MILESTONES: November 22, birthdays for Billie Jean King, Mark Ruffalo, Jamie Lee Curtis

Brooklyn Today

November 22, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Billie Jean King. Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 328th day of the year.

On this day in 1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that a posse of 12 detectives was keeping 10-year-old heiress Gloria Vanderbilt under guard at her aunt’s home in a complicated and mean custody case involving her mother after the death of her father. The child had been threatened with bodily harm if she was not returned to her mother, also named Gloria (Morgan Vanderbilt), who was deemed unfit to have custody because of her partying. Young Gloria’s aunt, the wealthy philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, was also fighting for the child’s custody. Whitney was the founder of the Whitney Museum.

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On this day in 1916, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that a federal judge in Kansas City, William C. Hook, declared the Adamson Eight-Hour Law to be unconstitutional because it was alleged to have the U.S. government set wages. In reality, the emergency law was enacted to prevent a rail workers’ strike. The Adamson Law provided for a limit in the number of hours each day that the interstate railway companies could require labor and provided for overtime pay. The International Brotherhood of Railway Workers, angry at the lower courts’ inaction, took their grievance to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the Adamson Law in the landmark case Wilson v. New, 243 U.S. 332, deciding that the statute is clearly within the power of Congress under the commerce clause.

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On Nov. 23, 1909, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that members of the bar, business leaders and other community members were against the site of a new courthouse being built on Eastern Parkway. They gave a variety of reasons, including the need for proximity to their Downtown offices. Another proposed location was a block with the borders of Livingston Street, Aitken Place (an extension of Livingston), Sidney Place and State Street. Locals opposed that spot because they feared the courthouse would destroy the character of the neighborhood. However, the article did not mention that St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church, founded in 1849, was already on that block and would be in danger of being demolished through eminent domain. The parish and its affiliated school provided a major center for the growing Roman Catholic immigrant population.

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On Nov. 24, 1954, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that Communist China had captured 124 air-dropped CIA and other U.S. and Chinese agents and killed more than 100 more. The United States delivered a “blistering protest” to Red China that the charges against the agents were “trumped up.” …And racial integration of the Brooklyn-Queens Young Men’s Christian Association was deemed complete by the closing of the Carlton Avenue “Negroes only” branch. All Brooklyn-Queens Y branches welcomed men regardless of race.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include Hall of Fame tennis player Boris Becker, who was born in 1967; first black astronaut in space Guion S. Bluford Jr., who was born in 1942; actor Tom Conti, who was born in 1941; actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who was born in 1958; sports sociologist Harry Edwards, who was born in 1942; actor and writer Terry Gilliam, who was born in 1940; actress Mariel Hemingway, who was born in 1961; actress Scarlett Johansson, who was born in 1984; actor Richard Kind, who was born in 1956; Hall of Fame tennis player Billie Jean King, who was born in 1943; actor Mads Mikkelsen, who was born in 1965; and actor Mark Ruffalo, who was born in 1967.

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PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY WAS ASSASSINATED ON THIS DAY IN 1963. He was slain by a sniper while riding in an open automobile in Dallas, Texas. Accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby while in police custody awaiting trial.

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SID LUCKMAN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1916. The Brooklyn-born Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback played at Columbia and then starred as quarterback for the Chicago Bears in the 1940s. His talents enabled coach George Halas to install a modern version of the T-formation, emphasizing speed and formation instead of brute strength. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1965. He died in Florida in 1998.

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“ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES” WAS PUBLISHED ON THIS DAY IN 1859. The first print run of 1,250 copies of Charles Darwin’s monumental work sold out the same day. The book immediatdely generated a firestorm of public and private discussion. The word “evolution” did not appear until the 1872 (last) edition of “Origin.”

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EDWARD BENJAMIN BRITTEN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1913. One of the most important composers of the 20th century, he composed chamber and orchestral works, as well as film scores, song cycles and experimental pieces in collaboration with poets such as W.H. Auden. He died in England in 1976.

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ABIGAIL ADAMS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1744. Wife of John Adams, second president of the U.S. and mother of John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the U.S., she was an intelligent woman interested in politics and current affairs and was a prodigious letter-writer and influence on her husband. She argued to her husband that Congress “should remember the ladies” as the new American government took form. She died in 1818 in Massachusetts.

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

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“Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” — Abigail Adams, who was born on this day in 1744