June 27, birthdays for J.J. Abrams, Tobey Maguire, Ed Westwick

Brooklyn Today

June 27, 2016 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Director J.J. Abrams celebrates his birthday today. Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Share this:

Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 179th day of the year.

ON THIS DAY IN 1901, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Denounced Him in Open Court.”

The article focused on the widow of the man who was allegedly killed by another man taking the stand against the murderer at his trial.

“When Mr. Levy said, ‘No cross-examination,’ Mrs. Price glared fiercely at McDonnell, and, as she left the stand, she shrieked: ‘My God! Murderer! Murderer! My children! Who will avenge the murder of my husband?’” the Eagle reported. “She beat the air wildly with her hands as the court officer led her out of the room, and uttered several inarticulate shrieks.”

****

NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include TV executive and film director J.J. Abrams, who was born in New York City in 1966; actress Isabelle Adjani, who was born in 1955; actress Julia Duffy, who was born in 1951; actress Shirley-Anne Field, who was born in 1938; fashion designer Norma Kamali, who was born in New York City in 1945; tennis player Svetlana Kuznetsova, who was born in 1985; actor Tobey Maguire, who was born in 1975; actor Jason Patric, who was born in Queens in 1966; philanthropist, businessman and former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, who was born in 1930; former basketball player Chuck Connors Person, who was born in 1964; actor Chandler Riggs, who was born in 1999; and actor Ed Westwick, who was born in 1987.

****

HELEN KELLER WAS born on this day in 1880. Keller was left deaf and blind by a disease she contracted when she was 18 months old. With the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Keller graduated from college and had a career as an author and lecturer. She died in 1968.

****

THE MELODY TO “Happy Birthday to You,” possibly the most often sung song in the world, was composed by Mildred J. Hill, a school teacher from Kentucky, on this day in 1859. The song is now sung somewhere in the world every minute of every day. Hill died in 1916 without knowing that her melody would become the world’s most popular song.

****

TODAY IS NATIONAL HIV testing day. The day is a nationwide campaign encouraging education, voluntary HIV testing and counseling to people at risk of HIV. For more information, visit aids.gov or gettested.cdc.gov.

****

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

“Failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial.” — H. Ross Perot