Brooklyn Today for Jan. 21

January 18, 2013 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Good morning. Today is the 21st day of the year. Most of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s front page for Jan. 21, 1901, was taken up by Queen Victoria’s fatal illness. But also covered was the news that Benjamin Silliman, described as “a distinguished lawyer and one of Brooklyn’s most prominent citizens,” was suffering from an attack of bronchial pneumonia. Silliman, 95, lived at Pierrepont and Clinton streets and was then the oldest living graduate of Yale University. He lived in the Heights only part of the year, spending his summers at his “country estate” in the Hamptons. While there, he took “long drives” in the country in a carriage pulled by two “high-stepping cobs.”

Well-known people who were born today include singer-songwriter Mac Davis (“Don’t Get Hooked on Me’), U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, singer Billy Ocean (“Carribean Queen”), actress Jill Eikenberry (“L.A. Law”), golfer Jack Nicklaus and Hall of Fame basketball player Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwaon.