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MILESTONES: February 26, birthdays for Erykah Badu, Tim Kaine, Marshall Faulk

Brooklyn Today

February 26, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Erykah Badu. Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for UMG/AP Images
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Greetings, Brooklyn.  Today is the 57th day of the year.

On this day in 1944, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that the American Allied fighters downed 142 Nazi planes and destroyed the Germans’ aircraft assembly plant. The same front page featured a story about the launch of a 27-thousand-ton ship to be christened the Bennington. Built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, it was the 11th carrier class ship to be built since the Pearl Harbor attack. Its keel was laid 14 months earlier. A ship’s bottom-most structural section, the keel runs along the ship’s center line from the bow to the stern. The laying of the keel is also the occasion of great ceremony for builder and owner alike, as it heralds the formal recognition of a ship’s construction. In 1954, the Bennington was seriously damaged when a series of explosions killed more than a hundred crewmen and injured more than 200 others. The cause was a leak of hydraulic fluids from the catapult, which were then ignited by the flames of a jet preparing for takeoff. This tragedy prompted the Navy to switch from hydraulic to steam fluid when launching aircraft.

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On this day in 1914, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that King George V welcomed visiting American baseball teams to London. In this case, the New York Giants were the National League eam, and they played the American League’s Chicago White Sox, who won 5-4. King George V had avidly studied articles on baseball and expressed a keen interest in the sport.

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On this day in 1917, the initial reports were starting to come in about the evident torpedoing and sinking of the Cunard ship Laconia, which had sailed from New York just nine days earlier. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s front page reported that seven Americans had been aboard. There were 270 survivors. President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for authorization to use the nation’s armed forces and guns to protect American citizens and ships on the high seas.

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On this day in 1935, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that former New York Yankees Babe Ruth had signed on with the Boston Braves as assistant manager. The Bambino, as he was nicknamed, had been a stellar left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox before the New York Yankees bought his contract. He then played the outfield for the Yankees. That edition’s sports section carried a guest column by Brooklyn Dodgers manager Casey Stengel on Ruth’s accomplishments. Stengel reminded readers of Ruth’s famous 1916 World Series pitching against the Dodgers. “Ruth’s pride and joy is his twenty-nine innings of scoreless World Series pitching,” Stengel wrote.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include singer Erykah Badu, who was born in 1972; singer Michael Bolton, who was born in 1953; sportscaster and Hall of Fame football player Marshall Faulk, who was born in 1973; and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee Tim Kaine, who was born in 1958.

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THE WORLD TRADE CENTER WAS BOMBED ON THIS DAY IN 1993. A 1,210-pound bomb packed in a van exploded in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 (mostly from smoke inhalation). The powerful blast left a crater 200 feet wide and several stories deep. The cost for damage to the building and disruption of business for the 350 companies with offices in the center exceeded $591 million. Fifteen people — the fundamentalist Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman and 14 of his followers — were indicted for the bombing. Rahman was given a life sentence, and the others received prison terms of up to 240 years each.

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JOHNNY CASH WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1932. The iconic country music star’s career spanned the 1950s through the year he died, and he recorded more than 1,500 songs, including hits such as “I Walk the Line, “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues.” He was called “the Man in Black” because he wore a black long-tailed suit in sympathy for those who suffered. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Cash died in Nashville in September of 2003. He was inducted into both the Country Music and Rock and Roll halls of fame.

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JACKIE GLEASON WAS BORN IN BROOKLYN ON THIS DAY IN 1916. An American comedian, actor and musical composer, Gleason was best known for his role as Ralph Kramden in the long-running TV series “The Honeymooners.” He died in Florida in June of 1987.

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VICTOR HUGO WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1802. One of the most popular 19th-century authors, his most well-known work is the novel “Les Miserables,” and his most famous character is Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Hugo died in Paris in 1885, and more than 2 million people thronged to his state funeral.

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

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“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”

— writer Victor Hugo, who was born on this day in 1802

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