MILESTONES: April 11, birthdays for Stephanie Pratt, Tony Brown, Joel Grey

April 11, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle

Stephanie Pratt. Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include TV journalist Tony Brown, who was born in 1933; TV personality Jeremy Clarkson, who was born in 1960; Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Ellen Goodman, who was born in 1941; Oscar Award-winning actor Joel Grey, who was born in in 1932; actress Tricia Helfer, who was born in 1974; actor and choreographer Bill Irwin, who was born in 1950; actor Marcus Johns, who was born in 1993; human rights activist Ethel Kennedy, who was born in 1928; actress Louise Lasser, who was born in 1939; reality TV star Stephanie Pratt, who was born in 1986; actor Peter Riegert, who was born in 1947; and former baseball player Bret Saberhagen, who was born in 1964.

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TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL BE KIND TO LAWYERS DAY. Lawyers are perhaps the most reviled and ridiculed profession in the world today, and yet people flock to lawyers the moment they need help writing a will, running a business or avoiding jail time. This is the one day out of the year to give an ounce or two of respect to the men and women who daily tip the scales of justice. Whether you take your favorite attorney out to lunch or simply refrain from telling lawyer jokes for 24 hours, this is the day to give a little love to the attorneys in your life.

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JANE MATILDA BOLIN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1908. Bolin was the first black woman to graduate from the Yale School of Law (1931), and she went on to become the first black woman judge in the U.S. She served as assistant corporation counsel for the city of New York before being appointed to the city’s Domestic Relations Court and the Family Court of the state of New York. Bolin died in 2007 in New York.

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HAROLD WASHINGTON BECAME THE FIRST BLACK MAYOR OF CHICAGO ON THIS DAY IN 1983. Of the city’s 1.6 million voters, a record 82 percent voted. Washington won 51 percent of the votes, which split along racial lines. He was re-elected in April 1987 but died suddenly seven months later in 1987.

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TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1968. Exactly one week after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The law protects civil rights workers, expanded the rights of Native Americans and provided antidiscrimination measures in housing.

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PERCY JULIAN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1899. He was known as the producer of a synthetic progesterone using soybeans. He also developed a cheaper method of producing cortisone, as well as a drug to treat glaucoma and achemical foam to fight petroleum fires. Julian died in Illinois in 1975.

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

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“A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.” — statesman and lawyer Charles Evans Hughes, who was born on this day in 1862