MILESTONES: July 31, birthdays for J.K. Rowling, B.J. Novak, Wesley Snipes

July 31, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle History

J.K. Rowling. Photo by Grant Pollard/Invision/AP

Share this:

NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include actor Wesley Snipes, who was born in 1962; actor Dean Cain, who was born in 1966; author and philanthropist J.K. Rowling, who was born in 1965; actress Geraldine Chaplin, who was born in 1944; actor Rico Rodriguez, who was born in 1998; Hall of Fame tennis player Evonne Goolagong, who was born in 1951; actor B.J. Novak, who was born in 1979; entrepreneur and TV personality Mark Cuban, who was born in 1958; actress France Nuyen, who was born in 1939; singer Gary Lewis, who was born in 1946; hockey player Evgeni Malkin, who was born in 1986; and actor Don Murray, who was born in 1929.

***

THE CORNERSTONE OF THE FIRST U.S. GOVERNMENT BUILDING, the Philadelphia Mint, was laid on this day in 1792. Philadelphia was then the U.S. capital, so when the Coinage Act of 1792 was entered into law, creating the need for a United States Mint, Philadelphia was the obvious choice for the site. The currency-making operations continued at this site until 1833. The original building was demolished between 1907 and 1911, and today only a small plaque remains where the mint once stood.

***

NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING ECONOMIST, teacher and author Milton Friedman was born in Brooklyn on this day in 1912. Friedman received the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and stabilization policy. His political philosophy was centered on the free market economic system with minimal intervention. Friedman later became an advisor to President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He died in San Francisco in 2006.

***

THE U.S. PATENT OFFICE OPENED on this day in 1790. The office maintains a historical record of all patent applications. The function of a patent is enshrined in the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8: “securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” The first patent was signed by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and issued to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a new method of making pearl ash and potash.

***

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”

—J.K. Rowling, who was born on this day in 1965