MILESTONES: September 7, birthdays for Leslie Jones, Kevin Love, Gloria Gaynor

Brooklyn Today

September 7, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Comedian Leslie Jones, who was born in 1968. Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

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On this day in 1942, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported the first nocturnal air raid alert in New York City since the U.S.’s entry into World War II nine months earlier. Prompting the 2:31 a.m. air raid was the sighting of what was believed to be an unidentified aircraft off the coast. The all-clear was sounded when the aircraft was determined to be “friendly.” While the alarms awakened most citizens, they also served to break up a mischief spree of young people knocking over ash cans near Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn.

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On this day in 1930, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on the fall of President Hipolito Yrigoyen’s regime in Argentina. Armed citizens joined a military coup, seized Buenos Aires and the government surrendered. Yrigoyen’s foes, who were erstwhile supporters, claimed that he was a despot and was wasting revenue.

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On this day in 1954, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that Sen. Ralph E. Flanders of Vermont charged his Republican colleague, Sen. Joseph McCarthy with illegal use of a confidential FBI document. It was Flanders who had introduced a motion earlier that year in the Senate to censure McCarthy. Ultimately, that happened.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor CORBIN BERNSEN, who was born in 1954; actress SUSAN BLAKELY, who was born in 1950; actor MICHAEL EMERSON, who was born in 1954; singer and pianist MICHAEL FEINSTEIN, who was born in 1956; opera singer ANGELA GHEORGHIU, who was born in 1965; singer and songwriter CHRISSIE HYNDE, who was born in 1951; actress JULIE KAVNER, who was born in 1951; actor DEVON SAWA, who was born in 1978; former soccer player BRIANA SCURRY, who was born in 1971; actress EVAN RACHEL WOOD, who was born in 1987; and tennis player VERA ZVONAREVA, who was born in 1984.

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BUDDY HOLLY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1936. The American music performer, composer and bandleader is considered one of the most innovative and influential musicians of his time and was a pioneer of rock ‘n’ roll. His hits include “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue.” Holly died at age 22 in an airplane crash near Iowa in 1959.

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GOOGLE WAS FOUNDED ON THIS DAY IN 1998. Sergey Brin and Larry Page incorporated the internet search engine company Google in Menlo Park, California. Although still in beta, Google.com was receiving 10,000 queries a day at that time. Within a year, the company was doing three million searches a day. Before long, Google entered the pop culture zeitgeist by becoming a verb meaning “perform an internet search.”

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JACOB LAWRENCE WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1917. The African-American painter was best known for his series of historical paintings on John Brown and on the migration of African Americans out of the South. A recipient of the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal, he won many other awards during his lifetime. Lawrence died in 2000 in Seattle, Washington.

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JAMES VAN ALLEN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1914. The physicist studied Earth’s magnetic field, cosmic rays and Earth’s radiation belts, now named the Van Allen belts. The positions of these belts are now taken into consideration when planning spaceflights in order to plot courses that take spacecrafts through the weakest part of the radiation zones. Awarded the National Medal of Science in 1987, Van Allen died in 2006 in Iowa.

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TUPAC SHAKUR WAS SHOT ON THIS DAY IN 1996. The bestselling rap artist and actor was shot multiple times at a Las Vegas, Nevada intersection while riding in a car driven by Death Row Records founder Suge Knight. Shakur died of his wounds Sept. 13. The murder case has never been closed.

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