Leontyne Price was the first African American soprano to receive international acclaim, through her 1955 televised performance of Puccini’s Tosca, plus appearances at the San Francisco Opera in Dialogues des Carmélites and Aida.
Leontyne Price starred in the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s opera Antony and Cleopatra.
During the 1960s both Vincent Price and Christopher Lee were the top box-office draws for American International Pictures.
British actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, who often played adversaries in the Hammer horror films, were good friends off-camera.
David Prowse, best known for physically portraying Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, appeared in the Hammer films The Horror of Frankenstein, Vampire Circus, and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell. In both Frankenstein films, Prowse played the Monster.
And David Prowse was Julian the bodyguard in A Clockwork Orange.
The world’s oldest working clock is believed to be the clock in Salisbury Cathedral in Salisbury, England. The clock is thought to date from 1386 and is made of hand-wrought iron. Like other clocks of the era, it has no face and was designed to strike every hour on the hour. It has two mechanisms, both of which must be wound each day.
The very first scene of Susanna Clarke’s 2004 fantasy novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell has Norrell, a British magician or wizard, make the stone figures of York Cathedral speak.
King George V, former Duke of York, said that the “history of York is the history of England.”
Meaning much of it is Shambles?
The Shambles is a historic street in York, England, featuring preserved medieval buildings, some dating back as far as the 14th century.
Off-streets in various medieval British cities were given the name Gropecunt Lane because prostitution was practiced there. Many survived and were given cleaner approximations like Grape Lane or Grove Lane.
Grovers Mill, New Jersey, became famous when it was featured in Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds on October 30, 1938. Scriptwriter Howard Koch selected it after randomly dropping a pencil over a map of New Jersey.
Koch Industries, based in Wichita, Kansas, is the second-largest privately held company in the United States. Through its numerous subsidiaries, Koch employs 122,000 people worldwide, 62,000 in the US. Koch was founded in 1942 by chemical engineer Fred C. Koch, who developed an innovative oil-refining method. Today, Koch is headed by Charles Koch, second-born son of the founder.
Ed Koch was mayor of New York City from 1978-1989. His slogan was “How’m I doing?”
Koch lost his bid for a fourth term as NYC’s mayor to David Dinkins. Dinkins would go on to face the Republican challenger, Rudy Giuliani, and defeat him in one of the closest races the city had seen.
Bill Koch, a native of Vermont, was the first American to earn an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing, winning the silver medal in the 30km event at the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria.
The 1976 Winter Games were initially awarded to Denver, CO, but voters rejected funding in 1972. For the first (and as yet, only) time a city awarded the Winter Games rejected them. Vancouver, BC, and Salt Lake City, UT, offered to host; the IOC chose Innsbruck instead.
3 years before the 1964 Winter Olympics at Innsbruck AUT, in February 1961, the entire US figure skating team died in a plane cash on a flight from New York City to Brussels. The team was traveling to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague. All 18 members of the team perished, as well as 16 others accompanying them, including family members, coaches and skating officials.
The team was aboard Sabena Flight 548 which crashed on approach to Brussels Airport killing all 72 people on board and one person on the ground. Sabena or SABENA, Societé anonyme belge d’Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001. Sabena 548 was the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 707 in regular passenger service; it happened 28 months after the 707 airliner was placed into commercial use. It remains the deadliest plane crash to occur on Belgian soil.
The reigning US ladies’ champion, Laurie Owen, 16, appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated just two days before she perished in the crash. Her mother, Maribel Vinson and also a skater, also perished in the crash. She was the 1932 Olympic bronze medalist, a two-time World medalist (1928 silver, 1930 bronze), the 1937 North American champion, and a nine-time U.S. national champion.
The Sports Illustrated cover jinx
Sports Illustrated addressed the jinx with this cover from January 2002:
Turns out it was for SI.