John and Annie Glenn met when they were toddlers and were high school sweethearts; when John Glenn died they had been married 73 years. Annie Glenn is a longtime advocate for people with speech disorders and in 1983 received the first national award of the American Speech and Hearing Association for her meritorious service. In 1987, the National Association for Hearing and Speech Action awarded the first annual Annie Glenn Award for achieving distinction despite a communication disorder. Glenn presented the award to James Earl Jones as its first recipient. She was inducted into the National Stuttering Association Hall of Fame in 2004.
During his stint in the Marine Corps, Glenn flew combat missions in World War II, China and Korea. He shot down three MiG-15s, and was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen Air Medals.
During the relatively short Korean War, nearly 5 million people died. More than half of these were civilians. This was about 10 percent of Korea’s prewar population.
John Glenn was nicknamed “Magnet Ass” in Korea because of the number of flak hits he took on low-level close air support missions.
Sportscaster Chris Berman for his for his use of odd nicknames. His most famous one was pitcher Jim “Two Silhouettes on” DeShaies, who is now the Cubs TV-caster. I believe it all started with the natural Damon “Blue” Berryhill.
Dow Jones is a combination of the names of business partners Charles Dow (1851 – 1902), editor of The Wall Street Journal, and statistician Edward Jones (1856 - 1920). They were minors during the American Civil War, and neither of them lived long enough to see the Great Depression. “The Dow”, founded in 1885 as the Dow Jones Average and in 1896 as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, is a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 30 large companies. Because it only includes 30 large cap companies, it is not weighted by market capitalization, and it does not use a weighted arithmetic mean.
Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the Potomac River on January 13, 1982, killing 74 people. Edward “Ted” Kennedy Jr. was delayed on his drive to the airport and missed being on that plane by about ten minutes.
In Jeffrey Archer’s 1977 political thriller Shall We Tell The President?, Ted Kennedy defeats incumbent President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 Democratic primaries, and then defeats Republican challenger Ronald Reagan that fall, becoming President on Jan. 20, 1981. His running mate was Dale Bumpers of Arkansas.
Jim Bishop (1907 - 1987) was an American newspaper journalist and author. He wrote the bestselling book The Day Lincoln Was Shot. The book was released in 1955 after Bishop had worked on it for 24 years.
Other books written by Bishop include The Day Christ Died, The Day Christ Was Born, and The Day Kennedy Was Shot.
Jim Bishop was on Richard Nixon’s Master list of political opponents, along with a whole lot of other people.
The chess piece known in English as the bishop has a wide variety of names in other languages. In Sanskrit and in Middle Eastern languages the piece is the Elephant; in Mongolian it is the Camel; in many Germanic languages it is called the Messenger / runner; in several Slavic languages it is the marksman, shooter or hunter; in French and Romanian it is the Jester or fool.
In Don McLean’s song American Pie, the “Day the Music Died” refers to the 1959 plane crash in which Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died, which McLean confirmed many years ago. Although fans had long tried to interpret and identify other references in the song’s lyrics, McLean had always steadfastly refused to comment.
However, in 2015, when the original manuscript for the song was auctioned off, McLean finally revealed several of the song’s references (in large part confirming fans’ theories):
- “The King” is Elvis Presley
- “The Jester” is Bob Dylan
- The song’s fifth verse refers to the violence at the 1969 Altamont Free Concert
The Traveling Wilburys was a rock band formed in 1988. Members of the group included Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty. The band released two albums, one in 1988 titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, and the second in 1990, titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3. The first album won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.
Sadly, only Dylan and Lynne survive.
Jim Keltner, the session drummer and percussionist, was not listed as a Wilbury on either album, but was given the nickname “Buster Sidebury”.
Cleveland third-baseman Ken Keltner made two scintillating plays to rob Joe diMaggio of hits, in the game that ended his record streak of hitting safely in 56 consecutive games.
Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Eddie Mathews, Chipper Jones, and Brooks Robinson rank among the best-ever third basemen of all time.
New Zealand singer Lorde’s first single, “Royals,” was a worldwide hit in 2013, when she was only sixteen years old.
Lorde wrote the song’s lyrics, about the displays of wealth and luxury which many pop musicians engage in. She took the title for the song from a photograph in the July, 1976 issue of National Geographic magazine, which depicted Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett signing baseballs, with the word “Royals” prominently displayed on his jersey.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has a flag for use in her capacity as monarch for most of her non-United Kingdom realms, including New Zealand. It was adopted in 1962 and is, in my non-trivia-fact opinion, fugly: Queen's Personal New Zealand Flag - Wikipedia
The Mercury Monarch was manufactured for one generation from 1975 to 1980 as the Mercury counterpart to the Ford Granada. It was built in Mahwah NJ and Wayne MI. Sharing its chassis underpinnings with the Mercury Comet/Ford Maverick, the Monarch and Granada marked the final evolution of the 1960–1965 Ford Falcon platform architecture.
My first car was a 1966 Ford Falcon with a 289 V8 engine and a 3-on-the-tree transmission. I wish I still had that car.
In play: Because the planet Mercury has no atmosphere to retain heat, the temperatures at its equatorial regions can range from 800 degrees Fahrenheit during the day to -280 degrees Fahrenheit at night.