Brooklyn Boro

MILESTONES: October 19, birthdays for Lil Durk, Jose Bautista, Evander Holyfield

October 19, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Lil Durk. Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision for Footaction/AP Images
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ON THIS DAY IN 1877, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “One of Chester’s Patent Fire Alarm Telegraph instruments has been placed in the office of the Eagle establishment. It is the first one of the kind put up in this city, and it works admirably. The simplicity of its construction makes danger of disorder very small. In a few weeks the Fire Commissioners expect to have these instruments throughout Brooklyn. Should any one of our neighbors desire to send out an alarm, they can do so, either day or night, from the Eagle office.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1894, the Eagle reported, “Ex-Mayor Samuel Booth died this morning at his home on South Portland Avenue. The end came peacefully after a long illness. The sturdy figure and strong English face of ex-Mayor Samuel Booth has not been as familiar about the city recently as it formerly was, but the news of his death will cause a shock among a wide circle of citizens who knew him as a friend and a yet wider circle of men who respected and honored him as an upright official of a sort which has passed away with the growth of Brooklyn into a great cosmopolitan city.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1912, the Eagle reported, “The inventor of the dictagraph wants his device placed in the offices of public officials. ‘Talking to the dictagraph’ would then be talking to the galleries. A stream of pure-minded politics would fill the notebook of the stenographer at the other end, and genuine trading would take place at the luncheon club or elsewhere. The only way in which it would be practicable to use the dictagraph in public offices would be to perfect a hypnotizing attachment which would exhale upon the suspected subject the proper exorcism to quiet his consciousness and permit his subliminal crooked personality to give him away. In time we may come to this, and when we do the dictagraph will be as useful in a bank as is an adding machine.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1931, the Eagle reported, “West Orange, N.J., Oct. 19 (AP) — Thomas A. Edison in death received today the homage of the millions for whom he had made life more comfortable. Edison will be buried Wednesday close to the scene of his long labors here and not in Milan, Ohio, near his birthplace, the Edison family decided today … The body of the 84-year-old inventor, who died at 3:24 a.m. Sunday, was moved from his home to the library of his plant laboratory, a half mile away, at 6:45 a.m. today. This was done in accordance with the family’s wishes that employees might first view the body of the inventor. The little library on Main Street was the scene of many of his remarkable achievements. His body will lie there under the light of his bulbs, which he invented, and in the shadows of the books, maps, diagrams, statuary and blueprints which he accumulated over the 45 years that he maintained the place.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1950, the Eagle reported, “The U.S. Israeli basketball team, recently returned from the Maccabiah games in Israel where they defeated Canada in the finals of the basketball competition, will meet the Gimbel’s basketball team Saturday night at the Manhattan Beach Recreation Center for the benefit of the building fund drive now under way for the Jewish Community Center in Sheepshead Bay. The Men’s Club of Congregation B’nai Israel is endeavoring to raise $500,000 for this purpose. Members of the Boro Park Y.M.H.A. plus Abe Becker, captain of New York University; Ed Roman, co-captain of City College, Al Roth and Herb Cohen, are expected to take the floor against the Gimbel team, which is comprised of former leading district college stars.” Abe Becker, who died on Oct. 7, was also a basketball star at Lincoln High School. He was inducted into the Brooklyn Jewish Historical Initiative Hall of Fame on Oct. 15.

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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “President [Harry] Truman whistle-stopped his way into Brooklyn last night, telling a cheering capacity crowd at the Eastern Parkway Roller Skating Rink that Dwight D. Eisenhower and other Republicans are waging a “street gutter” campaign that is helping the Communists. Truman’s speech, which wound up his second trip in support of Adlai E. Stevenson’s presidential campaign, came midway in a 17-mile motorcade tour of Brooklyn. Hundreds of thousands of borough residents lined sidewalks from Flatbush to Williamsburg to greet the president … Truman told the 5,500 persons – 800 of them standing – at the Brownsville arena that Eisenhower was playing ‘cheap and cruel’ politics on the Korean War and civil rights issues. It was one of his strongest ‘give ’em hell’ speeches since he took the stump for Stevenson.”

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include baseball All-Star JOSE BAUTISTA, who was born in 1980; actor MICHAEL GAMBON, who was born in 1940; former world champion heavyweight boxer EVANDER HOLYFIELD, who was born in 1962; author JOHN LE CARRE, who was born in 1931; rapper LIL DURK, who was born in 1992; Tony Award-winning actor JOHN LITHGOW, who was born in 1945; artist and designer PETER MAX, who was born in 1937; carpenter and TV personality TY PENNINGTON, who was born in 1964; writer and director JASON REITMAN, who was born in 1977; and former baseball player MICHAEL YOUNG, who was born in 1976.

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ANNIE PECK WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1850. The world-renowned mountain climber won an international following in 1895 when she climbed the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps. Peck climbed the Peruvian peak Huascaran, giving her the record for the highest peak climbed in the Western Hemisphere by an American man or woman, and at age 61 she climbed Mount Coropuna in Peru and placed a “Votes for Women” banner at its pinnacle. She died in New York City in 1935.

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AUGUSTE LUMIERE WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1862. Born in Besançon, France, Auguste Lumière and his brother Louis were film pioneers who created the first movie, “Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory” in 1895. He died at Lyon, France, in 1954.

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THE YORKTOWN SURRENDER TOOK PLACE ON THIS DAY IN 1781.  More than 7,000 English and Hessian troops, led by British Gen. Lord Charles Cornwallis, surrendered to Gen. George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending the war between Britain and its American colonies. There were no more major battles, but the provisional treaty of peace was not signed until Nov. 30, 1782, and the final Treaty of Paris on Sept. 3, 1783.

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TODAY IS LGBT CENTER AWARENESS DAY, a national day of action focused on awareness around the work of LGBT community centers everywhere. The day was planned to help bring national attention to the Community Center Movement within the LGBT movement, which serves more than 1.7 million people annually, and highlight the ways that people can get involved or utilize their local centers. For more information, visit lgbtcenters.org.

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

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“It takes a clever man to turn cynic and a wise man to be clever enough not to.” — Fannie Hurst, American author who was born on this day in 1885

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