MILESTONES: February 19, birthdays for Jeff Daniels, Amy Tan, Smokey Robinson

February 19, 2019 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Jeff Daniels. Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Duke of York Prince Andrew, who was born in 1960; actress Justine Bateman, who was born in 1966; singer Lou Christie, who was born in 1943; actor Jeff Daniels, who was born in 1955; actor Benicio Del Toro, who was born in 1967; actress Haylie Duff, who was born in 1985; NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who was born in 1959; author Jeff Kinney, who was born in 1971; author Jonathan Lethem, who was born in Brooklyn in 1964; Hall of Fame tennis player Hana Mandlikova, who was born in 1963; soccer player Marta, who was born in 1986; actor Stephen Nichols, who was born in 1951, singer Smokey Robinson, who was born in 1940; singer Seal, who was born in 1963; actor Andrew Shue, who was born in 1967; author Amy Tan, who was born in 1952; and actor Ray Winstone, who was born in 1957.

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“THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE” WAS PUBLISHED ON THIS DAY IN 1963. Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” was a call for women to achieve their full potential. The book generated enormous response and revitalized the women’s movement in the U.S.

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NICOLAUS COPERNICUS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1473. The Polish astronomer and priest revolutionized scientific thought with what came to be called the Copernican theory, which placed the sun instead of Earth at the center of our planetary system. He died in East Prussia in 1543.

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THE JAPANESE INTERNMENT BEGAN ON THIS DAY IN 1942. As a result of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, some 110,000 Japanese Americans living in coastal Pacific areas were placed in concentration camps in remote areas of Arizona, Arkansas, inland California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. The interned Japanese Americans (two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens) lost an estimated $400 million in property. They were allowed to return to their homes Jan. 2, 1945.

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CARSON MCCULLERS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1917. Born Lula Carson Smith in Georgia, McCullers was a renowned 20th-century author whose works are emblematic of the Southern Gothic literary tradition. Her first novel, “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” deals with themes of inner loneliness and isolation, both of which run through McCullers’ other work. McCullers was inducted into the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1952 and died in 1967 in Nyack after a long-suffering battle with rheumatic fever.

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

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“You could grow up in the city where history was made and still miss it all.” — Jonathan Lethem, who was born in Brooklyn on this day in 1964.