When Queen Elizabeth II assumed the throne in 1952, Winston Churchill held the office of Prime Minister. Since that time, there have been 14 more people to hold the office, including the first woman, Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher held the office for over 11 years, the longest tenure by a Prime Minister in the 20th century.
Winston Churchill (not that Winston Churchill, the other Winston Churchill) was an American author of best-selling novels, such as “Coniston,” written between 1898-1941 and partly based upon actual experience in New Hampshire politics. His residence near Cornish, New Hampshire, ‘Harlakenden House,’ was built in 1898 and burned in 1923. It also served as a summer home for President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, 1914 and 1915.
At just less than 450 feet long, the wooden covered bridge in Cornish NH is the longest wooden covered bridge in the US, and the longest two-span covered bridge in the world. The Cornish–Windsor Covered Bridge was built in 1866 and crosses the Connecticut River between Cornish NH to the east and Windsor VT to the west. The bridge is about 100 miles east of Albany NY (gMap Google Maps), 140 miles NW of Boston (https://is.gd/kD9rGN), 150 miles west of Portland ME (Google Maps), and 150 miles NW of Providence RI (https://is.gd/fBnVLu).
Image, Cornish–Windsor Covered Bridge — https://is.gd/latO2M.
The Bridges of Madison County is a 1992 novella by author Robert James Waller; it tells the story of an Iowa farmwife who has a brief affair with a photographer who has come to the area to document the county’s covered bridges.
It became one of the best-selling books of the 20th century, and was adapted into a film in 1995 (starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood) and a Broadway musical in 2014.
Bill Clinton was elected to the Presidency in 1992. A Democrat of Arkansas, he is so far the only person from that state ever elected to the White House.
The Crater of Diamonds State Park, located near Murfreesboro, Arkansas, is one of the only places in the world where the public can search for real diamonds in their original volcanic source. Visitors to the park search in a 37-acre field, and any gems that are found can be kept by the finder.
One of the diamonds found at the park is the 40.23-carat Uncle Sam, the largest diamond ever unearthed in the U.S.
Sedan Crater in Nevada is the largest ground depression resulting from a nuclear detonation in the US. Sedan Crater is located at lat/long 37.176827, -116.046214 (gMap, Google Maps) and is approximately 90 miles NW of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, located at lat/long 36.082069, -115.172749 (gMap, Google Maps).
Sedan Crater is about 1,280 feet in maximum diameter and 320 feet in maximum depth. Its maximum lip height is 100 feet, and its mininimum lip height is 20 feet.
Sedan Crater was created in July 1962 in a shallow underground nuclear test. About 6.6 million cubic yards of earth weighing about 12 million short tons were displaced by the explosion. Two plumes of radioactive clouds rose to 10,000 feet and 16,000 feet and headed east in roughly parallel paths. Radioactivity that was detected was especially high in parts of Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Illinois. The fallout from this test contaminated more US residents than any other nuclear test.
https://is.gd/PNf0A1 < image of the nuclear explosion that created Sedan Crater.
And three days later on July 9, 1962 the United States explode a nuclear warhead in space called the Starfish Prime test.
Ninja’d !!!
In play — Starfish are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. Most examples have five arms radiating from a central disc, although there are some groups within the class that have differing numbers of arms between seven and fifteen. The Antarctic Labidiaster annulatus can have over fifty.
-“BB”-
Seven of Nine, a former Borg played by American actress Jeri Ryan (whose then-husband Jack Ryan was, for a time, the GOP opponent of Barack Obama in Illinois’s 2004 U.S. Senate race), has appeared on both Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Picard.
Jeri Ryan was the 1989 Miss Illinois. She was about 21 years old. One year later in 1990 she competed in the Miss America contest. She finished third overall, however she did win the preliminary swimsuit competition.
Not surprising. 
According to mlb.com, baseball originally was played until one team scored 21 runs. This worked just fine for a while, as most games lasted no more than six innings. But as pitchers got better, games naturally took longer, to the point where many games had to be called because of darkness. So, it was decided to set a limit on innings played. Since there were nine players on a team, nine was thus determined to be the number of innings.
Prior to 1984, over half of U.S. states had a legal drinking age below the age of 21. In an effort to combat drunk driving, in 1984, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was enacted; this law effectively forced states to raise the minimum age to legally purchase alcohol to 21, by withholding 10% of federal highway funds to any state which did not comply.
As a result of this act, by 1988, the legal age to purchase alcohol was 21 in every state, and the District of Columbia. However, a number of states placed exemptions into their laws, allowing consumption of alcohol by those under 21 in certain circumstances (such as while in the company of adult family members, or in religious ceremonies).
The National Minimum Drinking Age Act was upheld in the landmark case South Dakota v Dole. By a 7-2 vote, SCOTUS effectively held that the Federal government can go beyond its enumerated powers and legislate on powers reserved to the states using the Spending Clause.
Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and William Brennan were the dissenting votes.
The Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary in South Dakota, in the southwest corner of the state, has a herd of about 300 wild mustangs. They run free on several thousands of acres. Map here, Google Maps.
The Bureau of Land Management estimates the total American wild horse population to be about 33,000 animals. About half of this number can be found in Nevada.
Nevada’s Virginia Range, in the western part of the state near Reno and Virginia City (map, Google Maps), is one place where many wild mustangs concentrate.
The Ford Mustang has been in continuous production since 1964, making it the longest-produced Ford nameplate. The car’s name is credited to Ford stylist John Najjar, who was a fan of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane.
Velma Johnston was an animal welfare activist who lived from 1912 to 1977. Known as “Wild Horse Annie”, her contributions led to the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act being signed into law in 1971 after passing both Houses of Congress without a dissenting vote. The Act essentially created a mandate that the unregulated practice of “mustanging” was illegal and wild horses and burros would be managed humanely as “integral to the landscape” as “living symbols of the pioneer spirit of the West.”
ETA: She died at age 65 of lung cancer in Reno, Nevada on June 27, 1977. She is buried alongside her parents, husband and brother in the Mountain View Cemetery in Reno.
Nicely done, Wild Horse Annie. Bravo.
Zebras are species of horses (equus). A subspecies of the plains zebra (Equus quagga) known as the quagga was driven to extinction with the last survivor dying on August 12, 1883.