Jack LaLanne (“la-LAYNE”) was born in San Francisco and, after growing up in Bakersfield, lived to be 96 years old before he passed way in 2011.
LaLanne’s feats of strength were legendary. As an example, at the age of 62, in 1976 for the American Bicentennial he swam one mile in Long Beach Harbor while handcuffed and shackled, during which he towed 13 boats that contained 76 people — representing the 13 original colonies and the Spirit of ‘76.
The “American Freedom Train” was a mobile museum exhibition on board a train, which toured the U.S. in 1975 and 1976, as a celebration of the American Bicentennial.
The train consisted of twelve display cars (converted railroad baggage cars), which contained a range of items from American history, including George Washington’s copy of the U.S. Constitution, the original document for the Louisiana Purchase, Judy Garland’s dress from The Wizard of Oz, Martin Luther King Jr.'s pulpit and robes, and a rock from the Moon. Over the course of its two-year tour of the U.S., the train visited all 48 contiguous states, and was pulled by three different restored steam locomotives.
Colorado has the nickname “The Centennial State” because it was admitted on August 1, 1876. However, since stars for new states do not get added until the next July 4th, Colorado was not represented on the US flag until 1877.
The US Capital’s Bicentennial Parade was held in Washington, DC, on July 3rd, 1976. It was lead by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and singer Johnny Cash, who was the Grand Marshal. President Gerald Ford was not present; he was playing golf at the Burning Tree Country Club in suburban Maryland.
The US celebrated 200 years of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day, 04 July 1976, its bicentennial celebration. Next year on 04 July 2026 the US will celebrate 250 years, or its semiquincentennial. The occasion, for short, is known as Semiquin.
Per wiki, official planning for the celebrations began in 2016 with the congressional, non-partisan United States Semiquincentennial Commission. The commission was established under then-president Barack Obama and its members were sworn in at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Their official site is here,
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Besides semiquincentennial, it can also be called bisesquicentennial or sestercentennial, or also quarter millennium. They all mean the 250th anniversary.
A Republican was President of the United States for the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (U.S. Grant, 1876), as well as for the 150th (Calvin Coolidge, 1926), the 200th (Gerald Ford, 1976) and, likely, the 250th (Donald Trump, 2026).
Two members of the Whig Party have been elected President of the United States, and both have died in office. Both were succeeded by their Vice Presidents, who served the remainder of their four-year terms; neither of those gentlemen were elected to a second term.
Of the seven Veeps who finished the terms of Presidents which failed to complete their elected terms, four were elected as POTUS (Calvin Coolidge, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson) and three were not (Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Gerald Ford). Ford is the only Vice President to succeed a sitting President who did not die in office.
Gerald Ford is also the only vice president to ascend to the Presidency who was never elected as vice president. He was voted in by the Senate.
Gerald Ford was voted into the office of vice president by the Senate following the resignation of Spiro Agnew in 1973. Agnew was the second vice president to resign the office; the first was John C. Calhoun, who resigned on December 28, 1832. The resignation of Calhoun left the office open until March of 1833, when Martin Van Buren was inaugurated as the new vice president.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is the lead ship of her class that includes the USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79), and the future, planned ships the USS Enterprise (CVN-80), USS Doris Miller (CVN-81), USS William J. Clinton (CVN-82), and USS George W. Bush (CVN-83). These aircraft carriers have the ability to carry up to 90 aircraft, including the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler, Grumman C-2 Greyhound, Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II, Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, and unmanned combat aerial vehicles.
Early in the 20th century, the US Navy established a practice of naming ships for people only after they had died; in 1969 a Navy panel formally decreed that warships would no longer be named after living persons. However, in 1974 President Richard Nixon announced the naming of an aircraft carrier after US Rep Carl Vinson. Over the next half-century, the Navy named more ships for living people than it had in the previous two centuries, and from October 2020 to March 2023 the Navy named a ship for a living person every eight months.
Nitpick: nominated by the President; confirmed by votes of both houses.
Carl Karcher, founder of Carl’s Jr., violated SEC insider trading rules when he told his family to sell stock before a bad earnings report came out.
Hardee’s is an American fast-food restaurant chain, founded in North Carolina in 1960 by its namesake, Wilber Hardee. The chain expanded through the 1970s and 1980s, and operated in numerous states, primarily in the Southeast and Midwest.
In 1997, Hardee’s was purchased by the parent company of the Carl’s Jr. chain; at that time, Hardee’s was the much larger of the two: it had over 3,000 restaurants, compared to about 600 for Carl’s Jr. (mostly in California). While the two chains continue to operate today under the two separate names, their menus are now essentially identical.
Sandy’s was an American fast-food restaurant chain, founded in Illinois in 1956. The four founders were formerly McDonald’s franchisees, who were tired of paying a portion of their profits to Ray Kroc. The chain was founded as a direct competitor to McDonald’s, and eventually grew to over 100 stores in five states and two additional countries. In 1971, strapped for cash, the company agreed to a merger with Hardee’s, and by the end of the decade there were no more stores sporting the Sandy’s moniker.
Ray Kroc was portrayed by Michael Keaton as a smart, driven, bare-knuckled businessman in the 2016 film The Founder. Keaton won the Capri Award for Best Actor, given by the Capri Hollywood International Film Festival, that year.
The island of Capri is off the west coast of Italy, in the Tyrrhenian Sea and close to Naples and the Sorrento Peninsula. Capri is known for being the birthplace of limoncello, a popular lemon liqueur. The highest point on Capri is Monte Solaro which is just under 2,000’.
Capri is pronounced KAH-pree, not kah-PREE.
Capri pants were introduced by fashion designer Sonja de Lennart in 1948. Based on the style of clothing worn by residents of the island of Capri, they were popularized by actresses Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, and notably on television by Mary Tyler Moore on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
The Triple Portrait of Charles I was painted by Sir Anthony van Dyck in England. The painting was then sent to Rome to the sculptor Bernini, who prepared a bust of Charles, which was sent to England and was much admired as a likeness of the King.
ETA: to add link
The long-lost crown of King Charles I is the subject of the 1893 Arthur Conan Doyle story “The Musgrave Ritual,” featuring Sherlock Holmes before he met Dr. John H. Watson.