The rock band the Grateful Dead formed in 1965, from the remnants of a folk group called Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions, which counted Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan among its members.
Ben and Jerry’s, the Vermont ice cream company, has been making “Cherry Garcia”, a cherry-flavored ice cream, since 1987 after the name was suggested by a loyal customer and Grateful Dead fan. When the Grateful Dead songwriter/guitarist died in 1995, Ben and Jerry’s made a special batch of the ice cream, substituting black cherries in the formulation instead of the ordinary (red) bing cherries.
-“BB”-
Vermont, the fourteenth state to join the Union and the first after the original thirteen, is now the most-heavily-forested of all the American states.
Vermont declared independence separately from the original 13 colonies, although the Continental Congress refused to recognize it. Vermont was admitted to the union as the 14th state in 1790, after 14 years as an independent republic.
During its independence, Vermont coined a currency called ‘Vermont coppers’, and operated its own postal system.
Vermont was the first state which, from inception, prohibited slavery in its state constitution.
In the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, characters’ abilities are defined by their scores in six characteristics: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
In the original version of the game, a character’s score in each of these characteristics was generated by a roll of three six-sided dice, which yielded a score of between 3 (very poor) and 18 (very good). Although most players no longer use the “3d6” method of generating ability scores, the framework for these ability scores has been maintained through multiple versions of the game.
Starting during the Han dynasty, the Chinese emperors became closely identified with dragons, claiming to be the incarnation of a divine dragon. Eventually, dragons were only allowed to appear on clothing, houses, and articles of everyday use belonging to the emperor, and any commoner with everyday items bearing the image of the dragon was to be executed.
China was ruled by an emperor for over 2000 years. The first emperor was Qin Shi Huang who took the title in 221 BC after he united all of China under one rule. The last emperor was Puyi of the Qing Dynasty who was overthrown in 1912 by the Republic of China. There were over 500 emperors of China.
Shaddam IV of House Corrino is the Emperor of Humanity at the time of the events of Frank Herbert’s epic sf novel Dune. He was played by Jose Ferrer in David Lynch’s 1984 movie adaptation, and by Giancarlo Giannini in the 2000 TV miniseries. The role has apparently not yet been cast in the film adaptation directed by Denis Villeneuve and due to be released in December of this year.
This year’s running of the Royal St. John’s Regatta will be the 204th annual event in North America’s oldest annual sporting event. There is documented proof of 1816 boat races, with credible contention that regattas were held even earlier than 1816, likely in the 18th century. Rowers compete in September in Quidi Vidi Lake in Newfoundland’s capital.
Newfoundland and Labrador is Canada’s easternmost province. This province has its own time zone, the Newfoundland Time Zone. This time zone is one of the few time zones in the world that uses a half-hour deviation from standard time; its time is 3 1/2 hours less than Coordinated Universal Time, 2 1/2 hours less during Daylight Savings Time.
Some places use a 45 minute time zone offset. E.g., Nepal Standard Time is UTC+05:45.
The time zone with the fewest people living in it and using it is the UTC -12:00 zone, in the Pacific Ocean. Two uninhabited islands (Baker Island and Howland Island), which are both U.S. territories, lie in the time zone (but, obviously, have no residents who use that time). Though there are several inhabited islands which also lie within the longitudinal area of this time zone, those islands officially use the date and time of neighboring time zones.
There was no 221 Baker Street at the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his Sherlock Holmes stories beginning in 1887, as the street numbers did not run that high. The street was later numbered to include a 221, which for many years was occupied by a bank and is now occupied by the Sherlock Holmes Museum.
Gerry Raffferty’s number-hit “Bakar Street” had no connection to Holmes. At the time Rafferty was involved in contract disputes, commuted frequently to Glasgow, and stayed in a friend’s Baker Street flat when in London.
The Bakerloo Line of the London Underground was originally known as the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway when it opened in 1906. The contraction of the name to “Bakerloo” rapidly caught on, and the official name was changed to match a few months after the opening.
The London Underground (also known as The Tube), was the world’s first underground passenger railway. Opening in 1863, it is now part of the London metro system, which handles up to 5 million passengers each day.
In the film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the titular pair of teenagers/aspiring rock musicians visit the future, as well as the past, in their time machine. In the future, they meet The Three Most Important People in the World, a trio of leaders of the utopian society which has, at its roots, the music that Bill and Ted are destined to create.
The Three were played by rock musicians: Clarence Clemons (saxophonist for the E Street Band), Martha Davis (vocalist for the Motels), and Fee Waybill (vocalist for the Tubes). However, the scriptwriters had originally envisioned casting the members of ZZ Top as The Three.
Bill & Ted Face the Music, the third movie in the B&T trilogy, is due to be released later this year, 31 years after the first film came out. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves return in the title roles: Bill & Ted Face the Music - Wikipedia
TED is an acronym for technology, entertainment and design. The first TED event was held in 1984, and featured demos of the compact disc and e-book.
The first six TED Talks were posted online on June 27, 2006. By September of that year, they had reached more than one million views.