Lincoln, Nebraska is one of four US state capital cities named after US Presidents. The others are Madison, Wisconsin, Jefferson City, Missouri, and Jackson, Mississippi.
Robert Todd Lincoln’s last public appearance was at the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial, built in honor of his father, in Washington, D.C. President Warren G. Harding, Republican of Ohio, was also in attendance; he was born in 1865, the same year in which the late President died.
Warren G Harding was a respected president during his life, but after his death in office several scandals within his cabinet erupted. And with allegations of infidelity, including children fathered out of wedlock, historians have concluded the Harding administration one of the most corrupt in history, and Harding as one of the worst Presidents to serve office.
Tonya Harding was one of the U.S.'s leading figure skaters in the early 1990s, but was banned from the sport in 1994, after being implicated in an assault on her rival, fellow American skater Nancy Kerrigan.
Later, Harding was a professional boxer for a time, and competed on the TV shows Dancing With the Stars and Worst Cooks in America (which she won).
Warren G. Harding was the last Ohioan to be elected President and, with John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama, one of the three most recent to go to the White House directly from the U.S. Senate.
In 2007 while campaigning in Vinton, Iowa, Obama referred to the infamous Olympian by saying, “Folks said there’s no way Obama has a chance unless he goes and kneecaps the person ahead of us, does a Tonya Harding.”
When asked for a reaction, Tonya stated, “Obviously he didn’t have enough people looking at him.” She added that any publicity is good publicity, and people are still willing to pay money to come and see her.
Vinton Harper was the youngest child behind his sisters Eunice and Ellen as portrayed on The Carol Burnett Show and later Mama’s Family. His son was Vinton Jr. but went by the nickname Buzz.
In “The Family” sketches on The Carol Burnett Show, Mama (Vicki Lawrence) had three sons, all portrayed by guest stars: Phillip (played by Roddy McDowell), Larry (played by Alan Alda), and Jack (played by Tommy Smothers).
When the characters from the Carol Burnett sketches were adapted for the Mama’s Family series, the three sons from the sketches were retconned away, and replaced with one son, Vinton (played by Ken Berry).
Carol Burnett, born in 1933, was the daughter of alcoholic parents. Her parents divorced when she was a small child, and she moved in with her maternal grandmother in a small apartment in Hollywood. Her grandma would frequently take Carol and her younger sister to the movies, where they would sometimes liberate a few rolls of toilet paper to take home.
ETA: Burnett is still going strong at age 89; she appeared in Better Call Saul earlier this year.
Saturday Night Live is the longest-running comedy/variety show on TV. The guest hosts have ranged from youngest (Drew Barrymore, 7, in 1982) to oldest (Betty White, 88, in 2010). Carol Burnett, at 89, would become the oldest person to host the show. There is ongoing support from fans and artists alike to have her host. Burnett has stated she would welcome the opportunity if asked.
Gilda Radner was Saturday Night Live’s first official cast member. She was the first person that Lorne Michaels hired.
Gilda Radner’s screen debut was a bit part in a party scene in the 1973 Jack Nicholson comedy-drama The Last Detail, about two Navy Shore Patrolmen taking a prisoner to Portsmouth Naval Prison near Kittery, Maine.
Gilda Radner was married twice: first to guitarist and bandleader G.E. Smith, and then to actor Gene Wilder.
Radner was also in relationships with a number of fellow comic actors, including Martin Short, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis; a friend of hers has been quoted as saying that Radner found it difficult to watch the film Ghostbusters, as it featured so many of her former romantic partners.
Dan Aykroyd pitched the concept of Ghostbusters as a more serious and scarier movie than what was produced. Dan intended to have Eddie Murphy and John Belushi appear with him as the titular crew. Dan and Harold Ramis wrote the final screenplay, except for the part of Louis Tully, which was written by Rick Moranis. Initially, the role of Tully was written for John Candy; after he withdrew, Rick was offered the role.
A CGI version of Harold Ramis appears at the end of Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Harold Godwineson was the last Anglo-Saxon King of the English. Elected king by the witangemot in January 1066, he successfully defeated an invasion by Norsemen led by Harald Hardarada in northern England, but was defeated in turn by William Duke of Normandy at the battle of Hastings.
King Charles III retains the title Duke of Normandy, a vestige of British rule of the Channel Islands. The title remains male regardless of the sex of the British monarch; Queen Elizabeth II was also Duke of Normandy. The toast among Channel Islanders is now to “The King, our Duke.”
Charles I reigned as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1625-1649. His reign was continually marked by strife and rebellion, as he sought to govern without consent of Parliament. In 1642, his armies fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War, which resulted in a defeat of his forces in 1645. In January of 1649, he was tried, convicted, and executed for high treason.
Thus far, Charles I is the only English monarch to have been tried and executed for treason.
Tomoya Kawakita was the last person convicted of treason in the US, in 1952. He was sentenced to death for tormenting American prisoners of war. But President Dwight Eisenhower commuted the sentence to life imprisonment and Kawakita was eventually released from prison and barred from the U.S.
Kawakita held dual citizenship (he was born in California to Japanese parents), and prior to WWII lived in Japan. When war broke out, he worked as an interpreter and supervised POWs at a metals processing plant. Following Japan’s surrender he returned to the US and enrolled at the University of Southern California. Soon after, he was spotted by a former POW and arrested.
In 1963, just a month before his assassination, President John F. Kennedy ordered Kawakita released from prison on the condition that he leave the United States and be banned from ever returning.
Mary, Queen of Scots was executed by Queen Elizabeth I of England. Part of Mary’s defense was as ruler of a foreign sovereign power and not being a subject of Elizabeth’s, she owed the English Queen no duty of loyalty and therefore could not, by definition, commit treason.