The first capital of a united Canada was established in 1841 at Kingston, midway between Toronto and Montreal. But it was thought vulnerable t American attack, and moved inland to the little lumber town of Ottawa.
Fort Henry, in Kingston, Ontario, was built during the War of 1812 to defend the city against American attack (which never materialized). The fort is now a popular living history museum; young visitors are dressed in period uniforms, taught to march and prepared to defend the fort from American invasion.
[not in play: @Bullitt, my husband has visited the halls of fame in Cooperstown and Springfield and says that even though he’a a bigger baseball fan, the basketball HOF is better. However that’s the new improved updated HOF built 2002; apparently the older one wasn’t that great]
Amherst Island, accessible by ferry from Kingston, is a popular destination for winter birdwatching. Several species of arctic owls migrate south for the winter, and can often be closely observed and even touched, for the have evolved no fear of mam in their usual habitat.
The world’s largest ferry is the Stena Hollandica, which is based in The Netherlands. Launched in 2011, the carrying capacity of the ferry is 1,200 passengers and a cargo of 230 cars and 300 other cargo vehicles. The ship sails from Hook of Holland in The Netherlands to Harwich, England, making one round trip each day.
The amenities offered in the ferry include a casino, a barista, a playroom for children, kennels for dogs, a shopping area, a theatre, and free wi-fi.
That MV Stena Hollandica ferry trip between Hoek van Holland and Harwich is a 4-hour ride (gMap, Google Maps). That ferry is one of two identical ships. The other is the MV Stena Britannica. They have been operational since 2010.
Eddie Holland was one of the founders of the Motown dynasty. He had several releases in the ‘58-63 era, but neveer got over stage-fright, and shifted his concentrated to song writing’ He is credited with writing over 150 charted hits.
The USS Holland, SS-1, was the United States Navy’s first modern commissioned submarine, named after its inventor and principal designer, the Irish-born John Philip Holland. She was launched in 1897 and acquired by the Navy in 1900.
John Philip Sousa, known as the ‘March King’, is credited with composing 136 marches. Sousa, who died in 1932, composed ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever’ and ‘Semper Fidelis’, which became the official march of the U.S. Marine Corps.
The sousaphone is a tuba-like musical instrument, in the brass family. It was developed in the 1890s by James Welsh Pepper, at the direction of bandleader John Philip Sousa, who was dissatisfied with the helicons (another tuba-like instrument) which he was then using in the United States Marine Band.
Although Sousa’s original request for the instrument was not based on planned use for marching bands, the instrument proved to be practical for marching, as it loops around the player, and is easier for the player to carry while marching than a traditional tuba.
2 for 1
According to the front of Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band the instruments the band plays are: french horn, trumpet, cor anglais and flute.
The cor anglais is the French name for the English horn and it is a member of the oboe family (images, https://is.gd/V9xGH7). The instrument originated around 1720 in what is present-day western Poland and eastern Czech Republic, in Silesia.
The instrument was not used regularly in France until after about 1800, or in England until after about 1830.
Eastern Silesia left an indelible mark on history by issuing postage stamps in 1920. They were the stamps of Poland and Czechoslovakia, overprinted “SO”, for “Silesie Orientale” in international French. But the plebiscite was withdrawn shortly after the stamps were issued, and Eastern Silesia never attained sovereignty.
The nation of Czechoslovakia was formed in 1918, when it was founded as one of the successor states to the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I.
Originally a democratic state, Czechoslovakia was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, and became a Communist state after the war. The country’s Communist regime was deposed peacefully during the Velvet Revolution of 1989, and in 1993, it was split into two separate countries: the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.
Capt. Georg von Trapp, played by Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music, served in the navy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during World War I. The two submarines he commanded sank 13 Allied ships, including a French armored cruiser and an Italian submarine.
When I was a 98-pound freshman in high school, our band teacher drafted me to play sousaphone. The instrument was all brass and weighed about 20 pounds. When carried while marching, all of the weight of the horn is borne on the left shoulder of the unfortunate individual who’s carrying it.
I hated parades.
In play: The first military use of a submarined occurred on 7 September 1776, during the Revolutionary War. The operator of a one-man craft, named Turtle, attempted to attach a time bomb to the hull of British Admiral Richard Howe’s flagship in New York Harbor. The attempt failed, as did several subsequent attempts. The Turtle was eventually lost as sea when its transport ship was sunk by the British.
The tortoise is a member of the turtle family, but is always terrestrial, and never lives any part of its life in aquatic habitat.
Aesop’s Fables are a series of fables, which have traditionally been ascribed to Aesop, a storyteller and slave who lived in Greece in the 6th Century BCE.
A number of these fables are still well-known in modern Western culture, including The Tortoise and the Hare, The Grasshopper and the Ant, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.
A hare is distinguished from other members of the rabbit family by longer ears, solitary living habits and quick development of independence in their newborn. The jackrabbit is a hare.
Walt Disney and his animator Ub Iwerks invented cartoon character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but Disney’s studio lost the rights to it, and he needed to invent a new character. That is how Mickey Mouse came to be.
Baseball player Johnny Bench is from Binger OK, about 200 miles southwest of Spavinaw OK, where Mickey Mantle was born.