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MILESTONES: June 8, birthdays for Kanye West, Gabrielle Giffords, Kim Clijsters

June 8, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Kanye West. AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File
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Greetings, Brooklyn.  Today is the 158th day of the year.

On this day in 1948, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that the daughter of Brooklyn’s last mayor serving before the Great Consolidation of 1898 received a last-minute invitation to an event honoring her father. “Mrs. Bertha Wurster Couch, daughter of the late Frederick Wurster, the last Mayor of the old City of Brooklyn, will be invited, after all, to sit in the Fifth Avenue grandstand when the city stages its golden anniversary on Saturday. Up to this morning, Mrs. Couch hadn’t been asked to attend the ceremonies, although an actor, not yet named, will represent her father in the parade.” Her omission from the list of guests was declared to be an oversight. “They probably didn’t know that Mayor [Frederick] Wurster had a daughter still living in the city,” a spokesman said. However, she took it all in stride, saying that her priority was her customers at her antiques shop on Bergen Street near Nostrand Avenue.

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On this day in 1939, the Eagle covered the historic visit of Great Britain’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. President Franklin D. Roosevelt welcomed the royals, and 600,000 were on hand to “give a roaring salute at Washington,” the headline said. “Their faces crinkled into cordial smiles as their hands met as if to symbolize ties of friendship between two English peoples who parted ways in 1776.” The king and queen had just arrived from a tour of Canada. Another front-page story compared Queen Elizabeth with U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, pointing out that while the latter’s role “doesn’t have the official status according to a queen,” she was an experienced hostess and ambassador for friendship.

Also on this day in 1939, the Eagle front page reported, “The Board of Estimate, before a packed public hearing in City Hall, approved the contract for the $44,000,000 Brooklyn-Battery Bridge today by a vote of 14-2. Manhattan Borough President Isaacs, who controls two votes, cast the only dissenting ballot.” The bridge, had it ever been built, would have affected Lower Manhattan in his borough. The article continued, “The approved contract, for which Commissioner [Robert] Moses assured the board he had sufficient financial backing, takes care of the construction of the bridge, its approaches, its traffic connections, an elevated highway in Brooklyn and the redevelopment of Battery Park in Manhattan.” As commuters into Lower Manhattan can attest, a tunnel was later built instead. Old-timers still call it the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel instead of its newer name, the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, memorializing a former New York governor who saved the city from bankruptcy.

          

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On this day in 1900, the Eagle covered the funeral of the Rev. Richard Salter Storrs, famous and longtime minister of Church of the Pilgrims. Storrs and the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher were roughly contemporaries, although Beecher’s lifespan was shorter. Their churches merged in 1934, but in 2011, Plymouth Church on Orange Street reverted to its original name. Church of the Pilgrims, on Henry Street between Montague and Remsen streets, later became Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral. The building is famous for its doors from the Normandy ship. The Eagle reported that the Church of the Pilgrims was packed for Storrs’ funeral:  “The audience being composed of clergymen of every denomination, representatives of the Manhattan Congregational Association and of institutions to which Dr. Storrs belonged, including the Long Island Historical Society, of which he was for so many years president.” The obit noted the presence of many women and prominent citizens.

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On this day in 1922, the Eagle ran the obituary of Augustus Van Wyck, a former New York Supreme Court justice who received a surprise nomination to be the Democratic candidate in the 1900 presidential election, running against Theodore Roosevelt. “Justice Van Wyck occupied an important part in the life of Brooklyn over the past 30 years, having been an able lawyer, a distinguished jurist and an influential factor in local, state and national politics,” the Eagle obit read. Justice Van Wyck died following surgery to repair an intestinal problem.

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On this day in 1952, the Eagle reported contrasts in two world leaders. President Harry S. Truman, speaking at a reunion of his 35th Division military buddies, warned that “Russia may be planning ‘New Koreas,’ but he said the U.S. Air Force now has 15,000 planes in operation and in Korea can ‘bomb the enemy at will.” Meanwhile, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former NATO commander and candidate for U.S. president, said he would go anywhere in the world, and even meet with Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, to promote world peace and security. Even against the counsel of his advisors, Eisenhower stood his ground, saying that prevention of another war is the biggest issue of his campaign.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include cartoonist SCOTT ADAMS, who was born in 1957; actress KATHY BAKER, who was born in 1950; inventor of the World Wide Web TIM BERNERS-LEE, who was born in 1955; former football player and actor BERNIE CASEY, who was born in 1939; tennis player KIM CLIJSTERS, who was born in 1983; singer and actor JAMES DARREN, who was born in 1936; former tennis player and sportscaster LINDSAY DAVENPORT, who was born in 1976; actor, director and producer GRIFFIN DUNNE, who was born in 1955; former U.S. REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, who was born in 1970; Emmy Award-winning actress JULIANNA MARGULIES, who was born in 1966; author SARA PARETSKY, who was born in 1947; singer, musician and songwriter BOZ SCAGGS, who was born in 1944; singer NANCY SINATRA, who was born in 1940; comedian and actor JERRY STILLER, who was born in Brooklyn in 1929; actor KEENEN IVORY WAYANS, who was born in 1958; physician and writer on natural healing DR. ANDREW WEIL, who was born in 1942; and singer and producer KANYE WEST, who was born in 1977.

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FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1867. Considered by many as one of the greatest and most influential of modern architects, Wright fathered the uniquely American “Prairie School,” which embodied by single-story structures with low, pitched roofs and long rows of casement windows, using locally available materials and unpainted wood, aesthetically mimicking the Midwest prairie landscape. His self-described “organic architecture,” marked by its horizontal emphasis and expansive, open interior spaces, referred to buildings that harmonize both with their inhabitants and with their environment. Wright died in Arizona in 1959.

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“1984” WAS PUBLISHED ON THIS DAY IN 1949. George Orwell’s influential dystopian novel, set in the superstate of Oceania and introducing the concept of Big Brother, was published in England by Secker & Warburg.

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THE USS LIBERTY WAS ATTACKED ON THIS DAY IN 1967. The unescorted U.S. intelligence ship USS Liberty, sailing in international waters off the Egyptian coast, was attacked without warning by Israeli jet planes and three Israeli torpedo boats. It was strafed and hit repeatedly by rockets, cannons, napalm and finally a torpedo. Out of a crew of 294 Americans, there were 34 dead and 171 wounded. Israel apologized, claiming mistaken identity, but surviving crew members charged that it was a deliberate attack by Israel and cover-up by U.S. authorities.

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

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“I feel like I’m too busy writing history to read it.” — Kanye West, who was born on this day in 1977

 

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