History Brooklyn Boro

May 17, birthdays for Tony Parker, Bob Saget, Craig Ferguson

Brooklyn Today

May 17, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

San Antonio Spurs basketball star Tony Parker celebrates his birthday today. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 136th day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Mia Hamm and Bob Saget, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1920, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Drunks are Fined.”

The article focused on an increase in the number of intoxicated people fined since the start of Prohibition.

“Assistant District Attorney Peters said that before the ‘dry’ days many crimes were charged to John Barleycorn, but since then ‘we have learned that many of them were not due to him,’” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include comedian, actor and talk show host CRAIG FERGUSON, who was born in 1962; Hall of Fame soccer player MIA HAMM, who was born in 1972; fashion designer CHRISTIAN LACROIX, who was born in 1950; former boxer RAY CHARLES “SUGAR RAY” LEONARD, who was born in 1956; basketball player TONY PARKER, who was born in 1982; actor BILL PAXTON, who was born in 1955; actor Sendhil Ramamurthy, who was born in 1974; actress NIKKI REED, who was born in 1988; singer TRENT REZNOR, who was born in 1965; actor and TV host BOB SAGET, who was born in 1956; and actress DEBRA WINGER, who was born in 1955.

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THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE ESTABLISHED ON THIS DAY IN 1792. Some two dozen merchants and brokers agreed to establish what is now known as the New York Stock Exchange. In fair weather they operated under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street in Manhattan. In bad weather they moved to the shelter of a coffeehouse to conduct their business.

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JAMES “COOL PAPA” BELL WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1903. The African-American baseball player played 25 seasons from 1922 to 1946 (one year before Jackie Robinson broke the “color barrier” in major league baseball) with a career average of .338. Regarded as the fastest man ever to play the game — he could round the bases in 13 seconds — he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Bell died in 1991 in Missouri.

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MAUREEN O’SULLIVAN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1911. The MGM star was discovered in Dublin in 1930 when a visiting Hollywood film director spotted her. Although she had a long and varied film career, O’Sullivan’s lasting fame comes from the many Tarzan films she made as Jane Parker opposite Johnny Weissmuller and Cheetah. Her first film in the Tarzan series was “Tarzan the Ape Man” (1932) and her last was “Tarzan’s New York Adventure” (1942). O’Sullivan died in 1998 in Arizona.

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THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (BHS) WILL HOST “GOWANUS’ Triple Bypass: Change Through Art, Design and the Environment” tonight at 7 p.m. Once an artery of commerce and industry, Gowanus has become emblematic of change and the forces impacting the Brooklyn experience: grass-roots arts, environmental remediation and real estate speculation. BHS will host a fast-paced discussion with an all-star roster of experts playing pivotal roles in these arenas, including Director of Arts Gowanus Abby Subak, Jared della Valle of architecture firm Alloy Development, David Briggs of Gowanus By Design and environmental researcher Philip Silva. The panelists will explore how shifting flows of creativity and capital are redefining the historic artery. It will be moderated by Joseph Alexiou, author of “Gowanus: Brooklyn’s Curious Canal.” For more information, visit brooklynhistory.org.

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

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“Other than the laws of physics, rules have never really worked out for me.” — Craig Ferguson, who was born on this day in 1962