May 16, ‘ Fire on Coney Island destroys vast property’

May 16, 2014 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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Good morning. Today is the 136th day of the year.

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Park Slope’s annual Fabulous Fifth Avenue Fair is this Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., rain or shine. The fair features food, music, shopping and more. … Also on Sunday, the Brooklyn Historical Society is holding an intensive workshop called If These Walls Could Talk. Learn to conduct house research in the BHS library using archival images, records and documents with the leadership of Elizabeth Call, BHS’ Head of Reference and User Services, at 2 p.m. … Pratt Institute’s 125th Commencement is today at 1 p.m. at Radio City Music Hall. Honorary degrees will go to Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold Lehman, Yoko Ono and others. … The YWCA is holding a free Health and Wellness fair today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the community room of the YWCA of Brooklyn. The event will offer onsite health screenings for diabetes and other diseases. … BookCourt is hosting Adam Resnick, an Emmy Award-winning writer for “Late Night with David Letterman.” Resnick will be discussing his new book, “Will Not Attend: Lively Stories of Detachment and Isolation” with Bob Odenkirk at 1 p.m.

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Notable people born on this day include “Bones” actor David Boreanaz, who turns 43; actor Pierce Brosnan, who played James Bond and turns 61; singer Janet Jackson, who turns 48; Hall of Fame tennis player Gabriela Sabatini, who turns 44; and “Across the Universe” actor Jim Sturgess, who turns 33.

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The first Academy Awards ceremony was held on this day in 1929. About 270 attended a dinner at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel at which the first awards were given in 12 categories. The silent film “Wings” won best picture. A committee of only 20 members selected the winners that year. By the third year the entire membership of the Academy voted. The Academy Awards were first televised in 1953.

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Liberace was born on this day in 1919. He was born Wladziu Valentino Liberace, and became a concert pianist who was a Las Vegas headliner and the winner of two Emmy Awards, six gold albums and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died in 1987 in Palm Springs.

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It is National Bike to Work Day. At the state or local level, Bike to Work events are conducted by small and large businesses, city governments, bicycle cubs and environmental groups.

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The first woman climbed Mount Everest on this day in 1975. Japanese climber Junko Tabei, leading an all-woman expedition up the mountain, became the first woman to reach the summit. Taking the South-East Ridge route, Tabei was delayed by an avalanche before her last leg up the mountain.

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On this day in 1895 the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on a big fire on Coney Island. “A fire which broke out shortly after 10 o’clock this morning in a photograph gallery on Maiden [L]ane, near Sea Beach walk, Cone Island, spread over three blocks and destroyed property which is variously estimated in value at from $300,000 to $500,000,” the paper reported. “The people of Coney Island are indignant because of the failure of Mayor Schleren’s administration to provide proper protection to the citizens there. They claim that had there been [an] adequate fire extinguishing apparatus within easy reach the fire could not have gained the headway it did. … The destroyed area reaches from Sea Beach walk in an easterly direction to the old iron pier walk, now known as the plaza, and forty wooden buildings were wiped out of existence.”

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

 

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