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March 31, birthdays for Al Gore, Ewan McGregor, Steve Smith

Brooklyn Today

March 31, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Former vice president Al Gore celebrates his birthday today. Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
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ON THIS DAY IN 1938, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Woman Arraigned as Fortune Teller.”

The article focused on a Brooklyn woman who was arrested for disorderly conduct.

“Policewoman Emma Gross accused Mrs. Bartlett of telling fortunes. Mrs. Bartlett was held in $300 personal bail for further hearing April 6,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include musician HERB ALPERT, who was born in 1935; former hockey player PAVEL BURE, who was born in 1971; actor RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN, who was born in 1935; Emmy Award-winning actor WILLIAM DANIELS, who was born in Brooklyn in 1927; former Vice President AL GORE, who was born in 1948; actor JOHN JAKES, who was born in 1932; Hall of Fame football player JIMMY JOHNSON, who was born in 1938; Oscar Award-winning actor SHIRLEY JONES, who was born in 1934; actor GABE KAPLAN, who was born in Brooklyn in 1946; U.S. Sen. ANGUS KING JR., who was born in 1944; U.S. Sen. PATRICK J. LEAHY, who was born in 1940; actor and former football player ED MARINARO, who was born in 1950; actor MARC McCLURE, who was born in 1957; actor EWAN McGREGOR, who was born in 1971; actress RHEA PERLMAN, who was born in Brooklyn in 1948; former basketball player STEVE SMITH, who was born in 1969; and actor CHRISTOPHER WALKEN, who was born in 1943.

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JACK JOHNSON WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1878. In 1908, he became the first black person to win the heavyweight boxing championship when he defeated Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia. Unable to accept a black man’s triumph, the boxing world tried to find a white challenger. Jim Jeffries, former heavyweight title holder, was badgered out of retirement. In 1910 in Reno, Nevada, the “battle of the century” proved to be a farce when Johnson handily defeated Jeffries. Race riots swept the U.S., and plans to exhibit the film of the fight were canceled. Johnson died in a car accident in 1946 in North Carolina. He was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

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RENE DESCARTES WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1596. The French philosopher and mathematician is known as the “father of modern philosophy.” Cartesian philosophical precepts are often remembered because of his famous proposition “I think, therefore I am” (Cogito ergo sum). He died of pneumonia in 1650 in Sweden.

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FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1732. The father of the symphony, Haydn composed about 120 symphonies, more than a hundred works for chamber groups, a dozen operas and hundreds of other musical works. He died in Austria in 1809.

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THE DALAI LAMA FLED TIBET ON THIS DAY IN 1959. The Tibetan spiritual leader fled Chinese suppression and was granted political asylum in India. In 1950, Tibet had been invaded by China, and in 1951 an agreement was signed under which Tibet became a “national autonomous region” of China. Tibetans suffered under China’s persecution of Buddhism, and after years of scattered protest, a full-scale revolt broke out in 1959. The Dalai Lama fled and with the beginning of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Chinese took brutal repressive measures against the Tibetans, with the practice of religion banned and thousands of monasteries destroyed. The ban was lifted in 1976 with the end of the Cultural Revolution. The Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his commitment to the nonviolent liberation of his country.

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CESAR ESTRADA CHAVEZ WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1927. The labor leader who organized migrant farm workers in support of better working conditions initiated the National Farm Workers Association in 1962, attracting attention to the migrant farm workers’ plight by organizing boycotts of products including grapes and lettuce. He was died in 1993 in Arizona.

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

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“It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.” — philosopher Rene Descartes, who was born on this day in 1596

 

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