History Brooklyn Boro

April 19, birthdays for Maria Sharapova, Ashley Judd, Troy Polamalu

Brooklyn Today

April 19, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Tennis star Maria Sharapova celebrates her birthday today. Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 109th day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Tim Curry and James Franco, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1951, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Aged Woman Brutally Beaten in $1 Robbery.”

The article focused on a Bath Beach woman who was attacked and robbed of $1 and her eyeglasses on her way home from church.

“Mrs. Agatina LaPlaca, 75, was in critical condition in Coney Island Hospital with a compound skull fracture and other injuries,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN, who was born in 1981; actor TIM CURRY, who was born in 1946; actress ELINOR DONAHUE, who was born in 1937; actor JAMES FRANCO, who was born in 1978; TV personality JOANNA GAINES, who was born in 1978; actress KATE HUDSON, who was born in 1979; actress ASHLEY JUDD, who was born in 1968; actor HUGH O’BRIAN, who was born in 1930; actor TONY PLANA, who was born in 1954; former NFL star TROY POLAMALU, who was born in 1981; singer and songwriter ALAN PRICE, who was born in 1942; tennis player MARIA SHARAPOVA, who was born in 1987; and race car driver AL UNSER JR., who was born in 1962.

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ELIOT NESS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1903. The Prohibition-era lawman gained lasting fame as the leader of the “Untouchables”: young, dedicated federal agents handpicked by Ness who could not be bribed by the mobsters they were targeting. Ness especially went after Chicago gangster Al Capone’s bootlegging business, which was finally brought down in 1931. After stints in other federal and municipal agencies, Ness died in 1957 in Pennsylvania just before the publication of his memoirs “The Untouchables,” which went on to inspire a TV series and later a film.

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TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE WARSAW GHETTO REVOLT. When German troops tried to resume deportation of Jewish residents of the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp in 1943, a revolt erupted. With only 17 rifles and handmade grenades, 1,200 Jewish fighters resisted 2,100 German troops who were armed with machine guns for almost a month. When the uprising ended, 300 Germans and 7,000 Jews had died and the Warsaw Ghetto lay in ruins.

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DAVID RICARDO WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1772. He is recognized as the man who first systematized economics and whose writings greatly influenced the field. In his best-known work, “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation” (1817), he discussed wages and rent and the economic relationships among landlords, workers and owners of capital. In 1819, Ricardo purchased his own seat in the House of Commons and became a member of Parliament. He died in 1823 in England.

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THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (BHS) WILL HOST A SCREENING OF “Jackie Robinson, Part Two” tonight at 6:30 p.m. BHS will conclude its screening of the Ken Burns production “Jackie Robinson” with Part Two, which takes us through Robinson’s career with the Brooklyn Dodgers and into his life beyond baseball when he found new ways to fight discrimination. Wall Street Journal sports columnist Jason Gay will introduce the film. The screening is offered in connection with BHS’s exhibition on Jackie Robinson and his historic breaking of major league baseball’s color barrier.

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

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“Keep seeing the glass half full and it will dawn upon you that it’s probably your turn to buy.” — Bill Murray