who was born in 1972; actress LESLIE MANN, who was born in 1972; football player VON MILLER, who was born in 1989; former Associate Justice of the U.S. SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR, who was born in 1930; U.S. Rep. NANCY PELOSI, who was born in 1940; singer and actress DIANA ROSS, who was born in 1944; comedian and actor MARTIN SHORT, who was born in 1950; Hall of Fame basketball player JOHN STOCKTON, who was born in 1962; singer and TV personality STEVEN TYLER, who was born in 1948; and journalist and author BOB WOODWARD, who was born in 1943.

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TENNESSEE WILLIAMS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1911. Williams was one of America’s most prolific playwrights, producing such works as “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” both of which won Pulitzer Prizes. He also penned “The Glass Menagerie,” “Night of the Iguana,” “Summer and Smoke,” “The Rose Tattoo” and “Sweet Bird of Youth. Williams died in New York in 1983.

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THE CAMP DAVID ACCORD WAS SIGNED ON THIS DAY IN 1979. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David peace treaty, ending 30 years of war between their two countries. The agreement was fostered by President Jimmy Carter.

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LEONARD NIMOY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1931. The actor, director, photographer, singer, poet and pop culture icon is best known for his portrayal of half-human, half-Vulcan Spock in the science fiction TV-film franchise “Star Trek.” Nimoy died in 2015 in California.

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“THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS” PREMIERED ON THIS DAY IN 1973. The daytime serial is generally thought of as TV’s most artistic soap and has won numerous Emmys for outstanding daytime drama series. Its original storylines revolved around the Brooks and Foster families, but by the early ’80s most of them were gone and the Abbott and Williams families were highlighted. The serial’s very large and changing cast has included now-famous actors David Hasselhoff, Tom Selleck, Wings Hauser, Deidre Hall and Michael Damian. In 1980, “Y&R” expanded from a half-hour to an hour. Its theme music is well known as “Nadia’s Theme,” as it was played during Nadia Comaneci’s routine at the 1976 Olympics.

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THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (BHS) will host “The Rise of Antifa” tonight at 6:30 p.m. Is political violence ever justified? Antifa (short for “anti-fascist”), a loose affiliation of groups united in their opposition to authoritarianism, rampant capitalism and white supremacy, has come under fire for its counterprotest methods in the past year. Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” discusses the controversial movement and its rising prominence in Trump-era America in a conversation with New Republic staff writer Alex Shephard. 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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“What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.” — playwright Tennessee Williams, who was born on this day in 1911