The Spirit of St. Louis, the plane which Charles Lindbergh flew on the first solo transatlantic flight, has been on display at the Smithsonian Institution since 1928. Since 1975, the plane has been displayed in the atrium of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.
On Maui, the Palapala Ho‘Omau Congregational Church in Hana is a 60 mile drive from Kihei, and 75 miles from Lahaina. Charles Lindbergh is buried there.
In April 1941, Charles Lindbergh resigned his reserve commission in the US Army Air Service after President Franklin D. Roosevelt criticized him publicly for his isolationist views. He was not reinstated to the then-US Air Force Reserves until 1954, having been nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In March of 1932, Charles Lindbergh’s infant son Charles Jr. was kidnapped and murdered in what the American people called the “Crime of the Century”. The case prompted the U.S. Congress to establish kidnapping as a federal crime if the kidnapper crosses state lines with the victim.
Crime of the Century was a 1974 album by English progressive rock band Supertramp. It was the band’s breakthrough album in many countries, though it was only a minor hit in the U.S. Well-known songs on the album include “Bloody Well Right” and “Dreamer.”
Mary Tudor, who was Queen of England and Ireland from 1553 until her death in 1558, earned the nickname “Bloody Mary” because of her practice of burning Protestants at the stake. During her reign, over 300 Protestants were executed in this manner.
400 years later, a cocktail made of vodka, tomato juice, and various spices may or may not have been named after her.
Mary, Queen of Scots was executed for treason against Elizabeth I of England. Part of her defense was that as a ruler of a foreign power and not a subject of the queen she could not, by definition, commit treason against her.
Mary, Queen of Scots’ mother was known as Mary of Guise or Mary of Lorraine. Henry VIII asked for her hand at one point, but she said, “I may be a tall woman, but I have a very small neck.” This was after Anne Boleyn’s execution.
Laraine Newman is an actress and comedian, best known for being one of the original “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” on the first five seasons of Saturday Night Live. While working on SNL, Newman developed an addiction to heroin, as well as an eating disorder; she also began a relationship with musician Mark Mothersbaugh, after his band, Devo, appeared on the show.
The region of Alsace-Lorraine in central Europe has been claimed by both France and Germany and has belonged to each nation at some point. It is currently part of France, although a large percentage of the population speaks in a German dialect.
In the Alsace region is Niederbronn-les-Bains (French) called Bad Neiderbronn when owned by Germany. It was founded by the Romans for its baths and its coat of arms reflects this. A fountain of water pours from a cloud into a gold basin. Through a hole in the base, a fountain then pours out of the basin.
Despite rumors to the contrary, William Howard Taft never became stuck in a bathtub. Taft was a man of larger than normal girth, and had a special tub built for him. This tub could seat four adult men.
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and the tenth chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, the only person to hold both offices. Taft was elected president in the 1908 election, but was defeated by Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 election. In 1921, President Warren Harding appointed Taft to the chief justice position, and he held that office until a month before he died in 1930.
Taft’s title was actually “Chief Justice of the United States” and not “Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.”
This is largely due to the efforts of Salmon P. Chase, an Ohioan who was appointed Chief Justice by President Lincoln in 1864. Chase was somewhat egotistical and wanted a grander title than it had originally been, so he dubbed himself “Chief Justice of the United States” (and thus, not just of the Supreme Court itself). Congress went along shortly afterwards, and later Chief Justices have all borne the modified title. On the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice is primus inter pares, but he is not the boss. The current title emphasizes the Chief Justice’s role as the leader of the judiciary, a coequal branch of the Federal government.
For further information, see Robert J. Steamer’s Chief Justice: Leadership and the Supreme Court (University of South Carolina Press 1986); The Office of the Chief Justice, published by the White Burkett Miller Center of Public Affairs (University of Virginia 1984), and 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1.
Salmon is a boy’s given name and surname of Hebrew, French, and English origin. It ultimately derives from the Hebrew name Solomon, which derives from the word shalom, meaning “peace.” In Middle English and Old French, the name became Salomon, later shortened to Sauman or Salmon.
As for the fish of the same name, it’s associated with prosperity, abundance, and rebirth in many cultures, making it a worthy namesake for baby!
According to the Bible, Solomon was born the second-born child of David and Bathsheba (widow of Uriah the Hittite). His elder brother died seven days after birth, a prophesied punishment from God regarding the way that he had Uriah killed.
David confessed to his sin and wrote Psalm 51 about it. “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou might be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.”
The British master detective Sherlock Holmes alludes to the story of King David, Bathsheba and Uriah in the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Crooked Man,” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
There Was a Crooked Man… is a 1970 American Western film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Kirk Douglas and Henry Fonda. It was the only western made by Mankiewicz. It was written by David Newman and Robert Benton, their first script after Bonnie and Clyde.
-And He Built a Crooked House is a story by Robert A. Heinlein wherein a house becomes a tesseract after an earthquake.
Crooked House is a Agatha Christie novel that centred on the murder of a wealthy man who always lived on the edge of the law and made lots of money in shady ways, but never (quite) crossed into illegal behaviour.
The Detective Inspecter looking into the murder summed him up as someone who never did anything illegal, but whenever the authorities discovered his latest shady business venture, they had to pas laws to prohibit it in the future.
The book was made into a movie with Glen Close in 2017.