MILESTONES: February 6, birthdays for Axl Rose, Tinashe, Tom Brokaw

Brooklyn Today

February 6, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Axl Rose. Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP

Share this:

Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 37th day of the year.

On this day in 1933, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on the Coney Island amusement park fire, whose flames in 57-mph gale destroyed a large swatch of the park. According to the article, a pre-dawn burst of flames from the concession stand, which was made from wood and papier-mache. Icy temperatures and high winds fanned the flames so that they stretched from West 12th Street to the Coney Island Bowery and Jones Park, about 2/10 of a mile away. Damage and loss from the five-alarm fire were estimated at $150,000.

****

On this day in 1947, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that the Jewish underground, in what was then called Palestine, defied the threat of martial law by the British and asked for world support. At that time, the Holy Land was under the British Mandate, a legal apparatus established in the League of Nations that placed areas formerly under the Ottoman Empire into British administrative control. The Jewish underground was trying to free itself of British rule. Helping the underground’s cause was the Jewish National Council, which unanimously rejected a government demand to turn over terrorists. Irgun Zvai Leumi warned in a broadcast that if Great Britain declared martial law, the underground’s policy would “be like that of Dov Gruner,” an Irgunist movement member awaiting execution.

****

On this day in 1950, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page main story that President Harry S. Truman invoked the emergency provisions of the Taft-Hartley Labor Act to end a major coal miners’ strike. More than 400,000 miners had gone on strike, following a contract dispute, closing the coal fields. While the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 gave workers the right to call a strike, it limited the conditions under which this could happen, and defined lawful strikes. Truman stated that continuing the strike “will imperil the national health and safety.”

****

On this day in 1951, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported on another strike, this one which was set to end as railroaders in the East returned to work. Members of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen were returning to their jobs at the urging of Defense Mobilizer Charles E. Wilson. The U.S. government had warned that the strike was only serving to help Russia. Also on the front page, a brief article noted that hundreds had viewed an atomic blast test in Nevada on their video sets. This was the fifth nuclear test in 10 days, sending earthquake-like jolts as far as Las Vegas. Said one commentator, this was “bigger than Bikini,” referring to the nuclear tests conducted in the Bikini Islands. Those blasts, in 1946, caused much destruction, sending the indigenous people of that Pacific Island group into exile.

****

On this day in 1952, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that King George VI had died in his sleep. His daughter, 25-year-old Elizabeth, thus became sovereign, but she was touring Nairobi, Kenya, with a delegation, one that proved monumental in her coming of age as a monarch. It is said that the royal travel delegation did not have any mourning clothes with them. A policy was later enacted that required any member of the royal family to pack a black suit in the event of such future emergency.

****

NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include journalist and author Tom Brokaw, who was born in 1940; singer and actor Fabian, who was born in 1943; actor Mike Farrell, who was born in 1939; actress Gayle Hunnicutt, who was born in 1943; Tony Award-winning stage and screen actor Barry Miller, who was born in 1958; actress Kathy Najimy, who was born in 1957; actress Gigi Perreau, who was born in 1941; singer Axl Rose, who was born in 1962; actor Rip Torn, who was born in 1931; actor and director Robert Townsend, who was born in 1957; actor Michael Tucker, who was born in 1944; and actress Mamie Van Doren, who was born in 1933.

****

BABE RUTH WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1895. One of baseball’s greatest heroes, he was dubbed the “Sultan of Swat.” Ruth hit 714 home runs in 22 major league seasons of play and played in 10 World Series. He died in New York in 1948.

****

MARY LEAKEY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1913. The English archaeologist and paleoanthropologist is known for her discoveries that were instrumental in the scientific understanding of the pattern of human evolution. For 50 years, she worked at various excavation sites in eastern Africa, with the majority of her research taking place in Tanzania. She discovered the skull of Proconsul africanus — a 25-million-year-old common ancestor of both early humans and apes — and a 3.5-million-year-old preserved trail of hominid footprints that conclusively proved human bipedalism at that date. Leakey died in Kenya in 1996.

****

RONALD REAGAN WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1911. The former U.S. president was the oldest and first divorced person to become president. Before he assumed office, he worked as a sportscaster, motion picture actor and served as the governor of California. The “Great Communicator” ushered in a decade of conservative policies upon his election in 1980 and was a strong critic of Communist states: he famously challenged Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!” at the Berlin Wall in 1987. Reagan died in California in 2004.

****

AARON BURR WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1756. The third U.S. president is remembered for his and Alexander Hamilton’s deadly duel. While vice president, he challenged political enemy Hamilton to a duel and mortally wounded him in 1804. In 1807 Burr was arrested, tried for treason (in an alleged scheme to invade Mexico and set up a new nation in the West) and acquitted. He died in Staten Island in 1836.

****

BOB MARLEY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1945. With his group the Wailers, Marley became one of the most popular and influential performers of reggae music. He died of cancer in Florida in 1981.

****

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

****

“Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you. You just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.” — musician Bob Marley, who was born on this day in 1945