The Mohawk were sometimes referred to as “the Keepers of the Eastern Gate”, since they were the eastern-most group in the Iroquois confederacy.
Mohawk Airlines was a regional passenger airline operating in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, mainly in New York and Pennsylvania, from the mid-1940s until its acquisition by Allegheny Airlines in 1972. At its height, it employed over 2,200 personnel and pioneered several aspects of regional airline operations, including being the first airline in the United States to hire an African American flight attendant in 1958.
I visited it in late 1985, found it fascinating, and would love to go back someday.
This thread may be of interest: When was the U.S. Navy at its most powerful?
In play:
President Theodore Roosevelt spoke at the 1906 dedication of the current Pennsylvania State Capitol building in Harrisburg.
The New York State Capitol Building took 30 years to complete and has three different architectural styles. Among its features is the “Million Dollar Staircase,” which cost an estimated $1 million to build, an astronmoical cost in the 19th century.
The dome of the US Capitol building is constructed with 8,909,200 pounds of cast iron.
The Texas state capitol building is the largest of all state capitol buildings, in terms of square footage. It is, however, smaller than the US Capitol building.
The Vermont state capitol building, located in Montpelier, is considered the smallest state capitol building. Montpelier is also the smallest capital city, with a population of less than 8,000.
Vermont joined the United States in 1791 as the 14th state, the first in addition to the original 13 colonies. Up until then it had been an independent ‘republic’ closely associated with the new United States. The delay was due to opposition by the State of New York regarding land claims.
Several people who were successful and well-known athletes went on to serve in the United States Congress, including:
- Bill Bradley (Democratic senator from New Jersey) was a basketball player for Princeton University, and the New York Knicks
- Jack Kemp (Republican senator from New York) was a football quarterback, most notably with the Buffalo Bills)
- Jim Bunning (Republican representative, then senator, from Kentucky) was a baseball pitcher for several MLB teams, including the Philadelphia Phillies
- Steve Largent (Republican representative from Oklahoma) was a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks
- J.C. Watts (Republican representative from Oklahoma) was a quarterback for the University of Oklahoma
Will Kemp (or Kempe) was a popular entertainer of the late 1500s, playing a number of comic parts in Shakespeare’s plays, including Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing and probably Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
When he left the Chamberlain’s Men theatre company in 1600, Kemp performed what he later called a “Nine Days Wonder”, dancing 110 miles from London to Norwich. This took him nine days over a period of several weeks in February and March; in many towns he was accompanied by cheering crowds.
Wilt Chamberlain, former NBA center who stood 7’1", is widely regarded as one of the best basketball players to ever play the game. After playing two seasons at the University of Kansas, Chamberlain played one year with the Harlem Globetrotters before embarking on his NBA career. Over the course of 14 years and 1045 games, Chamberlain averaged over 30 points and almost 23 rebounds per game. His 100-point effort in a March, 1962 game is still the most points ever scored by an individual in one game. The next closest is 81 points, scored by Kobe Bryant in January of 2006.
Winston Churchill succeeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II, after Norway was invaded and conquered by Nazi German forces in May 1940.
Winston Churchill served as a war correspondent and military officer, a dual role then permitted, in India, Sudan and South Africa in the 1890’s. Soon after arriving in South Africa in 1899, his armored train was ambushed by the Boers, the descendants of Dutch settlers who were fighting the British at the time. Churchill was captured and marched to a prison camp, which he soon escaped from. With no precise plan, Churchill luckily stumbled upon the house of a British coal mine manager, who hid him in a mineshaft for three days and then sent him on a wool-filled rail trek into Mozambique. From there, Churchill caught a ship back to South Africa and rushed to the front a newfound hero.
Winston Churchill’s only son, Randolph, was described by contemporaries in negative terms, as “one of the most objectionable people I had ever met: noisy, self-assertive, whining and frankly unpleasant . . . he was anything but kind to Winston, who adores him”, and “insufferable”. Combative and often drunk, “he would pick an argument with a chair”.
Author Evelyn Waugh’s comment on Randolph’s surgery for a non-malignant tumor is often quoted: “It was a typical triumph of modern science to find the only part of Randolph that was not malignant and remove it.”
Unlike his father, who had become a powerful orator through much practice, and whose speeches always required extensive preparation, public speaking came easily to Randolph Churchill. In 1934, H.G. Wells in The Shape of Things to Come predicted a Second World War in which Britain would not participate but would vainly try to effect a peaceful compromise. In this vision, Randolph Churchill was mentioned as one of several prominent Britons delivering “brilliant pacifist speeches [which] echo throughout Europe”, but fail to end the war.
The logo of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders features the face of an eyepatch-wearing pirate, wearing a football helmet. When the logo was first created (in 1960, when the team was based in Oakland), it was based on the face of strong-chinned Hollywood actor Randolph Scott.
The original 1960 logo:
On August 14, 1959, the first league meeting of the newly-formed American Football League was held in Chicago, and charter memberships were given to Dallas, New York, Houston, Denver, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. The first draft of the new league was held in November of that year, but shortly thereafter the owner of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul franchise announced his intent to leave the AFL to accept a franchise offer from the NFL. After a brief search, the new league awarded a membership to an ownership group from Oakland. After initially being called the Oakland “Señores”, the Oakland Raiders officially joined the AFL on January 30, 1960.
In 1923, jockey Frank Hayes suffered a heart attack half-way through the race at Belmont Park in New York and won despite being dead.
The 1908 Grand National, perhaps the most famous horse race in England, was won by Rubio, a horse that had been retired from racing and had spent the previous two years pulling a trolley bus in Towchester, a small town in Northamptonshire.
The Grand National horse race is held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, England. and was first run in 1839. It is a handicap race, meaning that horses carry different amounts of weight; the better horses will carry more weight than slower competitors. It is a steeplechase event, with the horses jumping 30 fences over the course of the race, which is about 4 1/4 miles in length.
The Buick Grand National (later renamed the GNX, or “Grand National Experience”) was a limited-run performance trim package which Buick offered on its Regal coupe model from 1982 until 1987. The model’s name was a reference to NASCAR auto racing (NASCAR’s top-level championship series was then known as the Winston Cup Grand National Series).
The first year’s Grand Nationals were offered in gray, but for the rest of the model’s run (1984-1987), it was only offered in black; the black color is what is typically associated with the model among car aficionados, who sometimes refer to it as “Darth Vader’s car.”