MILESTONES: April 27, birthdays for U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, Patrick Stump, Jenna Coleman

Brooklyn Today

April 27, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker. AP Photo/Julio Cortez

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 117th day of the year.

On this day in 1901, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Assemblyman Seymour’s bill, which permits New York City to accept the $5,200,000 gift of Andrew Carnegie for a free library system, was signed today by Gov. [Benjamin] Odell. The bill was drawn by Corporation Counsel Whalen, and authorizes the city to purchase, erect and maintain libraries; also to enter into contract with Mr. Carnegie to accept his gift under the conditions named by him.”

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On this day in 1865, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Justice has overtaken the assassin of the president. The wretched murderer was killed in attempting to make his escape. His accomplice in the crime and in his flight, Harold, has been captured alive and is now in Washington … The details of the capture at hand are very meager and are confined to the fact that the two criminals took refuge in a barn, which was fired. Booth, while attempting to make his escape from the barn, was shot through the head. He lingered but a few hours.”

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On this day in 1909, the Eagle reported, “Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of Turkey, was today deposed from the throne of the Ottoman empire by his subjects for his interference with the progress of popular government under the constitution granted by him last July, and his brother, Mehemmed Reschad Effendi, now occupies the throne. This change was decided upon by the National Assembly without a dissenting voice, and it was carried out with the utmost rapidity. The Sultan is now a prisoner in the hands of the Young Turks and carefully guarded by his captors.”

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On this day in 1911, the Eagle reported, “Flatbush is to have a new Roman Catholic Church to be named ‘Our Lady of Refuge,’ it was learned today. The edifice is to stand at Ocean and Foster avenues. The church will minister to the people of East Midwood and Ditmars Parks. The rector of the new church will be the Rev. Father Robert F. O’Donovan, who has been assistant at the Church of the Holy Cross for the last 10 years … The church will be a copy of one of the most beautiful church edifices in England … The new church will be completed within two months. The rector expects to say mass somewhere in the parish about May 10 for the first time.”

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On this day in 1916, the Eagle reported, “Martial law has been declared throughout all of Ireland. Fighting is still going on in the streets of Dublin. Premier Asquith announced in the House of Commons today that the rebels continued to hold important public buildings in Dublin, and that street encounters were still in progress.” In a separate article, the Eagle reprinted a quote made on February 20 by its special war correspondent Henry West Sudyman, which read, “Fenianism in Ireland has assumed such proportions that today, financed by German and Irish-American money, a force of some 15,000 armed men offers open embarrassment to the British administration.” The article stated, “Mr. Suydam plainly foresaw the present situation in Ireland with many of its ramifications.”

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On this day in 1954, the Eagle reported, “More than 4,000 Brooklyn boys and girls, almost all of them wearing stoical smiles and only a very few giving way to tears, bared their arms today for inoculations that may prove the end of a disease that has twisted and crippled countless other youngsters. A total of 8,837 Brooklyn children, from 5 to 8, were to receive injections of the Salk anti-polio vaccine today and tomorrow in 24 public and eight parochial schools in Gravesend and adjoining areas … Of the first hundred injected at P.S. 255, only one little girl burst into tears. But, despite the crying, she went through with the injection. No parents were allowed to be present, and one doctor remarked, ‘That’s probably why the kids weren’t crying — they haven’t got a good audience.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actress ANOUK AIMEE, who was born in 1934; TV personality NIGEL BARKER, who was born in 1972; U.S. Sen. CORY BOOKER, who was born in 1969; actress JENNA COLEMAN, who was born in 1986; singer SHEENA EASTON, who was born in 1959; actress SALLY HAWKINS, who was born in 1976; singer PATRICK STUMP, who was born in 1984; and King of the Netherlands WILLEM-ALEXANDER, who was born in 1967.

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CORETTA SCOTT KING WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1927. The wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. picked cotton as a child but was able to go to college, where she met and married the young minister-turned-civil-rights-activist. She worked by his side, establishing Freedom Concerts and other social-change movements, while also raising the couple’s four children. After King’s 1968 assassination, she took on his mission, founding the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta (now just called The King Center), and also spearheading the efforts to have a national holiday established in her late husband’s honor. The American Library Association established a prestigious children’s literature award for African-American writers and illustrators in her name in 1970, and in her later years she was a tireless advocate for gay and lesbian rights. King died in Mexico in 2006.

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ULYSSES S. GRANT WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1822. The 18th president of the U.S. graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1843. President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to lieutenant general in command of all the Union armies in 1864. He died in New York in 1885, just four days after completing his memoirs. Grant was buried at Riverside Park, where his tomb was dedicated in 1897.

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SERGEI PROKOFIEV WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1891. Regarded as one of the most significant composers of the 20th century, he created a wide array of music, including symphonies, ballets, operas, orchestral suites, concertos for piano, violin and cello and works for solo piano. His best-known works include the ballet “Romeo and Juliet,” the opera “The Love for Three Oranges” and the orchestral piece “Peter and the Wolf.” Prokofiev left Russia in 1918 to avoid the upheaval of the Russian Revolution. He composed, performed as a pianist and conducted extensively in the U.S. and Europe before returning to the Soviet Union in 1936. He had conflicts with Soviet authorities, which, in 1948, banned several of his works for allegedly having renounced “the basic principles of classical music.” Prokofiev died in 1953 in Moscow.

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

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“Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation.” — Coretta Scott King, who was born on this day in 1927