The first federal building erected under the Constitution was the first national mint in the United States in Philadelphia. It was established in 1792.
The first coin was struck only in 1793. It was known as the chain cent because its design featured a chain circle with 15 links symbolizing the linking together of the 15 states (Vermont and Kentucky had been added). However, some people felt that it symbolized slavery instead of unity of the states. As a result, the Mint quickly replaced the chain with a wreath.
Mint Mobile is a U.S. based budget “mobile virtual network” – a mobile phone company which doesn’t own or operate its own cellular infrastructure (in Mint’s case, it operates on the T-Mobile network). Actor and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds has held a minority ownership stake in Mint Mobile since 2019, and appears as a spokesperson in Mint’s advertising.
Earlier this month, T-Mobile announced that it would be acquiring Mint Mobile.
The mint julep is a cocktail made with bourbon, sugar, water, and mint leaves. It is believed to have originated in the Southern United States in the late 1700s, and is now commonly associated with the Kentucky Derby.
Col Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr, grandson of William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition), is credited for organizing the Louisville Jockey Club in 1872. The club raised money for building quality racing facilities just outside the city. The track would soon become known as Churchill Downs, named for John and Henry Churchill, who provided the land for the racetrack which would hold the annual Kentucky Derby.
In 1806, William Clark and the expedition (band name) stopped by a large, rather odd rock pillar on the Yellowstone River. The rock contained many Native American petroglyphs dating back some 10,000 years. Not to be outdone, Clark etched his name and the date into the rock, then christened it “Pompey’s Pillar” after his nickname for the son of Toussaint Charbonneau and Charbonneau’s wife, Sacagawea.
The battleship USS Washington, which won one of the few one-on-one battleship actions of WWII between a U.S. Navy and an Imperial Japanese Navy battleship when it fatally damaged the Japanese warship Kirishima in Nov. 1942, was named after the State of Washington, not (directly, at least) George Washington.
With the introduction of the modern battleship in the 1890s. all US Navy battleships have been named after states, with one exception. The USS Kearsarge (BB-5), launched in 1898 and in service from 1900 through 1920, was named after the Kearsarge, a sloop-of-war famous for sinking the Confederate raider CSS Alabama outside the port of Cherbourg, France, during the Civil War.
CSS Alabama was built in secret in a British shipyard. After the Civil War was concluded, the US sought repayment from the British government for the damage caused by Alabama to US shipping. One proposal to settle the claime was for the UK to give the British North American colonies to the US. In the end, the two countries signed the Treaty of Washington and Britain paid approximately $15 million to the US. Canada was no longer on the trading market.
Canada became a country on July 1, 1867, when the British Parliament passed the British North America Act. The new country, officially known as the Dominion of Canada, contained four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Other provinces and territories were added in subsequent years, the last being Nunavut, added in 1999.
Canada is divided into 10 provinces and three territories. Quebec is the largest province (1,542,056 km) and Prince Edward Island is the smallest (5,660 km).
Prince Edward Island has also been known by the names Abegweit or Epekwitk (“land cradled in the waves”) in the Mi’kmaq language of the island’s historical indigenous residents, Île Saint-Jean (“St. John’s Island”) by the French colonists of Acadia, and Eilean a’ Phrionnsa (“The Island of the Prince”) by Scottish immigrants.
In Pet Sematary, we learn the sign on the titular cemetery is misspelled by the children who created it as a resting place for their fallen pets, an error replicated by King in the title.
Stephen King has one of the most twisted, brilliant minds out there.
In play — After attending the University of Maine, 1966-1970, Stephen King became an English teacher, and he wrote in his spare time. One of his first attempts at a novel was Carrie, about a girl with telekinetic powers pushed too far by school bullies. King was disappointed with the first few pages of the manuscript, however, and literally tossed them in the trash. His wife, Tabitha, retrieved them and encouraged him to finish the story. After dozens of rejections, he finally found interest at Doubleday Publishing. Carrie, which arrived in bookstores in 1974, launched King’s career. In 1976, Carrie was released as a movie starring Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, and Piper Laurie.
As King’s fans know, he adopted the pen name Richard Bachman early in his career. This was for a couple of reasons, one of which was to increase circulation for his work. Publishers were loath to publish more than one novel per author per year in those days, and King wanted a larger audience. He released the Bachman books with very little publicity, just to see if it was his talent or just dumb luck that his books were doing well.
The photo used for the Bachman books was actually a picture of Richard Manuel, who was King’s agent’s insurance broker.
Canadian guitarist/vocalist Randy Bachman was a founding member of two popular rock bands, The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Bachman was the longtime host of a music program on CBC Radio One, “Vinyl Tap,” and two of his children are also in the music industry: his son Tal Bachman is a recording artist, and his daughter Lorelei Bachman is a songwriter and musician.