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February 22, birthdays for Drew Barrymore, James Blunt, Rajon Rondo

Brooklyn Today

February 22, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Actress Drew Barrymore celebrates her birthday today. Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
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Greetings, Brooklyn.  Today is the 52nd day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Drew Barrymore and Julie Walters, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1953, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Fear of Hoodlums Keeps Many Away From Services.”

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The article focused on dwindling late-night church attendance due to high crime rates.

“Dr. Carpenter declared that the crime-induced church boycott, especially among middle-aged and older people, was attributed to ‘darkness on the streets, continued attacks and robberies in the so-called deserted neighborhoods and lack of proper police protection,’” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Hall of Fame golfer AMY STRUM ALCOTT, who was born in 1956; actress DREW BARRYMORE, who was born in 1975; singer JAMES BLUNT, who was born in 1977; Hall of Fame tennis player MICHAEL TE PEI CHANG, who was born in 1972; director JONATHAN DEMME, who was born in 1944; actor PAUL DOOLEY, who was born in 1928; Hall of Fame basketball player JULIUS WINFIELD “DR. J” ERVING, who was born in 1950; actor KYLE MACLACHLAN, who was born in 1959; actress MIOU-MIOU, who was born in 1950; basketball player RAJON RONDO, who was born in 1986; actress JERI RYAN, who was born in 1968; U.S. Sen. BEN SASSE, who was born in 1972; golfer VIJAY SINGH, who was born in 1963; and actress JULIE WALTERS, who was born in 1950.

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GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1732. The first U.S. president was the “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen” in the words of politician and Patriot Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee. Washington died in Virginia in 1799.

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TODAY IS INCONVENIENCE YOURSELF DAY. It is a day to inconvenience yourself in an effort to make a positive impact in the world. People are encouraged to enrich their own lives as they show respect to others, the environment and the world around them.

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FRANCIS PHARCELLUS CHURCH WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1839. The journalist and editor is known for writing the most famous editorial in history. As editor of the New York Sun, Church responded to the summer 1897 letter of 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon who desperately asked whether Santa Claus existed. That September, she saw the unsigned editorial response: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus . . .” Church died in 1906 in New York. After his death, the New York Sun revealed that he had been the author of its most famous opinion piece.

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ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1788. Dubbed “the philosopher of pessimism,” the German poet and philosopher was one of the first in his field to suggest that humankind should suppress their natural desires in order to achieve harmony, both cerebrally and universally, in an irrational world. A contemporary of many German Idealists, Schopenhauer’s philosophical works directly challenged idealism in favor of rationalism and influenced later scholars such as Nietzsche and Freud, as well as artists Dvorak, Brahms, Borges and Tolstoy, among others. Schopenhauer died in 1860 in Germany.

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“IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT” PREMIERED ON THIS DAY IN 1934. Frank Capra’s romantic screwball comedy, starring Claudette Colbert as a spoiled runaway heiress and Clark Gable as a cocky reporter on to a good story, was the first film to sweep all the major Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay.

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

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“If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” — first U.S. President George Washington, who was born on this day in 1732


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