Brian May, the guitarist of the rock band Queen, does not use a traditional plastic plectrum (guitar pick); he plays using a British sixpence coin as a plectrum. May prefers sixpences minted prior to ~1950, as they have a higher nickel content (making the metal somewhat softer), and usually uses a 1947 sixpence, signifying the year of his birth.
The system used in the UK before 1971 where there are 12 pence in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound is known as the Carolingian monetary system.
Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson saw to the passage of a 2022 law requiring presentation of identification before citizens could vote in UK elections. He was turned away from the polls this week for forgetting to bring his ID.
Canadians were British subjects up to 1946, then became British subjects and Canadian citizens.
My dad always preferred to be a British subject.
In The Great Fire of London, of September 1666, only a few deaths were officially recorded, and deaths are traditionally believed to have been few — likely in the single digits, and possibly only 6 people. But approximately 13,000 houses, 80 churches, and 3 western city gates (Ludgate, Newgate, and Aldersgate) were destroyed.
On October 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire – a large forest fire – burned through portions of northeastern Wisconsin, including the town of Peshtigo (about 50 miles north of the city of Green Bay). It was the deadliest known wildfire in recorded history, killing between 1,500 and 2,500 people, and burning approximately 1.2 million acres of land.
The Peshtigo Fire occurred on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, and despite the greater loss of life and damage in the Wisconsin fire, it is not nearly as well-known today.
More than 20 years after the Great Fire, The World Columbian Exposition of 1893 revealed a rebuilt Chicago, nicknamed “White City” for being lit up with newly invented light bulbs and electric power.
Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison Sr. was assassinated two days before the closing of The World Columbian Exposition of 1893. His memorial replaced the planned closing celebration.
Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison Sr. was assassinated in his home by Patrick Eugene Prendergast, who shot him 3 times because he mistakenly thought the mayor would appoint him corporation counsel of the city. Prendergast was defended by Clarence Darrow who tried to have him acquitted by reason of insanity, but he was executed by hanging less than a year after the shooting.
Clarence Darrow was born in Farmdale, Ohio on April 18, 1857. A very skilled trial lawyer, he nevertheless had some odd ideas about jury selection. He distrusted prospective jurors whose eyes were close to their noses because, he thought, that indicated that they were narrow-minded.
Clarence Darrow attended Allegheny College for one year but left because of financial concerns. He taught for three years before entering the University of Michigan Law School, but again left after one year, deciding to become an apprentice at a law firm. He eventually passed the bar exam on his first attempt, and went on to become one of the most famous lawyers in the country.
Per Wiki, “In 1962, [later Unabomber Theodore “Ted”] Kaczynski enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics in 1964 and 1967, respectively.” My father was a student at the University’s law school at the time; I shudder a bit at the thought that he and Kaczynski might have passed on the campus at some time.
Yeah that’s a little too creepy.
In play: Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline of any state in the country, with 3,288 miles of shoreline along the Great Lakes.
The combined total shoreline of the Great Lakes (including islands) is 10,210 miles.
Canada has the longest total coastline length of any country.
In fact, Canada has 56% of the world’s coastline with over 200,000 km of the world’s 356,000 km. After Norway, Indonesia and Greenland, the United States has the ninth most coastline with almost 20,000 km. 
Unfortunately, a lot of it is hard to access. No bargains on beachfront communities anywhere where the population could easily reach the water.
Coastline does not have a well-defined length.. Measurements of the length of a coastline behave like a fractal being different at different scale intervals. The smaller the scale interval, so the more detailed the measurement, the longer the coastline will be. This “magnifying” effect is greater for convoluted coastlines than for smoother ones, and is known as the “coastline paradox”
If that is hard to picture, it’s all explained here:
Canada has had a single father-son pair of Prime Ministers, Pierre and Justin Trudeau. The United States has had two father-son pairs of Presidents, John and John Quincy Adams, and George H.W. and George W. Bush.
In the Bible, Ecclesiastes 6:9 says “Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.” Some scholars say this is King Solomon’s version of the proverb "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.
No British king, including Henry VIII and Edward VIII, has ever been numbered IX or higher. No reigning British queen has been numbered higher than II, including Elizabeth II.
Currently there is no Interstate 9 in the US.
Plans are in place to bring a 304 mile stretch of California state highway 99, from Wheeler Ridge (of the Tehachapi Mountains) in the south to Sacramento in the north, up to interstate highway standards and make it the new Interstate 9.
CA-99 is a remnant of US-99 which was decommissioned in 1972 after I-5 functionally replaced it for long-distance traffic. CA-99 is currently 425 miles long and is California’s second longest highway behind CA-1 along the Pacific coast. CA-1 is 656 miles long.
Today MT-200, Montana State Highway 200, is the longest route signed as a state highway in the US. MT-200 is 706 miles long and goes from near Fairview MT in the east to near Heron MT in the west.
The geographical coordinates of MT-200’s endpoints are given here:
MT-200, E end ▲ 47.8627, -104.0414, near Fairview MT.
MT-200, W end ▲ 48.09209, -116.04905, near Heron MT.
The west end of MT-200 follows the Clark Fork River, or the Clark Fork of the Columbia River, which is the largest river by volume in Montana.