There are 38 rivers in the United States whose main stems are at least 500 miles long. Two of these rivers, the Yukon and the Columbia, begin in Canada and flow into the United States. Three of these rivers, the Milk, and Saint Lawrence rivers and the Red River of the North—begin in the United States and flow into Canada, although the Milk re-enters the United States and flows into the Missouri River a few miles downstream from Fort Peck Dam.
The film Deliverance (1972) made famous the instrumental song, Dueling Banjos, but the song dates from 1954 when Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith composed it. The song was first widely shared in 1963 on The Andy Griffith Show when it was played by a bluegrass group playing with Andy Griffith on guitar. Ron Howard was also in the scene listening to the music.
YouTube: Dueling Banjos, Andy Griffith Show with the Darlings, with Ron Howard there - YouTube
Deliverance, about a river canoe trip, was set on the fictional Cahulawassee River but was filmed on the Chattooga River which serves as part of the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina.
The inspiration for the Cahulawassee River in Deliverance was the Coosawattee River in northwestern Georgia, which was dammed in the 1970s and contained several dangerous whitewater rapids before being flooded by Carters Lake in northern Georgia and about equidistant from Atlanta GA and Chattanooga TN.
In the US, Deliverance was the fifth-highest grossing film of 1972. The Godfather was #1 and The Poseidon Adventure was #2.
The longest river that flows into the Great Lakes is the 250-nile Grand River, which is entirely in Michigan. The Great Lakes are on a very high shelf, and nearly all water in Ontario drains northward into the Arctic Ocean. Even the Illinois River, which comes within 20 miles if the Great Lakes, then turns and goes down to the Mississippi.
“Land of Lincoln” has been displayed on Illinois license plates since 1954.
During wartime, Illinois license plates were made of a compressed fiberboars. Other early plates were made of porcelain. leather , wood , plastic, canvas, cardboard, and some states, you were just issued a number and told to make your own.
Twinkies were invented in Schiller Park, Illinois, on April 6, 1930, by James Alexander Dewar, a Canadian-born baker for the Continental Baking Company.
Sir James Dewar, a Scottish-born chemist and physicist, is best known for his invention of the vacuum flask. The design of the flask was quickly picked up by two German men who designed and marketed a household product which would keep hot liquids hot and cold liquids cold. They named their new product Thermos. Because Dewar had not obtained a patent on his invention, he realized no money from the Thermos.
The McDLT was a hamburger, introduced by McDonald’s in 1984, as an attempt to directly compete with Burger King’s Whopper.
The McDLT was packaged in a custom-made, two-compartment styrofoam container, which was marketed as being able to “keep the hot side hot, and the cool side cool” – one half of the container contained the bottom bun and the burger patty, while the other half contained the top bun and the other ingredients. (Consumers were, thus, expected to combine the two halves of the sandwich before eating.)
In 1990/91, as McDonald’s began moving away from styrofoam packaging for its sandwiches, the McDLT was discontinued.
Jason Alexander, later to achieve greater fame playing George Costanza on Seinfeld, appeared in a 1985 TV ad for McDonald’s McDLT sandwich: Jason Alexander in 1985 McDonald's Ad - YouTube
The Alexander Romance, a semi-legendary account of the life of Alexander the Great, suggests that he had heterochromia iridum, with one eye dark and the other light. However, much of the content of the Romance is fantastical, including many miraculous tales and encounters with mythical creatures such as Sirens and Centaurs.
The town of Siren, Wisconsin, was founded by Swedish immigrants, in an area where wild lilacs were abundant. The first postmaster applied to the post office to name the town Syren, which is “lilac” in Swedich. As happened in seemingly most towns, the post office got it wring, and officially declared it Siren.
Siren WI, in the northwest part of the state, is roughly midway between Minneapolis MN and Duluth MN.
There is also a Siren Island in Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced his selection of Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), his running mate in 2012, aboard the battleship USS Wisconsin, now a museum ship permanently moored in Norfolk, Va.
Prior to serving as the US Senator from Utah, Mitt Romney was the Governor of Massachusetts. Romney is the third person to be elected Governor of one state and Senator of another state. The other two individuals were Sam Houston and William Bibb. Houston was the Governor of Tennessee and later became one of the first two Senators from Texas. Bibb was a Senator from Georgia and later became the first Governor of Alabama.
Mitt Romney’s birth name is Willard Mitt Romney. He was given his middle name in tribute to his father George’s cousin Milton “Mitt” Romney, who played quarterback for the Chicago Bears in the 1920s.
The younger Romney was initially called “Billy” by his family, but by the time he was in kindergarten, he decided that he preferred his middle name, and has gone by “Mitt” ever since.
William IV was king of the United Kingdom from 1830-1837. He was known both as the ‘Sailor King’ and as ‘Silly Billy’. At the age of thirteen, he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman, did his share of the cooking and got arrested with his shipmates after a drunken brawl in Gibraltar. He was on active duty for 11 years, rising through the ranks to lieutenant and captain.
Horatio Nelson, under whom William served, wrote of him: “In his professional line, he is superior to two-thirds, I am sure, of the Naval list; and in attention to orders, and respect to his superior officer, I hardly know his equal.”
The future King William IV was the first member of the British Royal Family to visit the United States. George Washington approved a plan to kidnap him while he was visiting British-held New York City as a young Royal Navy officer during the American Revolution, but the mission did not go forward.
Prince William Sound in southern Alaska is part of the Gulf of Alaska. It separates the Kenai Peninsula to the west from Wrangell-St. Elias National Park to the east. It is here, on 24 March 1989, that the Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef.
Map of Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound >> Google Maps
King George III of England, who was the British monarch during the American Revolution, reigned for over 59 years, a record at that time. Since then, both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II have reigned for a longer period of time. George III had 15 children; his eldest son, George IV, was his successor to the throne. George IV died with no heirs, as did the second son of George III. Thus, the third son of George III, William, became King in 1830.
I could find no record of King William IV ever visiting Alaska.
King William IV had no surviving legitimate children. He fathered ten illegitimate children with his longtime mistress, the actress Dorothea Jordan. He did not marry until age 53, when it had become increasingly evident that he would become the heir to his father’s throne (as his two older brothers were both childless, and of ill health); he and his wife, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, had two daughters, but one was born prematurely and only lived for a few hours, while the other died a few months after her birth.
As William IV had no legitimate heir, after his death, his niece Victoria succeeded him as queen of the United Kingdom, while his brother Ernest Augustus succeeded him as king of Hanover.