History Brooklyn Boro

August 8, birthdays for Roger Federer, Dustin Hoffman, Drew Lachey

Brooklyn Today

August 8, 2016 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Tennis legend Roger Federer celebrates his birthday today. Adam Davy/Pool Photo via AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 221st day of the year.

ON THIS DAY IN 1933, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “15 Reported Drowned at Rockaway.”

The article focused on a heavy wave that swept away bathers on a sandbar at Rockaway Beach.

“By 3 p.m., six bodies had been recovered, according to official reports received at Queens Police Headquarters,” the Eagle reported. “Three emergency police crews, police launches and Coast Guard boats were searching the waters for others. Three ambulances with physicians waited on the beach ready to begin resuscitation if any brought to shore showed signs of life.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor and singer KEITH CARRADINE, who was born in 1950; U2 musician David Evans, aka THE EDGE, who was born in 1961; tennis player ROGER FEDERER, who was born in 1981; Oscar Award-winning actor DUSTIN HOFFMAN, who was born in 1937; singer and TV personality DREW LACHEY, who was born in 1976; TV host DEBORAH NORVILLE, who was born in 1959; first woman president of the American Bar Association ROBERTA COOPER RAMO, who was born in 1942; actress CONNIE STEVENS, who was born in Brooklyn in 1938; singer and songwriter MEL TILLIS, who was born in 1932; and actor MICHAEL URIE, who was born in 1980.

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MATTEW HENSON was born on this day in 1866. The African-American explorer met Robert E. Peary while working in a Washington, D.C. store in 1888 and was hired to be Peary’s valet. He accompanied Peary on his seven subsequent Arctic expeditions. During the successful 1908-1909 expedition to the North Pole, Henson and two of the four Eskimo guiders reached their destination on April 6, 1909. Peary arrived minutes later and verified the location. Henson’s account of the journey, “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole,” was published in 1912. In addition to the Congressional Medal awarded to all members of the expedition, Henson received the Gold Medal of the Geographical Society of Chicago and, at age 81, was made an honorary member of the Explorers Club at New York. He died in 1955 in New York City.

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EMILIANO ZAPATA was born on this day in 1879. The hero of the Mexican Revolution and commander of the Liberation Army of the South advocated agrarian reform and championed the cause of the peasant. Zapata was ambushed and assassinated in 1919.

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BROOKLYN BRIDGE Park will host poets of The Conversation, a multi-media company whose purpose is rooted in carving out space for black Americans to contend with their blackness and its infinite permutations, tonight at 7 p.m. at Granite Prospect as part of its Books Beneath the Bridge series. For more information, visit brooklynbridgepark.org.

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

“Life stinks, but that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy it.” — Dustin Hoffman, who was born on this day in 1937.