MILESTONES: March 6, birthdays for Shaquille O’Neal, Connie Britton, D.L. Hughley

Brooklyn Today

March 6, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Shaquille O'Neal. Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP

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Greetings, Brooklyn. Today is the 65th day of the year.

On this day in 1888, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran the obituary of Louisa May Alcott, famed author of “Little Women.” The obit stated that Alcott’s success had not been immediate, and for the 15 years before the widely successful “Little Women” published in 1867, she had supported herself as a teacher and volunteered as a nurse during the Civil War. Alcott later wrote other books, including “Little Men,” “Proverb Stories” and “Spinning Wheel Stories.” Born on her father’s birthday of Nov. 29, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, she was evidently very close with him. Her father Amos Bronson Alcott was an American teacher, writer, philosopher and reformer. She died shortly after he did, both in early 1888.

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On this day in 1940, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page reported that newly-inaugurated Brooklyn Borough President John Cashmore, as his first act, met with Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia to expedite the construction of the last 1 1/2-mile stretch of the Belt Parkway in Sheepshead Bay and Marine Park. Obstructing the process were a group of homeowners who were fighting eminent domain — the condemnation of their homes for the embankment-type highway, which they called a “Chinese Wall.” Then-Borough President Cashmore was expected to ask for unanimous approval of the project at the next day’s Board of Estimate Meeting, his first since taking office.

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On this day in 1940, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page also reported that members of the 56-year-old Crescent Club defeated a move to close the venerable athletic club. The club had its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and its home was at 129 Pierrepont St. The Crescent Club had declared bankruptcy in 1939. During the March 1940 poll, the group of 400 members voted down a proposal to close it by March 15 at the latest. The proposal had been made because the membership was 150 persons short of the minimum stated in bylaws. An alternate proposal was to move the Crescent Club to smaller headquarters. The reprieve was temporary, as the club did close later that year. The 129 Pierrepont building was later occupied briefly by law firms. It is now the Bosworth Building of Saint Ann’s School, founded in 1965. The building’s namesake was Stanley Bosworth, the school’s founding headmaster.

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On this day in 1946, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page carried a synopsis and analysis of (then-former) British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s speech to a college in Missouri, the home state of President Harry S. Truman, who was with him on the platform. Praising the United States, which he said is “on the pinnacle of world power,” Churchill denounced Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the communists. He proposed an even stronger alliance between the United States and Great Britain. Churchill said, “From Stettin in the Baltic and Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” His words, not included in the Eagle story, were considered the opening salvo of the Cold War. Although Truman received the speech well, Congress took issue with the establishment of such an alliance, saying that it would undermine the work of the United Nations.

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On this day in 1953, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle front page published photos of Georgi Malenkov and the late Joseph Stalin, who lay in state as the Soviet Union prepared for the biggest funeral in Russian history. Malenkov was viewed as Stalin’s heir apparent. However, later that year, a power struggle developed between Malenkov and Nikita Khrushchev. Barely two weeks after Stalin’s funeral, Khrushchev was named Secretariat of the Communist Party, which proved to be a crucial first step in his rise to power in the Soviet Union. He was named secretary of the Communist Party six months later and became premier in 1958.

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NOTABLE PEOPLE born on this day include actor Tom Arnold, who was born on this day in 1959; baseball player Jake Arrieta, who was born in 1986; actress Connie Britton, who was born in 1968; singer and guitarist Dave Gilmour, who was born in 1944; economist and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Alan Greenspan, who was born in 1926; comedian and actor D.L. Hughley, who was born in 1963; opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa, who was born in 1944; actor Ben Murphy, who was born in 1942; BMX bike racer Ryan Nyquist, who was born in 1979; former basketball player Shaquille O’Neal, who was born in 1972; actress Amy Pietz, who was born in 1969; actor and director Rob Reiner, who was born in 1947; and astronaut Valentina Tereshkova-Nikolaeva, who was born in 1937.

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MICHELANGELO WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1475. The prolific Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect and poet had a profound impact on Western art. His fresco painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican at Rome is often considered the pinnacle of his achievement in painting, as well as the highest achievement of the Renaissance. Also among his works were the sculptures David and The Pieta. He was appointed architect of St. Peter’s Basilica in 1542, a post he held until his death in 1564 at Rome.

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ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1806. The English poet and author is best remembered for her “Sonnets from the Portuguese.” She was the wife of poet Robert Browning and the subject of the play “The Barretts of Wimpole Street.” She died in Italy in 1861.

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TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DRED SCOTT DECISION. It is considered the most famous U.S. Supreme Court decision during the prewar slavery controversy. Dred Scott, a slave, had successfully petitioned for his freedom based on his previous residence in a free state and territory. In 1857, the Supreme Court overturned Missouri’s Supreme Court decision and declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that slaves were property, not citizens, and that Congress had no power to restrict slavery in the territories.

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WILL EISNER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1917. The Brooklyn-born comic book artist created the popular and innovative “Spirit” comic book, started an educational comic book business, taught legions of students graphic narrative techniques and created the first graphic novel, “A Contract with God” (1978). The Eisner Awards were created in his honor in 1988 to recognize other bright lights in the field. Eisner died in 2005 in Florida.

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

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“There is no greater harm than that of time wasted.” — artist Michelangelo, who was born on this day in 1475