History Brooklyn Boro

December 23, birthdays for Jim Harbaugh, Hanley Ramirez, Finn Wolfhard

Brooklyn Today

December 23, 2016 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh celebrates his birthday today. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 358th day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Hanley Ramirez and Donna Tartt, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Citizens Union Hits 2G ‘Gift’ to Councilmen.”

The article focused on the Citizen’s Union’s push to keep local councilmen from getting Christmas bonuses.

“Such a hike, the union contends, would be ‘immoral’ and a ‘clear evasion of the [City] Charter, and so, Councilmen should make a ‘real Christmas gift to the public’ by stating they don’t want the increase,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Japanese Emporer AKIHITO, who was born in 1933; poet and author ROBERT BLY, who was born in 1926; Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom CAROL ANN DUFFY, who was born in 1955; hockey player SCOTT GOMEZ, who was born in 1979; football coach and former player JIM HARBAUGH, who was born in 1963; actress SUSAN LUCCI, who was born in 1949; actor GERALD O’LOUGHLIN, who was born in 1921; baseball player HANLEY RAMIREZ, who was born in 1983; author DONNA TARTT, who was born in 1963; and Stranger Things actor FINN WOLFHARD, who was born in 2002.

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THE METRIC CONVERSION ACT WAS PASSED ON THIS DAY IN 1975. This act declared the SI (International System of Units) as the U.S.’s basic system of measurement and establishes the United States Metric Board, which is responsible for the planning, coordination and implementation of the nation’s voluntary conversion to SI. Congress had authorized the metric system as a legal system of measurement in the U.S. by an act passed in 1866. In 1875 the U.S. became one of the original signers of the Treaty of the Metre, which established an international metric system.

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THE TRANSISTOR WAS UNVEILED ON THIS DAY IN 1947. John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley of Bell Laboratories shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for their invention of the transistor, which led to a revolution in communications and electronics. It was smaller, lighter, more durable and more reliable and generated less heat than the vacuum tube, which had been used up to that time.

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THE FIRST NONSTOP FLIGHT AROUND THE WORLD WITHOUT REFUELING took place on this day in 1987. Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager set a new world record of 216 hours of continuous flight, breaking their own record of 111 hours set in 1986. The aircraft Voyager departed from Edwards Air Force Base in California. The journey covered 24,986 miles at an official speed of 115 miles per hour.

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THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM WAS ESTABLISHED ON THIS DAY IN 1913.The system serves as the nation’s central bank, with the responsibility for execution of monetary policy. It is called on to contribute to the strength and vitality of the U.S. economy, in part by influencing the lending and investing activities of commercial banks and the cost and availability of money and credit.

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HARRIET MONROE WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1860. The American poet and editor founded Poetry magazine. She died in Peru in 1936.

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JOSEPH SMITH JR. WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1805. Known as the founding prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he was assassinated by an armed mob in 1844.

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TOJO HIDEKI WAS EXECUTED ON THIS DAY IN 1948. Tojo served as the prime minister of Japan from 1941 until his resignation in 1944. After Japan’s surrender in August 1945, he was arrested as a war criminal, tried by a military tribunal and sentenced to death in 1948. He was hanged (with six other Japanese wartime military leaders) at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo.

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

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“Be careful how quickly you give away your fire.” — poet and author Robert Bly, who was born on this day in 1926