Michael Collins is a 1996 film, starring Liam Neeson as the titular figure, a leader in Ireland’s struggle for independence in the early 20th century. The film also starred Aidan Quinn, Alan Rickman, Stephen Ray, Julia Roberts, Ian Hart, and Brendan Gleeson.
A Tom Collins is a cocktail made with gin, sugar syrup, lemon juice, and soda. The first recipe for the drink appeared in 1876 in Jerry Thomas’ Bar-Tender’s Guide.
Michael Collins was one of the Irish delegates who negotiated the Treaty that ended the Anglo-Irish War. It fell short of full independence for the Irish Free State.
On signing the Treaty, one of the English negotiators, F.E. Smith, commented “I may have signed my political death warrant tonight”.
Collins replied “I may have signed my actual death warrant.”
Collins was dead within a year, shot in an ambush in the short but bloody Irish Civil War.
When Apollo 11’s LEM (lunar excursion module) returned from the moon carrying Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin to dock with the CSM (command and service module) carrying Michael Collins, Collins took a photo of the approaching LEM with the earth in the background.
Of all photos Collins took on the entire mission, this one photo has become the most iconic because the photo contains everyone who has ever lived in the entirety of mankind, except for one: Collins himself.
The world’s oldest photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras, was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827.
At least five different songs, by different artists, titled “Photograph,” have reached the top twenty on the U.S. Billboard charts:
- Ringo Starr (#1, 1973)
- Def Leppard (#12, 1983)
- Nickelback (#2, 2005)
- Ed Sheerhan (#10, 2015)
- J. Cole (#14, 2018)
Soviet affairs scholar S. Frederick Starr, during his presidency of Oberlin College, advised President Ronald Reagan before his 1986 Reykjavik summit with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, and was at one time rumored to be under consideration for appointment as U.S. Secretary of Education.
Rod Paige was appointed Secretary of Education by George W. Bush for his “Houston Miracle” while superintendent of Houston Independent School District. The Miracle was attributed to his policy of student testing and teacher accountability grading but it came out later that the “Miracle” was based in a large part on fabricated data.
According to Wiki, 5 of the 12 most populous cities in the United States are in Texas. Houston is 4th, San Antonio is 7th, Dallas is 9th, Austin is 11th, and Fort Worth is 12th.
The International Boundary Marker, also known as the Republic of Texas Granite Marker, is a boundary marker located on the Louisiana-Texas border near the junction of Texas FM 31 and Louisiana Highway 765, southeast of Deadwood, Texas.
Vermont and Texas were both independent republics before joining the Union. Vermont, in 1791, became the first state to join the Union after the original thirteen.
Vermonter Ida May Fuller was the first to receive a Social Security check. She picked up it up in 1940 and lived to be 100.
The lowest number on a Social Security card (SSN 001-01-0001) was issued to Social Security Board Chairman John G. Winant (Winant was the former three-time Governor of New Hampshire). Chairman Winant declined to have the SSN registered to him. Then it was offered to the Federal Bureau of Old Age Benefits’ Regional Representative of the Boston Region, John Campbell, who likewise declined. It was finally decided not to offer this SSN as a token of esteem but instead to issue it to the first applicant from New Hampshire. This proved to be Grace D. Owen of Concord, New Hampshire, who applied for her number on November 24, 1936 and was issued the first card typed in Concord, which, because of the area number scheme, also happened to be the card with the lowest possible number.
“Jazzy Spies,” also known as “Jazz Numbers,” is a series of short animated films, which aired on the children’s TV series Sesame Street for many years, beginning with the show’s premiere in 1969.
Each of the nine cartoons featured one number, from 2 through 10, illustrated through unusual, sometimes psychedelic animation, and music that included vocals by Jefferson Airplane singer Grace Slick. Slick’s first husband, Jerry Slick, had been involved in the production of the shorts.
British dukes, duchesses and archbishops are all entitled to the style “Your Grace.”
(Heh, never can pass up a good Simpsons reference.)
Duchess was the name of Mallory Archer’s Afghan hound. It was also used as a code name for Sterling Archer, her son, although she claimed it was randomly assigned to him by a computer. Duchess was also the working title for the TV series Archer in pre-production.
The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox is a 1976 Western romantic comedy, which featured Goldie Hawn and George Segal in the title roles, as a pair of con artists who fall in love.
Though the film wasn’t particularly successful, Hawn did receive a Golden Globe nomination for her performance.
Fossils of the extinct fox Vulpes riffautae represent the earliest known canidae in the New World.
The fennec fox is the smallest species of fox on the planet. Standing 8 inches tall, and 20 - 24 inches from nose to tail, these hardy vulpine live in the Northern African and Arabian deserts, where they mostly roam at night, eating plants, insects, lizards, and rodents.
The largest non-polar desert in the world is the Sahara Desert, located on the continent of Africa. At least 12 countries lay claim to land within the Sahara, which is more than four times larger than the next largest, the Great Australian Desert.