GOOD MORNING BROOKLYN, APRIL 16. Today is the 106th day of the year.
On this day in 1922, popular and prolific novelist, satirist, and critic KINGSLEY AMIS was born in South London, subsequently so impactful on the world literary stage that he was knighted in 1990 by Queen Elizabeth. But heads in Brooklyn may also be turned by his affiliation with the James Bond legacy. Amis wrote THE JAMES BOND DOSSIER at the peak of the Bond mania in the 1960s with a tongue-in-cheek literary analysis of the Bond canon. After the death of Ian Fleming, famous creator of Bond, Amis was commissioned to continue the Bond novels and wrote COLONEL SUN (1968) under a pseudonym. CONNECTIONS TO BROOKLYN? Lo, these many years later, MARTIN AMIS, son of Kingsley, settled in Cobble Hill with his family. Martin, also a celebrated writer and critic, most recently produced HIS own 28th novel INSIDE STORY (Knopf). A prodigious literary figure, Amis was interviewed by the BROOKLYN EAGLE in 2018. Later he sold his Cobble Hill house to a famous actor who (in somewhat ironic ‘six degrees’ fashion) portrays the current and wildly popular JAMES BOND. The actor is married to a beautiful actress. We will not violate their privacy by printing their names. But if you see them on the street, you will certainly recognize them, so LEAVE THEM ALONE!
APRIL 16 was also the birthdate of the great CHARLES CHAPLIN (1889), London-born creator of silent movie masterpieces, who, like fellow-countryman PETER USTINOV (1921) was knighted by the British Queen. American composer HENRY MANCINI was another April 16 baby (1924), creator of such masterpieces as MOON RIVER, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, and film scores for PINK PANTHER and BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S.
American aviation pioneer WILBUR WRIGHT was born on this day in 1867, and famously predicted to his brother ORVILLE that man would not fly until the 1950s. (Click here for his actual quote.)
ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK, Dept. On this day in 1862, Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. But one million dollars was appropriated to compensate owners of freed slaves. And $100,000 was set aside to pay DC slaves who wished to emigrate to Haiti, Liberia, or any other country outside the U.S.
And finally, just so you know someone out there cares about YOU, April 16 is officially NATIONAL STRESS AWARENESS DAY. Maybe it’s because the date is the first working day after taxes are due, and your new taxes for the current year have already been accumulating for 106 days….
(For news items featured on this day in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in former years — and even former centuries — click here.)
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