MILESTONES: August 3, birthdays for Karlie Kloss, Martha Stewart, Tony Bennett

August 3, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Karlie Kloss. AP Photo/Thibault Camus

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 215th day of the year.

ON THIS DAY IN 1889, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The people of Brooklyn will learn with satisfaction that work on the memorial arch, to be erected at the entrance to Prospect Park in honor of the soldiers and sailors who fell in the Civil War, is to be pushed forward at an early date. As announced yesterday in our news columns, the experts appointed to examine the plans have agreed upon a design which they will recommend to the Monument Commission … The contemplated memorial will supply a much needed addition to the meager artistic ornamentation of the city. Attractive as Brooklyn undoubtedly is in other respects, it is conspicuously deficient in monumental adornment … We entertain no doubt that the enlightened sentiment of our citizenship will ultimately assert itself in this relation and that Brooklyn, in consequence, will become a city of monuments and statues as it now is of homes and churches.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Eagle reported, “Rockville Centre, L.I., Aug. 3 — ‘520 percent Miller,’ who in 1899 offered people a 10 percent weekly return on their investments and finally landed in Sing Sing for his generosity, is studying the ‘method’ used by Charles Ponzi, the financial wizard of Boston, whose books are now being scrutinized by federal investigators. ‘I have only read the headlines,’ explained Miller, who runs a grocery store at 506 Lakeview Ave. under the name of William Schmidt. ‘All I can say is that if Ponzi is running a crooked scheme, I wouldn’t be in his shoes for all the $10,000,000 that has been offered him for the formula.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1922, the Eagle reported, “Sydney, N.S., Aug. 3 — The entire town of Baddeck, near here, was in mourning today for the noted inventor of the telephone who died yesterday. In the 35 years in which Dr. Alexander Graham Bell has been coming there to spend his summers he had come to be regarded by the villagers as one of themselves. One of the village clergymen will take charge of the simple ceremonies at his funeral on Friday. A telegram from President [Warren] Harding was one of the scores of messages of condolence received by Dr. Bell’s family … Although he was in failing health throughout the summer, and in spite of his 75 years, Dr. Bell had continued his experiments with flying boats until July 18.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1923, the Eagle reported from San Francisco, “Recovering from the tremendous shock of the sudden death of President [Warren] Harding in his room at the Palace Hotel here at 7:30 o’clock last night (11:30 New York time), members of his entourage today completed arrangements for the removal of the body to Washington.” The Eagle also published an Associated Press story which read, “Plymouth, Vermont, Aug. 3 — Calvin Coolidge, sworn in at 2:47 a.m. as president of the United States by his father, in the Plymouth Notch farmhouse in which he spent his boyhood, left for Washington at 7:30 o’clock, accompanied by Mrs. Coolidge … Neighbors from Plymouth and nearby towns gathered to wish their president godspeed.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, Eagle sports editor Jimmy Wood wrote, “Comment on Mr. Larry MacPhail’s introduction of the yellow baseball into the first game of yesterday’s Dodger-Card double bill seems to be favorable. Most of the customers favored the new pellet and most of the players liked it, to hear tell. Our Tommy Holmes enjoyed the game with the new ball … He found it more easy to follow from the press coop … Briefly, as a trial it was a success. How much the novelty had to do with the enthusiasm over its introduction is a matter only time will determine. Perhaps if we all peered at the yellow ball for a span of time and then were asked to watch a game with the old white missile we might change our ideas.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “Chicago, Aug. 3 (U.P.) — An attempt to introduce a woman, Dorothy Kamenshek, into organized baseball as a player with the Fort Lauderdale Club of the Class B Florida International League has failed, the United Press learned today. Miss Kamenshek, 26, plays first base for the Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Baseball League and was described by former New York Yankee Wally Pipp last May as the ‘fanciest fielding first baseman I’ve ever seen, man or woman.’” Fred Leo, president of the girls league, said, “Rockford couldn’t afford to lose her.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include College and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer LANCE ALWORTH, who was born in 1940; singer TONY BENNETT, who was born in 1926; actor, director and writer STEVE BERKOFF, who was born in 1937; football player TOM BRADY, who was born in 1977; musician STEPHEN CARPENTER, who was born in 1970; actor PHILIP CASNOFF, who was born in 1949; musician B.B. DICKERSON, who was born in 1949; Hockey Hall-of-Famer MARCEL DIONNE, who was born in 1951; actress TANYA FISCHER, who was born in 1985; actress MAMIE GUMMER, who was born in 1983; musician JAMES HETFIELD, who was born in 1963; model KARLIE KLOSS, who was born in 1992; director JOHN LANDIS, who was born in 1950; singer BEVERLY LEE, who was born in 1941; Football Hall of Fame coach MARV LEVY, who was born in 1925; actress EVANGELINE LILLY, who was born in 1979; Olympic swimmer RYAN LOCHTE, who was born in 1984; actor JOHN McGINLEY, who was born in 1959; U.S. Sen. CHRIS MURPHY, who was born in 1973; actor JAY NORTH, who was born in 1951; Puerto Rican Gov. ALEJANDRO GARCIA PADILLA, who was born in 1971; actress JoMARIE PAYTON, who was born in 1950; singer and musician LEE ROCKER, who was born in 1961; singer and musician ED ROLAND, who was born in 1963; musician DEAN SAMS, who was born in 1950; musician RANDY SCRUGGS, who was born in 1953; actor MARTIN SHEEN, who was born in 1940; model and actress HANNAH SIMONE, who was born in 1980; hip-hop artist SPINDERELLA, who was born in 1971; lifestyle consultant and TV personality MARTHA STEWART, who was born in 1941; actress LISA ANN WALTER, who was born in 1963; actor ISAIAH WASHINGTON, who was born in 1963; and former gymnast BLAINE WILSON, who was born in 1974.

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AARON BURR WENT ON TRIAL ON THIS DAY IN 1807. The former vice president was tried before a federal court in Richmond, Virginia and was charged with treason for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Burr was acquitted less than a month later.

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ERNEST TAYLOR PYLE WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1900. After serving as managing editor of the Washington Daily News, the journalist returned to working as a roving reporter. His column was syndicated by nearly 200 newspapers and often focused on figures behind the news. His reports of the bombing of London in 1940 and subsequent reports from Africa, Sicily, Italy and France earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1944. He was killed by machine-gun fire at the Pacific island of Ie Shima in 1945.

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COLUMBUS SET SAIL FOR THE NEW WORLD ON THIS DAY IN 1492. The explorer set sail half an hour before sunrise from Palos, Spain. With three ships, Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, and a crew of 90, he sailed “for Cathay” but found instead a New World of the Americas, first landing at Guanahani (San Salvador Island in the Bahamas) on Oct 12.

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JOHN T. SCOPES WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1900. The then-obscure 24-year-old Tennessee schoolteacher became the focus of world attention in 1925 when he was fined $100 “for teaching evolution.” The verdict was upset on a technicality, and the statute he was accused of breaching was repealed in 1967. Scopes died in 1970 in Los Angeles.

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THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION WAS FORMED ON THIS DAY IN 1949. The association was formed as a merger of the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

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

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“You don’t protect any of your individual liberties by lying down and going to sleep.” — John T. Scopes, who was born on this day in 1900