History Brooklyn Boro

April 25, birthdays for Hank Azaria, Al Pacino, Tim Duncan

Brooklyn Today

April 25, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Actor Hank Azaria celebrates his birthday today. Photo by Stuart Ramson/Invision for IFC/AP Images

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 115th day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Al Pacino and Tim Duncan, among others.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1937, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an article titled “Mayor Lauds Queens in Opening Subway.”

The article focused on the opening of the Queens subway line.

“Sharing [Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s] enthusiasm for progress in the borough and typifying it, more than 20,000 Queens ‘boosters’ paraded through the territory covered by the subway service. Through streets hung with banners and past business houses gay with flags and bunting, the procession marched from 139th Street and Hillside Avenue, Jamaica, to 170th Street,” the Eagle reported.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor HANK AZARIA, who was born in 1964; actress EMILY BERGL, who was born in 1975; actor JEFFREY DeMUNN, who was born in 1947; former basketball player TIM DUNCAN, who was born in 1976; Olympic triathlete GWEN JORGENSEN, who was born in 1986; actor JASON LEE, who was born in 1970; Oscar Award-winning actor AL PACINO, who was born in 1940; actress TALIA SHIRE, who was born in 1946; actress GINA TORRES, who was born in 1969; and Oscar Award-winning actress RENEE ZELLWEGER, who was born on this day in 1969.

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TODAY IS WORLD PENGUIN DAY. Conservation groups celebrate the flightless birds on the date that Adélie penguins begin their northward migration in Antarctica.

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EDWARD R. MURROW WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1908. Considered among the greatest journalists in American history, he was a European war correspondent for CBS during WWII and rose to prominence with his dramatic and vivid radio broadcasts. After the war, CBS moved him to TV, where he was the trusted host of “See It Now,” a newsmagazine show spotlighting hot-button issues of the day. He died in New York in 1965.

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ABORTION WAS FIRST LEGALIZEDIN THE U.S. ON THIS DAY IN 1967. The first law legalizing abortion was signed by Colorado governor John Arthur Love. The law allowed therapeutic abortions in cases in which a three-doctor panel unanimously agreed.

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ELLA FITZGERALD WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1917. The jazz singer was a regular at Harlem’s Apollo Theater by the time she was 15. After getting her start as a singer on the big band circuit, Fitzgerald transitioned to bebop and developed her famous “scat” singing style. She worked with all the greats, including Duke Ellington, Louie Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman, recorded over 200 albums, won 13 Grammy Awards and continued to perform into the 1980s. She died in California in 1996.

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JERRY LEIBER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1933. An influential lyricist, songwriter and record producer, Leiber and his longtime composing partner Mike Stoller wrote such iconic songs of the early rock ‘n’ roll era as “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock,” “Yakety Yak” and “Stand by Me.” Leiber died in 2011 in California.

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

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“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.” — journalist Edward R. Murrow, who was born on this day in 1908