Due to their remoteness, the islands of New Zealand are believed to be the last large habitable landmass to be settled by humans. Polynesians began to settle on the islands no earlier than 1280, and perhaps as late as 1350. New Zealand was ‘discovered’ by Europeans in 1642, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted the islands.
The most remote places in California include the following:
Pioneertown CA
34°09’22.0"N 116°29’34.2"W
https://goo.gl/maps/DEnnq93vUCjrZvDb7
The Lost Coast CA
40°26’07.7"N 124°24’09.4"W
https://goo.gl/maps/PhiCCMZFrNTVNb25A
Amargosa Opera House
36°18’7.4268’‘N 116°24’52.1532’'W
https://goo.gl/maps/oYCXhWQ6QXanUzvv6
Bridge to Nowhere CA
34°14’13.4268’‘N 117°45’54.4104’'W
https://goo.gl/maps/3RLq7jxsthow6yYa8
Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park CA
41°7’17.5224’‘N 121°26’19.8024’'W
https://goo.gl/maps/SiesqM4g3VaetKLw5
The Lost Sierra CA
39°35’37.5"N 120°38’50.9"W
https://goo.gl/maps/bhmNbB8kdtbeHnWE8
Racetrack Playa CA
36°41’02.7"N 117°34’21.5"W
https://goo.gl/maps/Z4fgFoN4tUEPeY3f6
Santa Rosa Island CA
33°59’35.4"N 120°02’33.0"W
https://goo.gl/maps/QBxYCQPY6nVcykTH8
There have been seven US Navy warships to bear the name USS California over the years, the first of which was a screw sloop which briefly served after the Civil War, and the latest of which is a Virginia-class fast attack submarine commissioned in 2011 and still in service.
A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war sailing vessel. In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship’s screws (propellers). Other propeller-driven warships included screw frigates and screw corvettes.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car model, which has gone through eight “generations” of models since its introduction in the 1953 model year. The Corvette has been offered continuously by Chevrolet since 1953, except for the 1983 model year: the fourth-generation model (the “C4”) was to have been introduced for 1983, but production delays pushed it back to the 1984 model year.
Only 43 prototypes for the 1983 Corvette were produced, but none were sold as a 1983 model – some were scrapped, others were re-serialized as 1984 cars, and the one remaining 1983 prototype is on display at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
In 1983, painter and singer Dan Fogelberg released the song Make Love Stay. Fogelberg was born 71 years ago today. On 16 December 2007, Dan Fogelberg died at age 56 at his home on Deer Isle, Maine. His ashes were scattered off coastal Maine, into the Atlantic Ocean.
His song Old Lane Syne was about a true chance encounter with ‘an old lover’. It was Christmas Eve 1975. The beer was Oly, Olympia, and the girl was Jill Anderson. Her marriage was already strained. By the time the song was released in 1980 she had already divorced. Jim and Jill Greulich now live happily in St. Louis.
She kept quiet all those years about her part as the inspiration of the song because she didn’t want it to “overshadow Dan. It wasn’t about me. It was about Dan. It was Dan’s song.”
My post in the Today in History thread — Today in History - #2449 by Bullitt
Rest In Peace, Dan Fogelberg. Thank you for your music.
Leader of the Band is a song written by Dan Fogelberg from his album The Innocent Age. The song was written as a tribute to his father, Lawrence Fogelberg, a musician and the leader of a band, who was still alive at the time the song was released. Lawrence died in August 1982, but not before this hit song made him a celebrity with numerous media interviews interested in him as its inspiration.
Lucie Arnaz has performed the song as a tribute to her late father Desi Arnaz.
Dan Fogelberg‘s first big gig was in Jackson MS when he was 23, in 1974 at City Auditorium in Jackson MS. That venue sits 2,500 and his show was sold out. Fogelberg was surprised because up until then he played at venues seating less than 100.
His first hit was Part of the Plan in 1974. His first top ten album was Phoenix in 1979. His critical and commercial peak came in 1981 with the album The Innocent Age.
Fogelberg was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame at Red Rocks Amphitheater, 17 miles SW of Denver.
