MILESTONES: February 20, birthdays for Rihanna, Cindy Crawford, Sidney Potter
NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include dancer and choreographer Jean Erdman, who was born in 1916; Olympian and former presidential candidate Bob Richards, who was born in 1926; actor Sidney Poitier, who was born in 1927; diplomat Jean Kennedy Smith, who was born in 1928; race car driver Bobby Unser, who was born in 1934; hockey legend Phil Esposito, who was born in 1942; Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was born in 1942; businesswoman Ivana Trump, who was born in 1949; NBA legend Charles Barkley, who was born in 1963; supermodel Cindy Crawford, who was born in 1966; former basketball player Stephon Marbury, who was born in Brooklyn in 1977; and musician Rihanna, who was born in 1988.
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A VALIANT STRUGGLE: Frederick Douglass died on this day in 1895. Born to a slave in 1817, he became an abolitionist and “station-master and conductor” of the Underground Railroad. He campaigned for presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and, following the outbreak of the Civil War, helped raise two regiments of black soldiers, the Massachusetts 54th and 55th. After the war, he fought for the enactment of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
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’.