MILESTONES: August 25, birthdays for Blake Lively, Rachael Ray, Gene Simmons

Brooklyn Today

August 25, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Blake Lively. AP Photo.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include author MARTIN AMIS, who was born in 1949; actress ANNE ARCHER, who was born in 1947; former baseball player ALBERT BELLE, who was born in 1966; actress RACHEL BILSON, who was born in 1981; director TIM BURTON, who was born in 1958; actor SEAN CONNERY, who was born in 1930; singer and songwriter ELVIS COSTELLO, who was born in 1954; country singer and actor BILLY RAY CYRUS, who was born in 1961; Georgia Gov. NATHAN DEAL, who was born in 1942; actor FREDERICK FORSYTH, who was born in 1938; former game show host MONTY HALL, who was born in 1923; actor ANTHONY HEALD, who was born in 1944; Nets guard CARIS LEVERT, who was born in 1994; actress BLAKE LIVELY, who was born in 1987; TV personality REGIS PHILBIN, who was born in 1933; chef and TV personality RACHAEL RAY, who was born in 1968; actor JOHN SAVAGE, who was born in 1949; model CLAUDIA SCHIFFER, who was born in 1970; jazz musician WAYNE SHORTER, who was born in 1933; musician GENE SIMMONS, who was born in 1949; actor ALEXANDER SKARSGARD, who was born in 1976; actor TOM SKERRITT, who was born in 1933; actor BLAIR UNDERWOOD, who was born in 1964; actress ALLY WALKER, who was born in 1961; actress JOANNE WHALLEY, who was born in 1964; and former U.S. Poet Laureate CHARLES WRIGHT, who was born in 1935.

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“THE WIZARD OF OZ” WAS RELEASED ON THIS DAY IN 1939. The motion-picture classic, directed by Victor Fleming, was a musical adaptation of the L. Frank Baum children’s book with both black-and-white and color sequences. It starred Judy Garland as Dorothy and Frank Morgan as the Wizard (and four other characters), Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, Bert Lahr as the Lion, Jack Haley as the Tin Man and Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West. Nominated for six Academy Awards, it won two for Best Original Music Score and Best Song for “Over the Rainbow.”

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ALLAN PINKERTON WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1819. The Scottish-born American detective founded a detective agency in Chicago in 1850 and was the first chief of the U.S. Army’s secret service. Pinkerton is now remembered because of his strikebreaking and his lack of sympathy for working people. He died in Chicago in 1884.

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LEONARD BERNSTEIN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1918. Considered by many to be one of the greatest conductors in American music history, he first conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at age 25 and was its director from 1959 to 1969. His musicals include “West Side Story” and “On the Town,” and his operas and operettas include “Candide.” Bernstein died five days after his retirement in 1990 in New York. He is buried in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery.

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PARIS WAS LIBERATED ON THIS DAY IN 1944. As dawn broke, the men of the Second French Armored Division entered Paris, ending the long German occupation of the City of Light. That afternoon, Gen. Charles de Gaulle led a parade down the Champs Elysées. Though Hitler had ordered the destruction of Paris, Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz, the German occupying officer, refused that order and instead surrendered to French Major Gen. Jacques Le Clerc.

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THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WAS FOUNDED ON THIS DAY IN 1916. The Organic Act of 1916 established the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior. The act stated: “The service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations . . . [as well as] to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

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

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“No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helps you.” — Althea Gibson