History Brooklyn Boro

MILESTONES: July 22, birthdays for Selena Gomez, Danny Glover, Bob Dole

Brooklyn Today

July 22, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Artist Selena Gomez celebrates her birthday today. Photo by John Salangsang/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 203rd day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Selena Gomez, Don Henley, and Alex Trebek, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1929, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published a front-page article titled “BOA Constrictor Swallows Blanket and Writhes in Pain”

The article focused on a snake at the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens that swallowed a blanket while lunging for a pigeon.

“S.A. Stephan, general manager of the Zoo, immersed the 24-foot reptile in a tank, placed a hood over its head and attempted with the aid of 10 other men to work the blanket out. That failing, Stephan inserted into the snake a tube with a metal hook, but was unable to catch the blanket. A half-gallon of oil then was poured into the snake to relieve it,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor ORSON BEAN, who was born in 1928; actress IRENE BEDARD, who was born in 1967; actor ALBERT BROOKS, who was born in 1947; Hall of Fame footballer TIM BROWN, who was born in 1966; actor WILLEM DAFOE, who was born in 1955; racecar driver SCOTT DIXON, who was born in 1980; former U.S. Sen. ROBERT J. DOLE, who was born in 1923; actor ROB ESTES, who was born in 1963; actor DANNY GLOVER, who was born in 1947; singer and actress SELENA GOMEZ, who was born in 1992; musician and songwriter DON HENLEY, who was born in 1947; actor RHYS LFANS, who was born in 1967; sportscaster and former football player KEYSHAWN JOHNSON, who was born in1972; actor JOSH LAWSON, who was born in 1981; actor JOHN LEGUIZAMO, who was born in 1964; Hall of Fame soccer player KRISTINE LILLY, who was born in 1971; film score composer ALAN MENKEN, who was born in 1949; singer and actor BOBBY SHERMAN, who was born in 1945; actor DAVID SPADE, who was born in 1965; actor TERENCE STAMP, who was born in 1939; R&B singer KEITH SWEAT, who was born in 1961; and gameshow host ALEX TREBEK, who was born in 1940.

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GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1822. The botanist’s pioneering work in genetics became the basis for the modern science of genetics and heredity. Around 1856, Mendel began experiments in his small monastery garden, crossing different varieties of the garden pea. The import of Mendel’s work was not seen until many years after his death in 1884 in Austria. In 1900, other European botanists discovered his papers and confirmed and extended his theories.

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TODAY IS NATIONAL DAY OF THE COWBOY. It is a day set aside to pay homage to Americans’ cowboy and pioneer heritage, as well as to honor working cowboys and cowgirls, rodeo athletes, Western musicians, cowboy poets, Western artists, ranchers and all others who continue to contribute to the cowboy and pioneer culture. It was proclaimed by the U.S. Senate in Resolution 138 for the first time in 2005.

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ALEXANDER CALDER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1898. The internationally acclaimed American abstract artist is known for inventing the mobile. Calder earned a degree in mechanical engineering but turned to art in the 1920s. By the 1930s, he was the most famous American artist in the world. Calder created the mobile, a delicate hanging kinetic sculpture whose form changed continuously due to air currents or motors. His stationary abstract sculptures were termed “stabiles,” and they influenced many generations of artists to turn to industrial materials and monumental scope for expression as he had with works like “Flamingo (1974).” Calder died in 1976 in New York.

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“The modern rule is that every woman should be her own chaperone.” — journalist and etiquette expert Amy Vanderbilt, who was born on this day in 1908