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MILESTONES: July 25, birthdays for Matt LeBlanc, James Lafferty, Jackie Christie

July 25, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Matt LeBlanc. AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File
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Greetings, Brooklyn.  Today is the 206th day of the year.

On this day in 1853, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Sunday in Brooklyn is a day of variegated performances. Some welcome it as a day of prayer and thanksgiving; others as a day for riding out, convivial drinking, laying abed, reading our weekly contemporaries, ‘dressing up,’ promenading the streets, ogling and being ogled by others, in and out of church, and visiting from house to house, and the evening is the time for ‘courting.’ ‘To church! To church,’ the parson cries. To church each fair one goes. The old go there to close their eyes, the young to eye their clothes.”

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On this day in 1842, the Eagle reported, “Bunker Hill Monument. — The cap stone of this great work was laid on Friday morning. The Bostonians continue to grumble because it was not completed as an observatory; but they’ll get reconciled, after a while. A good deal of work is still to be done in ornamenting and enclosing the grounds.”

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On this day in 1885, the Eagle reported, “Cleveland, O., July 25. In the course of a speech eulogistic of [former President Ulysses S.] Grant before the G.A.R. posts of Fremont, ex-President [Rutherford B.] Hayes said that the Grand Army of the Republic, as the largest soldier organization in the country, an organization to which all who faithfully served in the Union Army are eligible, should take the lead in building a national monument in honor of General Grant in New York.” It was also reported, “Ex-President Chester A. Arthur and his son, Chester A. Arthur Jr., arrived yesterday at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, on their way to attend the funeral of General Grant. General Arthur immediately left to join the family of the dead hero.”

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On this day in 1901, the Eagle reported, “The Brooklyn Bridge, which sagged several inches on the north side of its middle section yesterday afternoon, will not be repaired and opened for regular traffic [for] two or three days … Despite the efforts of the bridge officials to belittle the accident, it is undoubtedly a serious one, and one that gives an alarming warning of a weakness in the bridge structure … Twelve of the rods that support the bridge are snapped … All the broken rods are on the extreme northern one of the four big cables that support the bridge.”

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On this day in 1937, the Eagle reported, “Word was received last night that Samuel Leibowitz of Brooklyn, defense attorney in the Scottsboro case, is already on his way back from Decatur, Alabama, accompanied by four of the Negro defendants in the famous assault case who were freed yesterday after six years of litigation carried by Leibowitz to the United States Supreme Court.” Leibowitz said, “We’re bringing back four colored boys from the jaws of hell. It’s nothing short of a miracle. My heart was hoping for it. My brain told me it couldn’t be, but it’s happened. Thank God that justice won more than half of the battle. We’ll keep on fighting for the others.”

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On this day in 1948, the Eagle reported, “Representative Donald L. O’Toole yesterday received from Army Secretary Kenneth C. Royall definite assurance that public hearings would be held before the army grants permission for construction of the projected $75,000,000 bridge from Fort Hamilton to Staten Island. Mr. O’Toole has been a firm opponent of the proposal, and on July 19, in the name of Bay Ridge residents whom he represents, he asked Mr. Royall for public hearings. The Brooklyn representative insisted that every church, fraternal, social and veteran group in the area is opposed to construction … This 40-year dream of a bridge across the Narrows was stirred to new life recently when the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority applied to the War Department for a permit.”

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On this day in 1958, the Brooklyn Spectator reported, “’Operation Bum’s Rush’ went into full swing last week, when Coney Island detectives unceremoniously ousted 26 ‘sleeping beauties’ camped on the resort beach and under the boardwalk. Capt. Thomas Pendergast, of the 60th Pct., ordered the rude awakening be given to 25 men and one woman, some of them making merry with song and bacchanalian revelry, while others slumbered, undisturbed by the sounds of their high-spirited comrades. Police expect to maintain a constant watch for similar groups, with an eye to making the resort area less attractive to, what one observer called, ‘gypsy types.’”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include reality TV star JACKIE CHRISTIE, who was born in 1968; journalist and author MIDGE DECTER, who was born in 1927; actress ILLEANA DOUGLAS, who was born in 1965; model and actress IMAN, who was born in 1955; actor JAMES LAFFERTY, who was born in 1985; actor MATT LeBLANC, who was born in 1967; and former hockey player EVGENI NABOKOV, who was born in 1975.

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THE FIRST AIRPLANE CROSSING OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL OCCURRED ON THIS DAY IN 1909. Louis Bleriot — after asking from the cockpit, “Where is England?” — took off from Les Baraque, France, and landed on English soil at Northfall Meadow, near Dover, where he was greeted first by English police and customs officers. This, the world’s first international overseas airplane flight, was accomplished in a 28-horsepower monoplane with a wingspan of 23 feet.

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BENITO MUSSOLINI WAS OUSTED ON THIS DAY IN 1943. Two weeks after the Allied attack on Sicily began, the Fascist Grand Council met for the first time since December 1939 and took a confidence vote resulting in Mussolini’s being removed from office and placed under arrest. Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel ordered Marshal Pietro Badoglio to form a new government.

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JACK GILFORD WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1907. This American was blacklisted for 10 years following his refusal to answer questions before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s. Despite this, he appeared in many films, stage productions and television programs, including an Academy Award–nominated role opposite Jack Lemmon in “Save the Tiger” and his best-known role as Hysterium in the stage and film versions of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” He died in New York City in 1990.

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BOB DYLAN PERFORMED AT NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL ON THIS DAY IN 1965. Twenty-four-year-old folk star Dylan rocked the Newport Folk Festival — literally — by playing an electric set on stage. Those in the audience responded with catcalls or silence. At the festival, he brought a backing band, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and blasted out “Maggie’s Farm” and “Like a Rolling Stone.” It was a short set — which festival organizers threatened to make shorter by cutting the sound cables — but it went down in music history as the day that Dylan “went electric.”

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

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“It’s really not a good idea to forecast or double guess the fates; you will always be fooled.” — Iman, who was born on this day in 1955

 

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