History Brooklyn Boro

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

Brooklyn Today

November 22, 2016 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Actor Mark Ruffalo celebrates his birthday today. Photo by Brad Barket/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 327th day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Guion S. Bluford Jr. and the late Brooklyn native Sid Luckman, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1927, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Robbers in Raid Here Get $7,000; 1 Near Boro Hall.”

The article focused on two looted Brooklyn pharmacies.

“A large number of dressed dolls, said to be worth about $5,000, were stolen by five armed men who bound and gagged a watchman and a porter at 403 Snediker Ave. The dolls were in cases, packed on a truck in a garage at that point and the robbers merely drove the truck and their loot away,” the Eagle reported.

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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 1957; Hall of Fame tennis player BILLIE JEAN KING, who was born in 1943; actor MADS MIKKELSEN, who was born in 1965; actor MARK RUFFALO, who was born in 1967; and actor ROBERT VAUGHN, who was born in 1932.

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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 immediately 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 1818