The first U.S. Secretary of State was Thomas Jefferson, who served from 1790 to 1793. The current Secretary of State is Marco Rubio, who was sworn into office on January 21, 2025. Rubio is the 72nd person to hold the position. 3 women have held the office: Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hilary Clinton.
The Secretary of State is the person, under law, that receives the resignation of the President of the United States.
Richard Nixon announced his resignation the evening of August 8, 1974.
It became effective at 11:35 am August 9, when his letter of resignation was handed to Secretary of State Kissinger, who marked the time and initialed it “HK”.
Gerald Ford was sworn in 30 minutes later.
The Secretary of State is fourth in the line of succession to the US Presidency, following the vice-president, Speaker of the House and Senate president.
Immediately after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, on March 30th, 1981, U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig held a press briefing at the White House, where he famously misstated the line of succession:
Haig was, of course, incorrect; the Secretary of State is fourth in line of succession, after the Vice-President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the president pro tempore of the Senate. When corrected on this later, Haig claimed that he had been misinterpreted, and was speaking specifically of the administration of the Executive Branch during the emergency.
It is said that Alexander the Great was the first to be able to ride the horse, Bucephalus, by noticing that the stallion was afraid of his own shadow, and turning him so that he couldn’t see it.
There have been three Kings of Scots named Alexander.
Out of play: That last office is Senate President pro tempore. The President of the Senate is the Vice-President.
In play: Pope Alexander V was considered a legitimate pope from his pontificate of June 1409 to May 1410 until 1958 when Pope John XXIII established the previous John XXIII and through association Alexander V as antipopes.
Super Bowl XXIII was played at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida, on January 22nd, 1989. In the game, the San Francisco 49ers triumphed over the Cincinnati Bengals, taking the lead through a touchdown pass from quarterback Joe Montana to wide receiver John Taylor with 34 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies, is in fact the same height as Snape (Alan Rickman): 6’ 1". His immense size was made possible through special camera effects (forced perspective and green screens), as well as using a stunt double, Martin Bayfield, a 6’ 10" rugby player who wore a “Hagrid” suit, as well as a massive headpiece called a “dead head” that looked like Coltrane.
American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer John Coltrane lived from 1926–1967. He was awarded a special posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for his “masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz.”
Among the best known Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs is Joe Rosenthal’s picture of six U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, taken on Friday 23 Feb 1945.
The famous photograph of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi inspired the design of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va., which was dedicated in 1954. Three of the six Marines in the photograph were killed later in the Battle of Iwo Jima.
Not really in play, but I’d like to add that the scale of the memorial is breathtaking. I’ve never seen it in person, so here’s a photo for others like me to appreciate.
So cool. Thanks for that @knoodler . I’d never seen that scale comparison before.
You’re welcome, and thanks again for your service.
In 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act, asking people to stop and remember at 3:00 pm. On Memorial Day, the flag is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day. The National Memorial Day Concert takes place on the west lawn of the United States Capitol.
Thank you for your support.
In play —
On Sunday, May 1, 2011, the regular public tours to the United States Capitol were unexplainedly canceled by the government. People who had reserved their tours were likely disappointed for not being able to visit. The government canceled the tours because many high-ranking leaders were on site on a Sunday and they did not want questions or any publicity about it. The public later learned that Operation Neptune Spear was underway that day. That was the mission where SEAL Team Six shot and killed Osama bin Laden at his “Waziristan Haveli” compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
24 US Navy SEALs flying in two special, stealth Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters carried out the mission, a raid that took about 40 minutes. When bin Laden was killed, the commander on the ground radioed, “For God and country, Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo” — the code word for the successful killing.
The raid was supported by over 90% of the American public but was condemned by two-thirds of the Pakistani public.
(The Netflix 3-part documentary on this, American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden, is excellent IMO.)
The “Original Six” is a term which is frequently used in regards to the six oldest franchises in the National Hockey League: the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, and Chicago Blackhawks.
The term is somewhat misleading, as only two of those six teams (the Canadiens and Maple Leafs) were charter members of the NHL in 1917. However, all six were members of the league by 1926, and they were the league’s only teams for 25 years, from 1942 until 1967.
In 1967, the National Hockey League underwent its largest expansion, adding six new teams, which doubled the number of teams in the league. The six new squads were the Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, California Seals, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and St. Louis Blues. The Seals were soon renamed the Oakland Seals, and later moved to Cleveland and renamed the Barons. That franchise ceased operation in 1978. The Minnesota North Stars relocated to Dallas in 1993 and were renamed the Stars. The other four 1967 expansion teams remain active in their original cities, and each of them have won at least one Stanley Cup.
George H.W. Bush, Republican of Texas, was President of the United States for only 19 1/2 days in 1993, from New Year’s Day through noon on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, when he was succeeded by Bill Clinton, Democrat of Arkansas.