Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s birth name was Joan Ruth Bader. She went by Joan until grade school; because her class had several girls in it named Joan, Bader’s mother suggested that her teacher call her “Ruth,” to avoid confusion.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Jimmy Carter, and to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton. Both men are Southern Democrats (Carter from Georgia, and Clinton from Arkansas) with last names beginning with “C,” and both are still alive, having outlived the judge and justice they appointed.
Bill Clinton was the first Democratic President after Jimmy Carter. Bill did not invite Jimmy to his first inauguration.
The DeWitt Clinton of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was an American steam locomotive and the first working steam locomotive built for service in New York state. The locomotive was built in 1831 and began operations the same year. It was named in honor of DeWitt Clinton, the governor of New York State. The locomotive was scrapped in 1833. The New York Central Railroad built a replica of the locomotive for display at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. This replica would continue to be used for promotional purposes until it was purchased by Henry Ford in 1934. Since then, it has been on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
The largest museum in the world is the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. It is comprised of 19 galleries and museums, several research stations, and the National Zoological Park. It houses more than 137 million pieces documenting the history of America.
The Smithsonian Institution is named for British scientiest James Smithson, whose estate was bequeathed to the United States, “under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men.”
Smithson never married and had no children; therefore, when he wrote his will, he left his estate to his nephew, or his nephew’s family if his nephew died before Smithson. If his nephew were to die without heirs, however, Smithson’s will stipulated that his estate be used “to found in Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men”.
Smithson died in Genoa, Italy on 27 June 1829, aged 64. Six years later, in 1835, his nephew died without heir, setting in motion the bequest of 104960 sovereigns (approx $508,318 at that time, or about $12 million in today’s dollars) to the United States.
In this way Smithson became the patron of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. despite having never visited the United States.
-“BB”-
“Vse zene”, meaning “All to wife” in the Czech language, was the shortest valid will in the world. It was written and dated 19 January 1967 by Herr Karl Tausch of Langen, Hessen, West Germany.
In 1906, the will of Thorne V. Dickens was the shortest will that was contested. It was subsequently admitted to probate in English law. The will consisted of only three words “All for mother” whereby “mother” was his wife and not his mother.
Bill Cosby, Raquel Welch, Harvey Keitel, and Larry Hagman starred in a 1976 movie called Mother, Jugs & Speed. The movie also had Dick Butkus in a smaller role. Butkus, a former pro football player who played nine seasons with the Chicago Bears from 1965 to 1973, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1979. He did some acting in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
Butkus never played in the Super Bowl, but for Super Bowl IV in 1970 he pitched Prestone antifreeze for a TV commercial. The ad was the first highly successful celebrity endorsement in Super Bowl advertising.
Any list ranking the “greatest” of anything is certainly subjective and open to criticism, but virtually all rankings of the greatest linebackers in NFL history include Dick Butkus. Other names that almost always appear on this list are Lawrence Taylor, Mike Singletary, Jack Ham, Jack Lambert, and Junior Seau.
Jack Ham played outside linebacker at Penn State, then for the Pittsburgh Steelers. His nickname was “Dobre Shunka,” which is Polish (or perhaps Slovak) for “Good Ham;” this was also the name of his fan club, started by Steelers fans in the 1970s.
ousted!
and Ray Nitschke (fixed it for ya…!) You can’t really single out Butkus without mentioning Nitschke in the same breath. Those two guys were what other linebackers tried to be.
In play:
The Pittsburgh Steelers logo is taken from the “Steelmark”, a logo created by U.S. Steel in the late 1950s. In addition, the Steelers are the only NFL team that does not display their logo on both sides of their helmets.
-“BB”-
The formation of United States Steel Corporation included Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel Company, centered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Elbert Gary’s Federal Steel Company, centered in Chicago. In 1900, with the aid of J.P. Morgan, Carnegie’s interests were purchased for more than $492 million and the companies merged to form U.S. Steel, adding National Steel, National Tube, American Steel and Wire, American Steel Hoop, American Sheet Steel, and American Tinplate to the nucleus of the Carnegie and Federal Companies. U.S. Steel was capitalized at $1.4 billion and became the first billion-dollar corporation in American history.
The earliest known production of steel has been identified in pieces of ironware excavated from sites in Asia Minor; those pieces are believed to be dated around 1800 B.C. Steel is now one of the most common manmade materials in the world, with more than 1.6 billion tons produced annually.
The United States has had three presidential elections in years ending in '00: Thomas Jefferson of Virginia was elected in 1800, William McKinley of Ohio in 1900, and George W. Bush of Texas in 2000.
Forbes magazine found that 43 states have at least one billionaire resident. Only seven states—Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia—have no known billionaire residents.
Ben & Jerry’s is a brand of ice cream and other frozen novelties. The company was founded in 1978, in Burlington, Vermont, by childhood friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, after they took a correspondence course in ice cream making from Penn State. The brand became successful, in part due to its quirky sense of humor, as well as the social conscience which was reflected in its policies.
Although Cohen and Greenfield sold the company to Unilever in 2000, and are no longer actively involved in the company’s operation, it is still based in South Burlington, Vermont, and still operates two manufacturing plants in Vermont.
In 1964, six masked thieves scattered pedestrians as they drove a Jaguar Mark X up the pavement at the Burlington Arcade in London, England, continued through the entrance, and came to a stop outside the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Association. They smashed through the glass shopfront, grabbing £35,000 worth of jewelry and drove away. The thieves were never caught. Gates were installed so this could never happen again.
99 percent of the world’s gold is buried thousands of miles below the surface of the planet. Some 1.6 quadrillion tons of gold lie within the core of the Earth. All this gold, if brought to the surface, would form a layer of the metal 16 inches thick over the entire planet.