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MILESTONES: June 21, birthdays for Chris Pratt, Edward Snowden, Jussie Smollett

Brooklyn Today

June 21, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Actor Chris Pratt celebrates his birthday today. AP photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 171st day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Chris Pratt and Edward Snowden, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published a front-page article titled “‘Witch’ Bride Awarded Separation as Court Hears Tales of ‘Evil Eye.’”

The article focused on a Manhattan woman whose new husband accused her of being a witch.

“In her petition for the separation, Mrs. Parcello said: ‘My husband accused me of having cast a spell upon him. My evil eye, he said, penetrated to his very bones. He declared I bewitched him into marrying me and that I was making life unwholesome by my magic,’” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include singer and TV personality KRIS ALLEN, who was born in 1985; actress MEREDITH BAXTER, who was born in 1947; author and cartoonist BERKELEY BREATHED, who was born in 1957; former basketball player TOM CHAMBER, who was born in 1959; singer and musician RAY DAVIES, who was born in 1944; actress SAMMI DAVIS-VOSS, who was born in 1964; comedian and actor JOE FLAHERTY, who was born in 1940; actor MICHAEL GROSS, who was born in 1947; actress MARIETTE HARTLEY, who was born in 1941; basketball player RICHARD JEFFERSON, who was born in 1980; actor BERNIE KOPELL, who was born in 1933; singer and actress JULIETTE LEWIS, who was born in 1973; musician, singer and songwriter NILS LOFGREN, who was born in 1951; actor CHRIS PRATT, who was born in 1979; actor DOUG SAVANT, who was born in 1964; actor JUSSIE SMOLLETT, who was born in 1983; former CIA employee EDWARD SNOWDEN, who was born in 1983; sportscaster and former baseball player RICK SUTCLIFFE, who was born in 1956; filmmaker LANA WACHOWSKI, who was born in 1965; actor BENJAMIN WALKER, who was born in 1982; and PRINCE WILLIAM, who was born in 1982.

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JEAN-PAUL SARTRE WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1905. The French philosopher is considered by many to be the father of existentialism. In 1964, Sartre rejected the Nobel Prize for Literature when it was awarded to him. He died in Paris in 1980.

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BENAZIR BHUTTO WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1953. The first woman democratically elected to lead a Muslim nation, she served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 1988-90 and 1993-96. As prime minister, she accomplished much national reform, especially on women’s issues. However, during both of her terms, she was ejected from office under charges of corruption in Pakistan’s turbulent and often violent political climate. She was assassinated by a suicide bomber as she tried to mount her third campaign for prime minister in 2007 in Pakistan.

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HENRY OSSAWA TANNER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1859. Tanner was one of the first black artists to have works exhibited in galleries in the U.S. He died in 1937 in France.

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THE BROOKLYN HISTORICAL SOCIETY (BHS) WILL HOST “Inspired by the Water’s Edge” tonight at 6:30 p.m. Author Jennifer Egan, whose forthcoming novel “Manhattan Beach” led her to years of research about communities on the water’s edge, will lead the panel in a conversation about Brooklyn’s waterfronts, industrial and liminal, as an inspiration to artists. Panelists include Nicki Pombier Berger, co-founder of the digital journal Underwater New York; Elizabeth Albert, author of “Silent Beaches, Untold Stories: NYC’s Forgotten Waterfront”; and Marilyn Symmes, curator of the new BHS DUMBO exhibition “Shifting Perspectives: Photographs of Brooklyn’s Waterfront.” 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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“If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.” — philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who was born on this day in 1905.