MILESTONES: March 27, birthdays for Mariah Carey, Nathan Fillion, Pauley Perrette

Brooklyn Today

March 27, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Mariah Carey. Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Share this:

Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 86th day of the year.

On this day in 1892, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s front page reported the death the previous evening of its famous poet and former Eagle editor Walt Whitman. The report provided details on Whitman’s death, which was expected for weeks, as he had been infirm since the previous December. The subhead reads, “The good, gray poet passes peacefully away.” Whitman, who was born May 31, 1819 in Hempstead, Long Island, had a strong connection to Brooklyn. He had a brief stint as the Eagle’s editor in 1846, some five years after the newspaper’s founding. Whitman’s obituary also described his most famous work, “Leaves of Grass,” which was published in 1855, as “a series of poems dealing with moral, social and political problems and more especially with the interests involved with 19th-century American life and progress. Its treatment of certain themes provoked a great deal of criticism.”

****

On this day in 1908, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s front page reported on the Board of Estimate’s March 27 vote in favor of the Fourth Avenue subway construction project, even though NYC Comptroller Herman A. Metz was personally against the project. Metz had put forth a resolution relegating the Fourth Avenue line proposal to committee to delay it. His action angered the 500 supporters present at the meeting. Metz, refusing to certify the contracts, was quoted as saying, “The Fourth Avenue subway is dead. It has been killed by its friends.” Ultimately, though he voted for the plan. Today, the Fourth Avenue subway stretches all the way to 95th Street in Bay Ridge, with connectors to the Sea Beach, Coney Island and West N lines at DeKalb, Atlantic Center, 36th and 59th streets.

Also on that day, the Eagle’s front page reported that a group of women claiming telepathic skills attended a talk against Prohibition. Their purpose was to send thought waves that would befuddle the speaker, a former Brooklyn Episcopal priest who was at the time serving in Riverhead, Long Island. The women objected to this preacher’s stance against staying dry. However, their efforts proved in vain, and the Rev. William A. Wasson proceeded with his lecture in an organized and undeterred manner.

****

On this day in 1930, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s front page reported that professor Albert Einstein presented to the Prussian Academy of Arts & Sciences a paper in which he had proved a new theory on gravitation. The paper showed how he and his assistant, Dr. Walther Mayer, had linked gravitation with electricity. Einstein, a theoretical physicist, would later develop the theory of relativity. A Jew, he emigrated from Germany to the U.S. when Hitler rose to power. Einstein became a U.S. citizen in 1940. Einstein warned the U.S. about a powerful new type of bomb being developed, and the research he urged led to the Manhattan Project.

****

On this day in 1938, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s front page reported extensively on German Reichstag President Hermann Wilhelm Goering’s order that all Jews leave Vienna and that Jewish-owned business firms would be handed over to control of the Nazis. Goering made that command during a speech about the unification process of Germany with Austria. He ordered about 300,000 German Jews out of Austria, declaring that with them present, “the city cannot be called German.” Meanwhile, another front-page article reported that the German-American Bund had established a youth indoctrination program in the U.S. The movement targeted American-born children ages 8 through 21 of German parentage. The youth were being taught German racial pride and hatred for other ethnic groups.

****

On this day in 1953, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s front page reported that American Marines had recaptured a vital hill in Korea’s western front. The story, taken from United Press’ Seoul office, reported that the Marines had captured Vegas Hill after an eight-hour fight against Chinese communists, who had seized the strategic location the previous night. The Marines prevailed against the communists and the terrain, fighting an uphill battle on rocky slopes.

****

NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include singer MARIAH CAREY, who was born in 1970; former football player RANDALL CUNNINGHAM, who was born in 1963; singer FERGIE, who was born in 1975; actor NATHAN FILLION, who was born in 1971; musician KIMBRA, who was born in 1990; actor and director AUSTIN PENDLETON, who was born in 1940; actress PAULEY PERRETTE, who was born in 1969; Oscar Award-winning director and screenwriter QUENTIN TARANTINO, who was born in 1963; former NASCAR driver CALE YARBOROUGH, who was born in 1940; and actor MICHAEL YORK, who was born in 1942.

****

THORNE SMITH WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1892. Perhaps the most critically neglected popular author of the 20th century, he authored “Rain in the Doorway,” “The Stray Lamb” and “Topper.” Smith died in 1934 in Florida.

****

“SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN” PREMIERED ON THIS DAY IN 1952. MGM’s film-musical premiered in New York. Starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor, it featured the songs “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Good Morning” and “Make ’Em Laugh.” The film depicted a Hollywood romance at the time the “talkies” — movies with sound — arrived. Directed by Kelly and Stanley Donen and written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, the film was only nominated for two Oscars, yet is now regarded as one of the greatest movie-musicals.

****

SARAH VAUGHAN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1924. The legendary jazz singer was renowned for her melodic improvising, wide vocal range and extraordinary technique. She began her career by winning an amateur contest at New York’s Apollo Theater in 1943. She was hired by Earl Hines to accompany his band as his relief pianist as well as a singer. She was given the nickname “The Divine One” by Chicago DJ Dave Garroway, a moniker that would remain with her the rest of her life. Vaughan died in California in 1990.

****

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1886. Recognized by peers, critics, casual observers and the scope of history as one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, his simple and powerful works represented a shift in style and technique that defined the look and feel of the modern industrial era. From 1938 to 1958, he served as chairman of the School of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, whose campus contains 20 of his buildings. Mies van der Rohe died in Illinois in 1969.

****

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

****

“Not yesterday, not tomorrow, only today can be given form.” — architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was born on this day in 1886