FIPS DAILY ALMANAC: Monday, April 9, 2012
J. Charles | Sunday, April 8, 2012 at 10:25PM 
photo by Flickr User Retrofresh!
Rise and shine FIPSters, and welcome to your day! In memoriam news, Mike Wallace, star of 60 Minutes, has died. RIP, Wallace -- you had a pretty damn good run. And in boring golf news, Bubba Watson went from being into the woods to being the master of the Masters.
ON THIS DAY IN BK HISTORY (1866):
In 1866 the story buzzing about in every Brooklynite's ear was whether Albany would pass a bill to create THE Prospect Park, whose eventual creation would lead to the genesis of Park Slope, the neighborhood in which we are all fucked in. At this stage of the game, the argument was how far south and east the park would extend. Some wanted it to reach Franklin Avenue, but that would mean that the park would be encroaching on the Town of Flatbush (yes it was it's own town in 1866). Under this proposal, some people felt it should be called Flatbush Park (OK, I've got to sidetrack with a little joke: What do Brooklyn and pantyhose have in common? *Answer below).
In 1861 a civil engineer by the name of Egbert Viele laid out the plan for a park around Prospect Hill near the site of the famed Battle Pass, where one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolution took place. But the Civil War interrupted the bill from passing, until this April of 1866. After the plans were revised and the bill was passed, Calvert Vaux and famed designer of Central Park Frederick Law Olmsted were called in to redesign the park. Olmsted often claimed that Prospect Park was one of his finest creation.
*Flatbush.
Here's the full bill referenced at the end of this article.
[FROM THE BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE ARCHIVES]
ON THIS DAY IN FIPS'TORY:
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