MILESTONES: May 11, birthdays for Cam Newton, Blac Chyna, Sabrina Carpenter

May 11, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Cam Newton. Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 130th day of the year.

On this day in 1924, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle showcased Brooklynites. In a front page story, the Eagle reported that the Archbishop of Chicago, whom Pope Pius XI had newly elevated to become George Cardinal Mundelein, brought back from Rome two additional honors for Brooklyn Catholic laymen. Pope Pius had bestowed the title of count on Dr. Mathias Figueira and Rodolfo A. Correa, both from what is now Bedford-Stuyvesant. They learned of the honor during a reception and banquet at the Vanderbilt Hotel. Cardinal Mundelein pinned gold medals of the Order of the Sacred Palace of the Lateran on Figueira and Correa. “Dr. Figueira and Mr. Correa are the first in this country to receive this decoration, created by Pope Leo XII in recognition of exceptional services to the Church, principally for acts of charity. The order of Christian knighthood carries with it the title of count, bestowed by the Pope as temporal sovereign,” the Eagle reported.

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On this day in 1869, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The recognition of the Pacific Railroad as an accomplished fact yesterday was moderately enthusiastic as far as the public was concerned. A few years ago, the event would have been marked by demonstrations stopping little short of insanity … But the country has grown older very rapidly … At Promontory Summit, the compiler of the program was so careful in details as to indicate to the Rev. Dr. Todd, who was engaged to pray, that his proper line of remark was ‘asking the favor of Heaven upon the enterprise.’ Then spikes representing each of the roads to be united were presented on the part of California, Nevada and Arizona and … the spikes with the electric wire fastened to them were driven home, and the blows of the hammer set in motion the magnetic nerve which recorded at points thousands of miles distant the completion of the work.”

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On this day in 1902, the Eagle reported on the eruption of the volcano about 10 miles north of the commercial capital, St. Pierre, in the Caribbean Lesser Antilles island of Martinique. Mount Pelee had begun activating the previous week, on May 3. Lava rushing down to St. Pierre destroyed the town, but ocean cruisers in the area were able to rescue a number of people and provide food. But the terror spread as far as two islands away, Guadeloupe to the south. The Eagle’s extensive coverage included survivors’ stories and this report: “Terrible detonations, heard hundreds of miles northward, followed at short irregular intervals and continued all night. In the intense darkness the electric light failed, but the town was lit up by lurid flashes of flame from the mountain.”

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On this day in 1919, the Eagle reported that Germany rejected the Versailles treaty. A volley of letters between Germany’s foreign minister — Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau — and the Allies’ delegation, revealed that the meat of the German objection to the treaty was its infamous Article 231, which forced Germany to accept sole blame for the war in order to justify the reparations. Even with internal debate among the Allies over the fact that Germany had lost the war, Article 231 remained in the treaty. The Eagle reported, “President [Woodrow] Wilson will personally direct such answers as may be decided upon concerning German inquires on the Peace Treaty differing from the president’s fourteen points.”

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On this day in 1924, the Eagle reported that all but six borough leaders chose to skip the dinner held in their honor by a women’s temperance group. The purpose of the dinner was to “urge the nomination of dry congressmen from the borough.” The sponsoring organization was the Brooklyn Women’s Constitutional Committee, who had sent out 94 invitations and five thousand petitions. Five women and one man were in attendance. The “dry” speakers essentially found themselves preaching to the choir.

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On this day in 1934, the Eagle reported that a dust cloud from the Midwest had settled into the Northeast, affecting this borough as well. The story began with a quote from a visitor: “‘I’m from Missouri,’ said the man in the street as he peered skyward and found the sun obscured this afternoon and a light brown haze settled over the city. ‘So is the haze,’ said the Weather Bureau,” which forecast that the dust cloud would blow out to the sea by nightfall. The dust cloud did not prevent Col. Roscoe Turner from completing his flight to Floyd Bennett Field that day. This related story reported that Turner set a new record in flying from Detroit to New York in his racing plane: 1 hour, 47 minutes and 21 seconds. The previous time record between Detroit and Newark Airport had been 2 hours and 26 minutes. “Turner flew the extra half dozen miles to the municipal airport and did the whole job in 39 minutes less than the fastest previous trip.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include model BLAC CHYNA, who was born in 1988; actress SABRINA CARPENTER, who was born in 1999; Nation of Islam leader LOIUS FARRAKHAN, who was born in 1933; Tony Award-winning actor BOYD GAINES, who was born in 1953; actor JONATHAN JACKSON, who was born in 1982; physician and inventor of the artificial heart ROBERT JARVIK, who was born in 1946; football player MATT LEINART, who was born in 1983; football player CAM NEWTON, who was born in 1989; and comedian MORT SAHL, who was born in 1927.

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SALVADOR DALI WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1904. A leading painter in the surrealist movement, Dali was equally well known for his baffling antics and attempts to shock his audiences. The largest collection of his works resides in the Salvador Dali Museum at St. Petersburg, Florida. He died in Spain in 1989.

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IRVING BERLIN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1888. The songwriter began singing in saloons and on street corners in New York in order to help his family and worked as a singing waiter as a teenager. Berlin became one of America’s most prolific songwriters, authoring such songs as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “White Christmas,” “God Bless America,” “There’s No Business like Show Business,” “Doin’ What Comes Naturally,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “Blue Skies” and “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,” among others. He could neither read nor write musical notation. Berlin died in 1989 in New York.

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MARTHA GRAHAM WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1894. She began her dance career at the comparatively late age of 22 and joined the Greenwich Village Follies in 1923. Her new ideas began to surface in the late ’20s and ’30s, and by the mid-1930s she was incorporating the rituals of the southwestern American Indians in her work. She is credited with bringing a new psychological depth to modern dance by exploring primal emotions and ancient rituals in her work. She performed until the age of 75 and premiered in her 180th ballet, “The Maple Leaf Rag,” in the fall of 1990. Graham died in New York in 1991.

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CHANG AND ENG BUNKER WERE BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1811. The conjoined twins found worldwide fame as the Siamese Twins. They settled on a plantation in North Carolina, bought slaves, were naturalized as American citizens and in 1843 married a pair of local sisters. The couples eventually had 21 children between them. Chang and Eng died hours apart in North Carolina in 1874. They were never separated.

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

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“Those who do not want to imitate anything produce nothing.” — Salvador Dali, who was born on this day in 1904