Brooklyn Today for March 20
Good morning. Today is the 79th day of the year. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle of March 20, 1902, told how the New York University Glee, Mandolin and Banjo Club, being late to an engagement at Flatbush’s Knickerbocker Field and Tennis Club, changed clothes into their uniforms right on the Flatbush trolley. Some of the female passengers, the Eagle reported, were horrified, but the club members kept riders entertained with vocal and instrumental music while they changed. The club members were from NYU’s Bronx campus, which was sold to Bronx Community College in the 1970s after NYU experienced a financial crisis.
Well-known people who were born today include Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Hall of Fame hockey player Bobby Orr, actor Carl Reiner (“The Dick Van Dyke Show”), Brooklyn’s movie producer and director Spike Lee (“She’s Gotta Have It,” “Malcolm X,” “Do the Right Thing”), jazz pianist Marian McPartland and former Knicks basketball coach Pat RIley.