History Brooklyn Boro

MILESTONES: June 19, birthdays for Dirk Nowitzki, Paula Abdul, Zoe Saldana

Brooklyn Today

June 19, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Basketball legend Dirk Nowitzki celebrates his birthday today. AP Photo/Brandon Wade

Share this:

Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 169th day of the year.

Notable people born on this day include Paula Abdul and Zoe Saldana, among others.

****

ON THIS DAY IN 1954, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle published a front-page article titled “5% Amusement Tax Signed, Starts July 1.”

The article focused on bill that would tax movies, plays and ball games.

“The tax, according to city officials, will produce $175,500,000 a year. The mayor said he had ‘no choice’ but had to sign the bill or ‘emasculate’ the budget,” the Eagle reported.

****

NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include singer, dancer, choreographer and TV personality PAULA ABDUL, who was born in 1962; Nobel Prize Recipient AUNG SAN SUU KYI, who was born in 1945; actor HUGH DANCY, who was born in 1975; Oscar Award-winning actor JEAN DUJARDIN, who was born in 1972; actor ANDY LAUER, who was born in 1965; rapper MACKLEMORE, who was born in 1983; Hall of Fame soccer player BRIAN McBRIDE, who was born in 1972; actress POPPY MONTGOMERY, who was born in 1972; basketball player DIRK NOWITZKI, who was born in 1978; actress PHYLICIA RASHAD, who was born in 1948; actress GENA ROWLANDS, who was born in 1930; author SALMAN RUSHDIE, who was born in 1947; actress ZOE SALDANA, who was born in 1978; actor AIDEN TURNER, who was born in 1983; actress KATHLEEN TURNER, who was born in 1954; and musician ANN WILSON, who was born in 1951.

****

BLAISE PASCAL WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1623. The French philosopher, physicist and mathematician is best known for his pioneering work on early calculating machines. Pascal died in Paris in 1662.

****

LOU GEHRIG WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1903. The Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman played baseball at Columbia and then signed with the New York Yankees, making his major-league debut in 1923. Together with Babe Ruth, he personified the powerful Yankees lineup that came to be called “Murderers’ Row.” Gehrig played first base and hit .340 in 17 seasons with 493 home runs, 23 of them grand slams. He drove in 184 runs in 1931 and won the American League Triple Crown in 1934. He earned the nickname “the Iron Horse” for playing in a record 2,130 consecutive games, a streak stopped only by illness. Stricken with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease later called Lou Gehrig’s disease, he retired abruptly in May 1939. Gehrig was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1939 by special election. He died in New York in 1941.

****

ABE FORTAS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1910. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. Prior to his appointment he was known as a civil libertarian, having argued cases for government employees and other individuals accused by Sen. Joe McCarthy of having Communist affiliations. He argued the 1963 landmark Supreme Court case of Gideon v Wainwright, which established the right of indigent defendants to free legal aid in criminal prosecutions. In 1968 he was nominated by Johnson to succeed Chief Justice Earl Warren, but his nomination was withdrawn after much conservative opposition in the Senate. In 1969 Fortas became the first Supreme Court Justice to be forced to resign after revelations about questionable financial dealings were made public. Fortas died in 1982 in Washington, D.C.

****

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

****

“Don’t try to add more years to your life. Better add more life to your years.” — mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, who was born on this day in 1623