Map: Google Maps
Today in Peoria, there are:
1 — a Dan Fogelberg Memorial:
https://goo.gl/maps/69WKcbdNGx5q72Sc7
2 — the Dan Fogelberg Parkway; it runs beside his alma mater, Woodruff High School:
https://goo.gl/maps/7HpkuCVgaPr8KTVx7
3 — Dan Fogelberg Convenience Store, where on Christmas Eve 1975, Fogelberg bumped into Jill Anderson Greulich:
https://goo.gl/maps/WRiWrUkQC68CxHjx8
In 1975 it was called the Convenient Food Mart.
Twin Sons of Different Mothers was a 1978 album, on which singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg collaborated with jazz flutist Tim Weisberg. The album’s covered featured a photograph of the two men, illustrating their similar appearances.
The duo released another collaborative album in 1995, titled No Resemblance Whatsoever, a title which humorously referred to the name of their first album, and which featured another photograph, illustrating how the two musicians no longer looked similar to one another.
The two covers:
Mother’s Cookies originally started as a bakery based in Oakland, California, that operated from 1914 to 2008. Mother’s was founded in 1914. On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson had issued a proclamation declaring the first national Mother’s Day.
During and following the Civil War, Ann Jarvis made a concerted effort to foster friendship and community between the mothers on both sides of the war. She started a committee in 1868 which established the first glimmer of today’s holiday: “Mother’s Friendship Day.”
The modern holiday now accounts for the most telephone calls of the year, the most greeting cards purchased, and the most restaurant reservations. Surprisingly, it is the third biggest holiday for florists (after Christmas and Hanukkah).
In Panama, Mother’s Day is celebrated on 8 December, the same day as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
The flag of Panama is red, white and blue, with two stars, symbolizing, in part, the role the United States played in winning Panamanian independence in 1903.
There are two places in California named Independence. One is in Calaveras County and the other is in Inyo County.
By car they are about 300 miles apart.
Map — Google Maps
Added: and then in Wyoming there is Independence Rock which is 130 feet high, 1,900 feet long, and 850 feet wide. It lies along the Oregon, Mormon, and California emigrant trails and served as a landmark. Many emigrants carved their names on it.
It is a National Historic Landmark.
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (originally titled “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog”) was a short story, written by author Samuel Clemens, and first published in the New York Saturday Press in November, 1965. The story was Clemens’ first big success as a writer – it was republished in numerous newspapers and magazines, and was the title story in Clemens’ first book (a collection of short stories), which was published in 1867 under his pen name, Mark Twain.
Samuel Clemens had a brother, Orion. The name was not pronounced like the constellation, but rather as “or-ee-on.”
REO Speedwagon is not just the name of a popular band from the 1970s and 1980s, but it was originally the name of a light truck manufactured initially during WWI. But the spelling and the pronunciation for them are slight different.
The band: REO Speedwagon, pronounced “are ee oh”
The truck: REO Speed Wagon, pronounced “reeyo”
Here are 16 recent pictures of a truck, the REO Speed Wagon, alongside my Jeep Grand Cherokee. This REO Speed Wagon is in San Carlos CA, at Martin’s Screen Shop near where I used to work:
REO Motor Company, which produced the Speed Wagon, was founded in 1915 by Ransom Eli Olds. HIs first automobile company, Olds Motor Vehicle Company, was founded in 1897. One of the pioneers of the American automotive industry, Olds is credited with creating the modern assembly line, which was used to build the first mass-produced automobile, the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, beginning in 1901.
In the 1980s, the Oldsmobile brand was struggling to appeal to younger auto buyers. A new ad campaign was created, which featured the adult children of various celebrities (sometimes appearing alongside their parents in the ads), such as the children of Elvis Presley, William Shatner, and Ringo Starr. The campaign had the tagline, “This Is Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile,” in an effort to create an updated image for the brand.
Unfortunately, the campaign was unable to reverse declining sales, a trend which eventually led to the discontinuation of the Oldsmobile marque in 2004.
William Shatner got the role of Capt. James T. Kirk in part because Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, was fed up with the demands of the wife of Jeffrey Hunter, who played Capt. Christopher Pike in the show’s first pilot, “The Cage.” Hunter also wished to focus on his film career and was not interested in returning for the series.