The 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was the only film in which Australian actor/model George Lazenby portrayed Bond; Lazenby was chosen when Sean Connery “retired” from the role after You Only Live Twice. Connery then returned to the role for the next film, Diamonds Are Forever.
The film depicts one of two on-screen marriages for Bond, to Countess Tracy di Vicenzo (played by Diana Rigg); the other was in You Only Live Twice, in which, as part of his cover, Bond is “married” to agent Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama).
In 1961, Diana Rigg was paid about $400 per episode for her firsst year as an unwilling sex symbol on The Avengers. She created a furor the second year, demanding three times as much, more in line with gender equality, something unknown at the time.
In 1963, Diana Rigg never returned for a third season of The Avengers. Having become a sex symbol virtually overnight on The Avengers, she said she was quite uncomfortable with that. Speaking of it in 2019 she said, “becoming a sex symbol overnight had shocked" her.
A few years later in her career she became a Bond girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). She played Tracy Bond, James Bond’s only wife, opposite George Lazenby.
The first recorded bond in history dates back to 2400 B.C., on a stone discovered at Nippur, in Mesopotamia, now present-day Iraq.
This particular bond guaranteed the payment of grain by the principal and the surety bond guaranteed reimbursement if payment was not made. Corn was the currency of that time period.
A cob of corn will always have an even number of rows of kernels.
The average cob of corn has 800 kernels in 16 rows.
The USA’s “corn belt” is comprised of Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, and Kentucky.
26 states in the US have a Native American name, including 11 of the 12 in the Corn Belt. The only one of those 12 without such a name is Indiana, whose name literally means “Land of the Indians.”
Wisconsin’s present territory has been govened from territorial capitals that are now in six different states: Marietta OH, Vincennes IN, Kaskaskia IL, Detroit MI, Burlington IA, and Belmont and Madison WI. Wisconsin then became the last state admitted east of the Mississippi/
The central portion of the city of Madison, Wisconsin is located on the “Madison Isthmus,” a narrow strip of land between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. The Wisconsin State Capitol building is situated near the narrowest point of the isthmus.
Lake Monona and Lake Mendota are formed from and connected by waters from the Yahara River. The river rises about ten miles north of Madison near the town of Windsor in northern Dane Country and flows south through several other lakes and recreation areas before it joins the Rock River approximately 14 miles (10 km) north of Janesville, WI.
Fort McCoy, Wisconsin has been in virtually constant use since 1909. In 1910 the Army named it Camp Bruce Elisha McCoy, for the father of retired Army Major General Robert Bruce McCoy who served from 1895 to 1926.
During WWII, Camp McCoy was used to house approximately 4000 German and Japanese prisoners of war, and this part of the post’s history found its way into the 2011 film ‘Fort McCoy’. While it was deactivated in 1953 following the end of hostilities in Korea, it still served as a training ground for various units of the Army Reserve, the National Guard, and the Job Corps, as well as housing various small national, state, and civilian projects. The facility was reactivated again in 1973 as a permanent training center, and was officially re-designated as Fort McCoy in September 1974. Over 100K troops are trained at the fort annually, including the period from December thru March when the fort is used for the Cold Weather Operations Course (CWOC), which trains personnel to operate specialized military equipment under winter conditions. (my present residence is located about 10 miles west of the old “main gate” off of Wisconsin Highway 16)
Dr. Leonard H. McCoy of Starfleet was born in Georgia and his father was named David, but nothing is known of his mother. His full middle name has also never been established. An episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine suggested that he studied at, or was perhaps an alumnus of, the University of Mississippi medical school.
The University of Mississippi is often referred to as ‘Ole Miss’, which is the name of the school yearbook, published annually since 1896. The name was chosen from a list submitted by students. ‘Ole Miss’ was a term slaves used to refer to the wife of a plantation owner, a fact affirmed by the student who submitted the name.
Rioting broke out at Ole Miss when U.S. Air Force veteran James Meredith tried to enroll there in September 1962. President John F. Kennedy sent in U.S. marshals and other Federal law-enforcement officers, and eventually troops, to enforce a court order admitting Meredith. Two people were killed in the rioting. Meredith was admitted to the school, but was harassed and shunned by other students during his time there.
The Judiciary Act of 1789 established the Federal Judiciary of the United States. Among other provisions, the Act created the office of the Attorney General, a United States Attorney, and a United States Marshall for each judicial district. As soon as the Act was signed into law, President George Washington nominated 13 men to become the first group of U.S. Marshals.
The United States Federal Witness Protection Program (WPP), also known as the Witness Security Program (WITSEC), is operated by the U.S. Marshals Service, and is charged with protecting threatened criminal witnesses before, during, and after trials.
The program began operation in 1971, and has handled approximately 19,000 witnesses and their family members. According to Gerald Shur, the Justice Department official who led the establishment of the program, approximately 95% of witnesses in the program are, themselves, criminals.
By some estimates, the Federal government spends over 10 million dollars annually to keep the WITSEC program going. Trials involving witnesses in the program, however, have an 89% conviction rate.
The largest agency of the United States Government, by workforce, is the semi-independence U.S. Postal Service, with 600,000 employees. According to Governing.com, “States with the most federal civilian employees as of June 2018 were California, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland and Texas. The vast majority of all federal employees – about 79 percent – work outside” the Washington, D.C. region.
The first US postage stamp was printed in 1847, and was denominated at five cents, which was about $1.50 in today’s dollars to mail a letter. For several years before that, local postmasters in a few cities printed their own stamps, following the ground-breaking model of the British 1-penny stamp in 1840.