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MILESTONES: January 7 birthdays for Katie Couric, Lauren Cohan, Jeremy Renner

January 7, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle History
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NOTABLE PEOPLE BORN ON THIS DAY include “Mighty Joe Young” star Terry Moore, who was born in 1929; Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, who was born in 1946; “Footloose” singer Kenny Loggins, who was born in 1948; painter and sculptor Robert Longo, who was born in Brooklyn in 1953; “CSI: Miami” star David Caruso, who was born in 1956; TV journalist Katie Couric, who was born in 1957; Go-Go’s bassist and songwriter Kathy Valentine, who was born in 1959; U.S. Sen. John Thune, who was born in 1961; Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage, who was born in 1964; “Avengers” star Jeremy Renner, who was born in 1971; former N.Y. Yankees second baseman Alfonso Soriano, who was born in 1976; “The Walking Dead” star Lauren Cohan, who was born in 1982; and “Nikita” star Lyndsy Fonseca, who was born in 1987.

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BY THE SEAT OF THEIR PANTS: The first balloon flight across the English Channel took place on this day in 1785. Dr. John Jeffries, a Boston physician, and Jean-Pierre Francois Blanchard, a French aeronaut, crossed the channel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, landing in a forest after being forced to throw overboard all ballast, equipment and even most of their clothing to avoid a forced landing in the channel’s icy waters. Blanchard’s trousers are said to have been the last article thrown overboard.

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NET WORTH: The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game on this day in 1927. Basketball promoter Abe Saperstein’s “New York Globetrotters” took the floor in Hinckley, Ill. Despite the “New York” in their name, the team hailed from Chicago’s South Side. The talented African-American players — unable to play in white professional leagues — barnstormed the nation in serious basketball promotional events. They changed their name to “Harlem Globetrotters” in the 1930s and added humor to their games in the 1940s.

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

 

Quotable:

 

“Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom.”

— former U.S. President Millard Fillmore, who was born on this day in 1800


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