MILESTONES: October 18, birthdays for Zac Efron, Ne-Yo, Terry McMillan
NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include author Terry McMillan, who was born in 1951; actress Freida Pinto, who was born in 1984; singer-songwriter, jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, who was born in 1961; actor Joe Morton, who was born in 1947; record producer and actor Ne-Yo, who was born in 1979; actor Vincent Spano, who was born in 1962; Hall of Fame tennis player Martina Navratilova, who was born in 1956; actor Zac Efron, who was born in 1987; sportscaster and Hall of Fame football player Mike Ditka, who was born in 1939; Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn, who was born in 1984; and actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, who was born in 1960.
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BROOKLYN WRITER Ntozake Shange was born on this day in 1948. Shange was an American playwright and poet who lived in Brooklyn. In 1976, Shange premiered her choreopoem, “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf,” which won an Obie Award. She was an associate for the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, taught at the University of Houston and published many poems, essays, plays and novels, including “Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo,” “Betsey Brown” and “Liliane.” Shange died in Trenton, New Jersey, on Oct. 27, 2018.
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.