Brooklyn Today for September 25
Good morning. Today is the 268th day of the year. In the Sept. 25, 1934, issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a letter-writer who identified himself as “M. Walker” objected to the idea of uniting the city’s three separately owned subway and trolley networks, the IRT, the IND and the BMT, under municipal ownership. He said the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit), which he rode on a daily basis, could be profitable if it did away with free passes for employees and if it started charging extra fares on long routes. The three transit systems were unified six years later, although they kept their separate identities as divisions of the city transit system for many years.
Well-known people who were born today include U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, actor Mark Hamill (“General Hospital,” “Star Wars”), actor Will Smith (“Ali,” ‘Men in Black”) and TV journalist Barbara Walters.