The most commonly spoken dialect in China is Mandarin Chinese, with Cantonese being the second most common. Officially, there are ten different varieties of Chinese, although some sources only list eight, because two are only spoken by less than 1% of the population.
Romansh is the fourth official language of Switzerland, spoken by only 0.5 of the country’s population. Most native speakers of the language live in the Graubunden canton. It is sometimes confused with Italian since it is also a Romance language, but the two languages are not mutually intelligible. Romansh originates from the spoken Latin brought to the region by Roman soldiers, merchants, and officials following the conquest of the area by the Romans in 15 BC.
Women in Switzerland did not gain the right to vote in federal elections until a referendum in February 1971. A previous referendum on women’s suffrage in February 1959 was rejected by a hefty majority (67%) of Switzerland’s men; the vote in 1971 was 65.7% in favor.
The first constitution of the colony of New Jersey in 1776 gave women the right to vote, as long as they had a net worth of at least 50 pounds and had resided in the colony for at least 12 months. This measure restricted voting to single women, as married women could not own property.
This measure was changed in 1807, when voting was restricted to tax-paying, white male citizens.
The “Channel Island cattle” breeds are three breeds of cattle which were developed on the Channel Islands, in between England and France. The breeds are the Jersey, the Guernsey, and the now-extinct Alderney; all three originated on islands of the same names.
The Channel Islands of California are 8 islands off of the Santa Barbara coastline. From north to south they are named San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, Anacapa, Santa Barbara, Santa Catalina (or Catalina Island), San Nicolas, and San Clemente.
The college dormitories of UC Santa Barbara are named after these islands.
There are ten campuses in the University of California system. Nine of them offer undergraduate and graduate education, while UCSF offers only graduate programs.
The first UC school was The University of California Berkeley, founded in 1868.
Berkeley “Berke” Breathed is an American cartoonist, best known for his comic strip “Bloom County,” which originally ran from 1980 to 1989, and was revived as an online comic in 2015. Breathed also wrote two spin-off comics based on “Bloom County” (“Outland” and “Opus”), and has authored a number of children’s books.
Sean Connery played an embattled but honest Federal marshal on an ore mining colony on the Jovian moon Io in the 1981 British science fiction film Outland (very bad science but a good flick - “High Noon in space,” as many reviewers described it).
The first actor to play James Bond was Barry Nelson, who portrayed him in a CBS TV production of Casino Royale in 1954. Sean Connery was the first actor to play James Bond in a movie, although some would argue that the first was actually stuntman Bob Simmons, who played Bond in the opening ‘gun barrel’ sequence of the movie, where Bond turns and shoots the assassin who is stalking him. That opening sequence is a trademark of the Bond movies.
Admiral Lord Nelson wore full uniform with all of his medals during the Oct. 21, 1805 naval battle of Trafalgar, off the southwestern coast of Spain, despite his subordinates aboard HMS Victory asking him not to, as it would make him a more noticeable target for the enemy. Nelson was, sure enough, shot and mortally wounded by a sniper firing from the French warship Redoubtable, dying three hours later.
Trafalgar Square is a public square in central London, built in the early 19th century in an area which was formerly known as Charing Cross, and named after the Battle of Trafalgar, which occurred in 1805.
One of the best-known features of Trafalgar Square is Nelson’s Column, a monument to Royal Navy Admiral Horatio Nelson. Nelson, who died in the Battle of Trafalgar, is considered to be one of history’s greatest military commanders.
Boots Randolph first recorded “Yakety Sax” in 1963 for RCA Victor, but it did not become a hit until he re-recorded it later that same year for Monument Records, an American record label founded in 1958 in Washington, D.C., named for the Washington Monument.
Adolph Sax developed many instruments, with two of them still common: the saxhorn and the saxophone. The saxophone was an attempt to create a reed instrument with a conical body as opposed to a clarinet that has a cylindrical body.
Clarence Clemons (1942-2011) is one of the best known saxophonists in the rock and R&B genres. He was a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band from 1972 until his death. He also released several solo albums, and he had a 1985 hit single with Jackson Browne entitled “You’re a Friend of Mine”. He played as a studio musician for various artists, including Lady Gaga, Ringo Starr, and Aretha Franklin. He also appeared in several movies, and had cameo appearances in TV series such as The Wire.
Affectionately known as ‘The Big Man’, he died from a brain aneurysm following hand surgery at the age of 69.
In 1978, Ringo Starr was in an American made-for-TV movie, Ringo, which was loosely based on the Mark Twain novel The Prince and the Pauper. In the movie, Ringo played both himself, and his downtrodden half-brother, Ognir Rrats (“Ringo Starr” spelled backwards). The film also starred Carrie Fisher, Art Carney, Vincent Price, John Ritter, and George Harrison.
Mark Twain wrote The Prince and the Pauper following his second tour of Europe, after which he did extensive reading on the history of England and France. The book, focusing on Edward VI of England, is now regarded as a children’s novel of historical adventure. However, when Twain was writing it, he described it as a “grave and stately” work, and even considered publishing it anonymously so that his reputation as a humorist would not detract from its profundity.
Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, fathered four children, 3 daughters and a son. He outlived all but one daughter, Clara. Clara, who had one daughter, died in 1962. When her daughter, Nina, died in 1966, it was believed that there were no living descendants of Clemens.
However, in 2014 a woman named Susan Bailey published a book entitled The Twain Shall Meet, in which she claimed that her genealogical search for her birth mother revealed that she was Nina’s daughter. DNA tests have proven inconclusive.
