MILESTONES: August 16, birthdays for Madonna, Kathie Lee Gifford, Angela Bassett

August 16, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle History

Madonna. Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include actress Lesley Ann Warren, who was born in 1946; actress Angela Bassett, who was born in 1958; director James Cameron, who was born in 1954; actor Taiki Waititi, who was born in 1975; actor Steve Carell, who was born in 1962; actor Reginald VelJohnson, who was born in 1952; baseball pitcher Yu Darvish, who was born in 1986; actor Jeff Perry, who was born in 1955; TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford, who was born in 1953; actress Julie Newmar, who was born in 1933; actor Timothy Hutton, who was born in 1960; New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who was born in 1957; actress Laura Innes, who was born in 1957; and singer Madonna, who was born in 1958.

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LABOR LEADER GEORGE MEANY was born in Harlem on this day in 1894. Meany became president of the American Federation of Labor in 1952 and joined forces with the Congress of Industrial organizations, then served as president of the AFL-CIO for the next 24 years. Meany was known for rooting out corruption in the labor movement, and expelled Jimmy Hoffa’s Teamsters from the AFL-CIO in 1967. He died in 1980.

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ELVIS PRESLEY DIED on this day in 1977 at the age of 42. Presley was called the “King of Rock” in his lifetime and is today remembered as one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century. Following years of barbiturate abuse by the singer, Presley’s partner Ginger Alden found him unresponsive on the bathroom floor on the day he was scheduled to begin a new tour. The medical examiners determined the cause of death was an underlying cardiac arrhythmia, which can only be diagnosed in a living patient, and that drugs were not involved. Rumors of a coverup were widespread.

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GOLD WAS DISCOVERED IN THE KLONDIKE region of the Yukon on this day in 1896. This event led to the Klondike Gold Rush when the news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year, spurring an influx of prospectors. Boom towns sprouted up along the routes, and from a population of 500 in 1896, Dawson City grew to approximately 30,000 by 1898.

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“Economics is the only profession where a person can be considered an expert without having once been right.”

—George Meany, who was born on this day in 1894