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MILESTONES: February 12, birthdays for Arsenio Hall, Robert Griffin III, Gucci Mane

February 12, 2019 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actress Maud Adams, who was born in 1945; actor Joe Don Baker, who was born in 1936; former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was born in 1942; author Judy Blume, who was born in 1938; actor Josh Brolin, who was born in 1968; actor Cliff De Young, who was born in 1947; football player Robert Griffin III, who was born in 1990; comedian and actor Arsenio Hall, who was born in 1955; rapper Gucci Mane, who was born in 1980; singer Chynna Phillips, who was born in 1968; actress Christina Ricci, who was born in 1980; Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Russell, who was born in 1934; actor Jesse Spencer, who was born in 1979; and stage and film director Franco Zeffirelli, who was born in 1923.

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1809. The 16th U.S. was especially remembered for his Emancipation Proclamation, his Gettysburg Address and his proclamation establishing the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. Born in Kentucky, he was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., in 1865.

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THE NAACP WAS FOUNDED ON THIS DAY IN 1909. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded by W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida Wells-Barnett, among others, to wage a militant campaign against lynching and other forms of racial oppression. Its legal wing brought many lawsuits that successfully challenged segregation in the 1950s and ’60s.

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CHARLES DARWIN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1809. The author and naturalist is best remembered for his books “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” and “The Descent of Man” and “Selection in Relation to Sex.” Darwin died in 1882 in England.

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“DRACULA” PREMIERED ON THIS DAY IN 1931. The horror film classic starring Bela Lugosi premiered on this day at the Roxy Theatre in New York City. It had been slated to premiere on Friday, Feb. 13, but director Tod Browning, confessing to a superstitious nature, asked for the opening to be moved up a day. Dracula made the Hungarian actor Lugosi a star, but at a price: he was offered only horror film roles the rest of his career.

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

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“I don’t think people change; electronics change, the things we have change, but the way we live doesn’t change.” — Judy Blume, who was born on this day in 1938

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