The first “official” US postage stamp (US Scott’s #1) featured the portrait of America’s first Postmaster General, Benjamin Franklin. The second US stamp (US Scott’s #2) had a face value of 10 cents and featured the portrait of George Washington.
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The state of Franklin was a short-lived political entity in what is now eastern Tennessee, created in 1784 when North Carolina gave the territory to the Federal government and the Federal government didn’t act to take it. There was an attempt at statehood and, after that failed, it declared itself an independent nation, before being reacquired by North Carolina in 1788.
A Confederate soldier mortally wounded at the 1864 Battle of Franklin fell not far from his family’s house, having been away from home with his regiment for several years. He was found by his family, brought home, and died there.
The 1864 Presidential election candidates were George McCellan of the Democratic Party, and Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party. The National Union Party was created by Republicans in hopes of attracting the so-called ‘War Democrats’. It must have worked, as Lincoln won the Electoral vote 212-21.
The Republican Party was founded in 1854, by opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which would allow slavery in those territories. The name “Republican” for the new party was first suggested in a local meeting, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, on March 20, 1854.
It is approximately 2,100 miles from Ripon WI to Ripon CA (map, https://is.gd/sgJ98T).
Ripon CA was originally known as Stanislaus City. In 1876 it was renamed for Ripon WI.
Ripon WI was founded in 1849 and was named after Ripon, North Yorkshire.
All Creatures Great and Small was a British TV series based upon a series of books by James Herriott about his time as a veterinarian in Yorkshire.
The most common first name of US Presidents is James, with six: Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield and Carter. Four Presidents have had the first name of William, and four have had the first name of John. Other multiple first names include George (3), Andrew (2), and Franklin (2).
At least six Presidents have the name John: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, John Calvin Coolidge Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Donald John Trump.
Only one king of England has had the name John; he reigned from 1199 until his death in 1216.
A fictional King John II briefly rules Great Britain in the Thirties in the novel Headlong by Emlyn Williams, which was very loosely adapted for the John Goodman comedy King Ralph, set in the present day.
The book is much better than the movie.
Ralph Malph, played by Donny Most, was a recurring character in the sitcom Happy Days.
Ralph’s parents were Mickey Malph and Minnie Malph.
Mickey and Minnie? Did not know that!
In play — Ralph Malph’s middle name is Hector.
The decimated royal house in King Ralph is referred to as the House of Windham. In real life, the British reigning dynasty is the House of Windsor, renamed during World War I by King George V, grandfather of the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
During World War I, due to anti-German sentiment, the city of Berlin, Ontario changed its name to Kitchener.
I Am a Camera, the 1951 Broadway play by John Van Druten, was adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin. The play was a success, but critic Walter Kerr panned it with one of the world’s shortest reviews, “Me no Leica”.
Lunch Hour by Jean Kerr (Walter’s wife) was one of several of her Broadway productions. The original cast included Gilda Radner, Sam Waterston, Max Wright, and David Rasche.
Graham Kerr was originally a hotel manager and catering manager. In 1959, he began his first TV show, Entertaining With Kerr, in New Zealand, while he was also the chief catering advisor for the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
Kerr had several cooking and entertains series in New Zealand and Australia in the 1960s, then moved to Canada, where, in 1969, he began his trademark cooking series, The Galloping Gourmet.
In the 1930s, the Rio Grande Southern Railroad constructed the first of a total of seven unique pieces of self-propelled railroad equipment that came to known colloquially as “Galloping Geese”. Officially classified as a “motor”, the front portion was a gasoline-powered automobile (the first two were built from Buicks, and the remaining five were based off of Pierce-Arrow vehicles) with part of the body replaced by an enclosed box for carrying light freight and mail, and were intended to be an economical alternative to running steam trains to carry the mail to the Rocky Mountain towns that the railroad served. There were some variations across the series of vehicles, but the basic design and principle remained the same.
These contraptions operated until 1950, when the railroad lost the mail contract in favor of highway mail carriers (trucks); they were then fitted with windows and additional seating in the boxcar sections and converted to tourist service, and ran until the railroad finally abandoned the route(s) and took up the tracks.
Six of the seven “Geese” survive (the original one was scrapped and parts of it were used in the construction of Goose #6); as of this date all are operable and can be found at various locations in Colorado and California.
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Images here — https://is.gd/5TPb0r. Interesting.
