The double-headed eagle is a heraldic symbol which is traditionally associated with empire. In history, it was used by the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, among many others. The symbol is currently used in the coats of arms of Russia, Serbia, Albania, and Montenegro.
In Leonard Wibberley’s ‘Grand Fenwick’ novels (“The Mouse That Roared”, “The Mouse on the Moon”, and others), the fictional Duchy of Grand Fenwick’s national flag bears a two-headed eagle saying "Aye" from one beak and "Nay" from the other.
-“BB”-
The Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd named themselves after their gym teacher and basketball coach, a gentleman named Leonard Skinner. A run-in with him helped get the boys suspended. As a way of getting back, they named the band for Skinner, changing the vowels to avoid a lawsuit.
Robert Picardo was nominated for an Emmy for his role as Coach Cutlip on The Wonder Years before being cast as the Emergency Medical Hologram (the EMH or the Doctor) on Star Trek: Voyager. He now serves on the board of directors of the The Planetary Society, which supports space exploration.
Ernie Pantusso, known to everyone as “Coach,” was one of the original characters on the television comedy Cheers. In the show, Coach had been Sam Malone’s coach with the Red Sox; after Sam retired from baseball and bought a bar, Coach joined Sam at the bar as a bartender.
Coach was played by actor Nicholas Colasanto, though former MLB umpire Ron Luciano had also auditioned for the role. When Colasanto died of a sudden heart attack in 1985, near the end of the third season of Cheers, the character of Coach was written out of the show (with the explanation that he, like the actor, had died), and was replaced by Woody Boyd (played by Woody Harrelson).
In 2001, the office of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees gave the organization’s highest award, the Nansen medal, to Luciano Pavarotti. The award honored Pavarotti for having raised more money in benefit performances and other volunteer work than any other private individual. Starting in the 1980s, he sung on behalf of refugees from Bosnia, Kosovo, Cambodia, Guatemala, Liberia and Afghanistan, as well as for orphans and victims of wars and natural disasters.
The country of Liberia began as a settlement of the American Colonization Society, who believed that black people would face better chances for freedom and prosperity in Africa than in the United States. Liberia declared its independence in 1846, and was the first African republic to do so.
During the American Revolutionary War, more American soldiers died as British prisoners of war than in battle.
never mind
The largest Confederate prisoner-of-war camp was Andersonville, located near the city in Georgia of the same name. It opened in early 1864 and was in service for 14 months. During that time, approximately 45,000 Union soldiers were confined there. Of that number, almost 13,000 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, or exposure.
Confederate prisoners of war were held at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas National Park, in Florida. Built of over 16 million bricks, Fort Jefferson is the largest brick masonry structure in the Americas.
The Geneva Conventions are a series of treaties establishing international laws for humanitarian treatment during war. The treaties cover the rights of prisoners of war, protection for the wounded and sick during wartime, and protections for civilians in war zones.
There are four Geneva Conventions in total; the first was adopted in 1864, on the heels of the Battle of Solferino, and led to the establishment of the International Red Cross. The latest of the four Conventions was adopted in 1949.
Happy Memorial Day 2020, everybody!
Members of the American Red Cross frequently put USA flags at military headstones on Memorial Day. Since 1970, the holiday has been observed on the last Monday of May. It was observed on May 30 since 1868, to 1970.
Since 1868, Doylestown PA has held annual Memorial Day parades which it claims to be the nation’s oldest continuously running.
Since 1868, Grafton WV has held annual Memorial Day parades.
Since 1845, Rochester WI has held annual Memorial Day parades.
The first presidential nominating convention in the United States was held by the Anti-Masonic Party in 1831. The National Republican Party also held a convention later that year, and the first Democratic National Convention was held in May of 1832.
Some May celebrations around the world, in addition to Memorial Day in the USA, are Victoria Day in Canada, known as National Patriots Day in Quebec and celebrated on the Monday preceding May 25.
In Russia, May 9 is Victory Day, which commemorates the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies in World War II. In Europe, the day is celebrated on May 8 and is known as V-E Day. The surrender was signed late in the evening on May 8, where it was already May 9 in Russia, so Russians observe the holiday a day later.
The Netherlands celebrates Dodenherdenking, Dutch for “Rememberance Day,” on May 4. It commemorates all Dutch civilians and soldiers who have died in conflicts since World War II. At 8 p.m., the country observes two minutes of silence.
The “Pennsylvania Dutch” are a cultural group, originating from settlers who came to what is now Pennsylvania, primarily in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
The term “Dutch” in this context is a corruption of the term “Deitsch,” which was used to describe the group in the dialect of Palatine German, which the original immigrants spoke; the immigrants were not, in fact, from the Netherlands, but rather from the Holy Roman Empire, from regions which are now in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
The Erie Triangle in the northwest corner of Pennsylvania creates a non-orthogonal notch in the state’s borders with Ohio, New York, and Lake Erie. The Erie Triangle, of roughly 300 square miles, was the subject of several competing colonial-era claims. Eventually, it was acquired by the federal government and sold to Pennsylvania so that the state would have access to a freshwater port on Lake Erie.
The “Black Triangle” area (covering northern Bohemia in the Czech Republic, southern Saxony in Germany and part of lower Silesia in Poland) was one of the most polluted areas in Central Europe. For decades, industrially produced air pollutants (chiefly sulfur dioxide), water pollution, acid rain and other effects took an enormous toll on the health of local residents and the surrounding environment.
After the Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, the three nations acted to cut emissions, resulting in significant environmental improvement.
Basketball’s triangle offense is an offensive strategy whose basic ideas were initially established by Hall of Fame coach Sam Barry at USC. Barry‘s system was further developed by former Houston Rockets and Kansas State University head coach Tex Winter, who played for Barry in the late 1940s. Winter later served as an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls in the 1980s and 1990s and for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000s, mostly under head coach Phil Jackson.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (March 25, 1911) is the deadliest industrial disaster in New York City history and one of the deadliest in US history. A fire broke out on the 8th floor of the Asch Building on Washington Place near Washington Square Park. Since the doors to the stairwells and exits were locked (a then-common practice to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft), many of the workers who could not escape from the burning building jumped in desperation from the high windows. Others fell victim to the fire itself or the effects of smoke inhalation.
The disaster resulted in the deaths of 146 garment workers – 123 women and girls, the youngest of which was 14, and 23 men. It also led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (ILGWU), which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers.
The building, now officially called the Brown Building although more commonly referred to as the “Flatiron Building”, still stands and has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
-“BB”-