And so it is. Images — https://is.gd/zWunj7.
OK, I concede, and I will personally lead the charge to force the Dallas Mavericks to change their logo!
In play: Italy was among the earliest adopters of military aviation, dating back to 1884. In 1911, reconnaissance and bombing sorties during the Italo-Turkish War by the Italians represented the first use of heavier-than-air aircraft in armed conflict.
In 1909, Wilbur Wright was invited to Rome and through this visit gave practical aviation in Italy its start. Shortly after his arrival from France on April 1, he began the training of Lieutenants Savoia (Army) and Mario Calderara (Navy), the latter gaining the distinction of being the first Italian to make a solo flight. Wilbur’s performance caused great excitement and he was everywhere received with acclaim. King Victor Emmanuel honored him by an unexpected visit to the field to watch the flights and appeared with a folding camera slung over his shoulder like any other tourist.
Victor Emmanuel III was King of Italy and (self-proclaimed) King of the Albanians and Emperor of Ethiopia.
Viva Verdi was used as a slogan in Italy in the 19th century to signal support for Italian unification under Victor Emmanuel II. Composer Verdi was an enthusiastic supporter of Italian nationalism back to the 1840s. Viva Verdi signified Viva V ittorio Emanuele Re D’ Italia (Viva Victor Emmanuel King of Italy).
While the Italians were trail-blazers in military use of aircraft, the first countries to capitalize on civilian planes were Bolivia and Papua New Guinea. . Their geography made land transport nearly impossible.
Papua New Guinea sits among the Bismarck Sea, Solomon Sea, Coral Sea, and the Arafura Sea.
Guineafowl are birds who species are native to sub-Saharan Africa. They nest on the ground and eat mainly seeds and insects. The helmeted guineafowl has been domesticated and is raised for its meat.
In politics, the term Left derives from the French Revolution as the political groups opposed to the royal veto privilege (Montagnard and Jacobin deputies from the Third Estate) generally sat to the left of the presiding member’s chair in parliament while the ones in favour of the royal veto privilege sat on its right. That habit began in the French Estates General of 1789.
A meme that is appropriate for today states,
“the right wing and the left wing belong to the same bird.”
The term “Fourth Estate” is sometimes applied to the journalistic press, as one of the groups which shape political issues.
The term evolved from the European (particularly French) concept of the three traditional “estates of the realm”: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners.
Benjamin Franklin lived in the Parisian exurb of Passy while serving as a U.S. commissioner (envoy) from the Continental Congress to the French Court, seeking - successfully - to get French money, arms, materiel and eventually direct military involvement in the American Revolution.
56 delegates attended the first Continental Congress in 1774, including George Washington, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, and John Adams. Twelve of the thirteen colonies were represented. Georgia was the only colony which did not send a delegate.
The Boston Beer Company introduced its first beer, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, in 1985. They named the beer after the Founding Father and Bostonian, Adams, based on the traditional history that Adams also was a brewer. However, it appears that Adams and his family were technically maltsters (making the malted grain which is used in brewing), rather than actually being brewers themselves.
In 1998, divers in Australia found a ship that sank in 1796, with multiple intact bottles of beer inside. Brewers used yeast found in one of these bottles and a period recipe to recreate the beer that would’ve been on board from India.
According to experts, the brewers yeast strain was a hybrid - something not used in any modern beer.
This recreation was released for commercial sale in 2018 under the name The Wreck Preservation Ale.
In 1856, the steamship Arabia sank in the Missouri River west of Kansas City and was lost. Due to the changing course of the river, the wreck was buried under farmland until it was discovered in 1988. The contents of the ship were remarkably well-preserved and can now be viewed at the Arabia Steamboat Museum, located near the river in Kansas City, Missouri.
All modern Thoroughbred horses can trace their lineage directly back to three stallions, which were brought to England from the Middle East in the late 17th and early 18th centuries: the Byerley Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Arabian.
T. E. Lawrence (“of Arabia”) rewrote his account of the Arab revolt, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, three times, once from memory after he supposedly lost the manuscript while changing trains at a station. After the rediscovery of part of the draft for the lost version, there has been speculation that he was dissatisfied with it and destroyed it.
The 1962 British movie Lawrence of Arabia was nominated for ten Oscars and won seven, including Best Picture and Best Director. Peter O’Toole was nominated for Best Actor and Omar Sharif for Best Supporting Actor, but neither won the award.
The two biggest US cities named Lawrence were named after a father and son. Lawrence, Massachusetts, was recently settled in the mid-1800s, under the influence of Amos Lawrence. His son, Amos Adams Lawrence, went west and was a philanthropist and abolitionist in the territory of what became Lawrence, Kansas.
“The Bracebridge Dinner” is an annual, Renaissance-themed Christmas pageant and feast which has been staged at the Ahwahnee Hotel, in Yosemite National Park, since 1927. Photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams became the primary host of the pageant in 1929, a role in which he served until 1973; in addition to playing a major role in the pageant himself, Adams was also responsible for developing the pageant’s script (most of his original script is still used). Many of the pageant’s actors over the years have been Yosemite’s park rangers and other park employees.
Despite the challenges of traveling into the park in the winter, the Bracebridge has always been in high demand from guests, and attendance was handled by lottery for many years.
A photograph of Adams (left), in costume for the Bracebridge:
