Trivia Dominoes II — Play Off the Last Bit of Trivia — continued! (Part 1)

Robert Todd Lincoln was coincidentally at or near the assassination of two other presidents. Per Wiki:

Entertainment impresario and producer Mike Todd was best known for producing the film Around the World in 80 Days.

Todd was the third husband of actress Elizabeth Taylor, and the only one of Taylor’s husbands whom she did not divorce – he died in a plane crash in 1958, while he and Taylor were still married.

Robert Todd Lincoln’s post-Civil War Vermont home, Hildene, has been beautifully restored and is now open for tours and rentals.

Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was an American gentleman farmer known as a great-grandson of Abraham Lincoln. In 1975, he became the last undisputed descendant of Lincoln when his sister, Mary Lincoln Beckwith, died without children. Though Timothy Lincoln Beckwith was born to second wife Annemarie Hoffman Beckwith in the midst of divorce proceedings in 1968, Robert Beckwith contended—and the court agreed—that his paternity was highly unlikely, as he had undergone a vasectomy in the early 1960s. Beckwith died on December 24, 1985.

The first recorded vasectomy was performed on a dog in 1823. Currently, this procedure is seldom performed on dogs, as castration remains the preferred reproductive control option for canines. Vasectomies, however, are regularly performed on bulls.

Alessandro Moreschi (1858 – 1922) was an Italian castrato singer of the late 19th century and the only castrato to make solo recordings. He is sometimes called “the last castrato”. There were rumors that the Vatican had illegally castrated a singer in the 20th century, but this referred to a pupil of Moreschi’s, Domenico Mancini, who sang falsetto. There were also unsubstantiated claims that Michael Jackson was chemically castrated to maintain his high-pitched voice.

The first black artist to air on MTV? Michael Jackson, and his music video for Billie Jean.

Yes, black American artists were played on South African radio during the Apartheid days. The first I heard was Diana Ross in 1976 on Radio Springbok, which answered the question in my mind.

The beautiful, black, 1987 Buick Regal Grand National GNX was a limited production performance car, and GNX stood for “Grand National Experimental”.

Bewick’s Wren is one of a dozen North American species of wren, which occurs south and west of Oklahoma. Not particularly common, I once found a road-kill stuck in a grille at a truck stop.

Capitol Site No. 1 is an operating, functioning oil well on state capitol grounds. It is the only capitol in the world with an oil well under it. It is located along Lincoln Boulevard in Oklahoma City…

Oklahoma’s first capital was Guthrie, Oklahoma, but it moved to Oklahoma City in 1910, the same year that Halley’s Comet visited the Earth.

Arlo Guthrie’s maternal grandmother was the renowned Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt.

Guthrie, Oklahoma is about 25 miles north of Oklahoma City (which is on the old Route 66). On November 16, 1910, when Oklahoma was added to the Union as e 46th state, it was chosen as the state capital. In a 1910 special election, OK voters chose the larger Oklahoma City as the new capital.

Guthrie is nationally significant for its collection of late 19th and early 20th century commercial architecture. The Guthrie Historic District includes more than 2,000 buildings and is designated as a National Historic Landmark.

Images, Downtown Guthrie OK >> Guthrie, Oklahoma - Wikipedia, https://is.gd/bEUQai.

Oklahoma became the 46th state when it was admitted to the Union in 1907. This was 11 years after Utah became a state in 1896, and five years before New Mexico and Arizona were both admitted in 1912. Today, in fact, marks the 108th anniversary of Arizona gaining statehood on February 14th, 1912.

When Oklahoma joined the Union as the 46th state, the stars on the US flag were arranged thusly: 4 lateral rows of 8 stars, and 2 lateral rows of 7 stars — 6 rows of stars. The 2 rows of 7 stars were rows 2 and 5 of the 6.

Image: USFlag.org: A website dedicated to the Flag of the United States of America - The 46 Star Flag

The Fort Sumter flag was flown at both the very beginning and the very end of the American Civil War, four years apart to the day, raised and lowered by the same officer on the same spot in the harbor of Charleston, S.C.

The Charleston dance was named for the city of Charelston, SC; it was popularized by a song of the same name, written by composer James P. Johnson for a Broadway show, Runnin’ Wild. Johnson indicated that he came up with the song’s rhythm from listening to dockworkers in the city of Charleston.

The dance was extremely popular in the U.S. in the latter part of the 1920s.

Charleston, West Virginia, and not Charles Town, West Virginia, is the home of Yeager Airport named in 1985 after then-Brigadier General Chuck Yeager, a native of nearby Lincoln County who in 1947 was first to break the sound barrier. He did it flying in the Bell X-1.

24 states have a county named Lincoln County. Lincoln, along with Jackson, is the 4th most common county name in the country. Washington, with 31, is the most common county name, followed by Jefferson, with 26, and Franklin, with 25.

Hardung County, New Mexico, is the last one to be named for a president. and was in fact organized and named on the day President Warren Harding was inaugurated in 1921. New Mexico has counties named for the last three presidents so honored, including Roosevelt and McKinley. Harding County, South Dakota, was named after somebody else, 40 years earlier. There are four Wilson Counties, none named for the president/ Taft County, Iran, was not named for a US president at all.