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MILESTONES: June 24, birthdays for Lionel Messi, Mick Fleetwood, Jack Dempsey

Brooklyn Today

June 24, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Soccer player Lionel Messi celebrates his birthday today. AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza
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Greetings, Brooklyn.  Today is the 174th day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Solange Knowles and Mick Fleetwood, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published a front-page article titled “U.S. Eases Ban on Color TV Sets.”

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The article focused on a government ban on the manufacturing of color TVs.

“Effective immediately, manufacturers may apply for NPA authority to use portions of their material allotments for color sets. By NPA order, a flat ban on any color set manufacture has been in effect,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actress NANCY ALLEN, who was born in 1950; musician MICK FLEETWOOD, who was born in 1942; former sportscaster and former Miss America PHYLLIS GEORGE, who was born in 1949; golfer JULI INKSTER, who was born in 1960; actress and author MINDY KALING, who was born in 1979; singer, model and dancer SOLANGE KNOWLES, who was born in 1986; actress MICHELE LEE, who was born in 1942; soccer player LIONEL MESSI, who was born in 1987; soccer coach and former player PREKI RADOSAVLJEVI, who was born in 1963; actress SHERRY STRINGFIELD, who was born in 1967; actress LOTTE VERBEEK, who was born in 1982; and actor Peter Weller, who was born in 1947.

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JACK DEMPSEY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1895. The world heavyweight boxing champion from 1919 to 1926 became a successful New York restaurant operator following his boxing career. Dempsey died in New York in 1983.

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TODAY IS FLYING SAUCER DAY. Seventy years ago today, Pilot Kenneth Arnold of Idaho reported seeing pie-plate-shaped unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over Mount Rainier, Washington. Flying at more than 9,000 feet, Arnold saw flashes of light and then nine “saucer-like” objects flying at incredible speeds. The term “flying saucer” came into currency soon after to describe a UFO.

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HENRY WARD BEECHER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1813. The famous clergyman, orator and brother of Harriet Beecher advocated for many controversial issues of his era, including temperance, women’s suffrage, Darwinian evolution and abolition. Beecher’s tactics in support of abolition were often sensational and contentious, as was the case when he raised money to provide rifles (widely dubbed “Beecher’s Bibles”) to antislavery settlers in Kansas in 1856. In the 1870s Beecher was the subject of one of the biggest scandals of the century — the Beecher-Tilton Affair — when he was accused of adultery by a parishioner and sued in civil court. The trial resulted in a hung jury, and although Beecher was exonerated by two ecclesiastical courts, public opinion about his innocence was divided. Beecher died in Brooklyn in 1887.

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

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“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.” — Henry Ward Beecher, who was born on this day in 1813


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