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MILESTONES: August 4, birthdays for Barack Obama, Dylan and Cole Sprouse, Jeff Gordon

Brooklyn Today

August 4, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Former President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 12, 2016.  AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool
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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor-comedian Richard Belzer, who was born in 1944; country singer Crystal Bowersox, who was born in 1985; retired MLB All-Star pitcher Roger Clemens, who was born in 1962; actress Crystal Chappel, who was born in 1951; actress-singer Tina Cole, who was born in 1943; actor Michael DeLuise, who was born in 1969; producer Michael Gelman, who was born in 1961; actress Greta Gerwig, who was born in 1983; former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who was born in 1955; race car driver Jeff Gordon, who was born in 1971; actress Kym Karath, who was born in 1958; actor Daniel Dae Kim, who was born in 1968; author Dennis Lehane, who was born in 1965; actress Meghan Markle, who was born in 1981; former President Barack Obama, who was born in 1961; singer Tom Parker, who was born in 1988; Football Hall of Famer John Riggins, who was born in 1967; singer Jessica Sanchez, who was born in 1955; Hall of Fame track star Mary Decker Slaney, who was born in 1958; actress Abigail Spencer, who was born in 1981; actors Dylan and Cole Sprouse, who were born in 1992; actor, voice artist and director Kristoffer Tabori, who was born in 1952; actor and screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton, who was born in 1955; and actress Lauren Tom, who was born in 1961.

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THE BORDEN AX MURDERS OCCURRED ON THIS DAY IN 1892. In a grisly scene, Andrew Jackson Borden, a wealthy area merchant, was found hacked to death in the parlor of his Fall River, Massachussetts home. The body of his second wife, Abby Durfee Borden, lay upstairs. Lizzie Andrew Borden, who was home at the time, discovered her father’s body. She was arrested and tried for the murders, but the lack of solid evidence against her led to Borden’s eventual acquittal. Debate over her innocence and motive has raged ever since.

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PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY WAS BORN ON THIS DAY 1792. The leading English Romantic poet was self-exiled from England due to the hostile reception of his radical views. He lived in Italy from 1818 until his death at sea off the coast of Viareggio, just a month before his 30th birthday in 1822. Shelley’s important works include “Ozymandias,” published in 1818; “Ode to the West Wind,” “The Cloud,” “To a Skylark” and “Prometheus Unbound” in 1819; and “Adonais” (an elegy for John Keats) in 1821.

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TODAY IS SINGLE WORKING WOMEN’S DAY. It is a day to honor the single working women who do it all. For more information, visit swan.org.

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WALTER PATER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1839. The critic and essayist who, in such works as “The Renaissance” and “Marius the Epicurean,” articulated the “arts for art’s sake” philosophy that was key to the Pre-Raphaelite and Aestheticism movements. Such late 19th-century aesthetes as Oscar Wilde were influenced by Pater’s writings. Pater was born in London in 1894.

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

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