Vesna Vulović is listed as someone who survived the highest free-fall to Earth. On Jan 26, 1972, she plummeted over 33,000 feet without a parachute. Vulović was a flight attendant on JAT Flight 367, a Czechoslovakian airline, when a bomb went off inside the plane, disintegrating over Czechoslovakia. She was pinned against the fuselage and a food cart, landing in soft snow. Vulović suffered several broken bones and internal injuries, was in a coma and temporary paralyzed, but survived and continued to work for JAT, although the company assigned her desk duty.
Václav Havel was a Czechoslovakian author, playwright, and political dissident. In 1989, as the culmination of the “Velvet Revolution,” Havel was named president of Czechoslovakia. He oversaw the country’s transition to a democracy, and after the 1992 split of the nation into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Havel was elected as the first president of the Czech Republic, a position he held until 2003.
Upon its inception as a country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic recommended the name Czechia for the English-language equivalent name of the new country. However, this was not widely used, and ‘Czech Republic’ became the de facto Anglicized name. But in 2016, the Czech government directed use of Czechia as the official English short name, and that term is now used by the UN, European Union, NATO, and, perhaps most importantly, Google Maps.
Yielding to pressure from the Trump White House, Google Maps now shows the “Gulf of America” as being to the west of Florida, not the Gulf of Mexico. The latter name first appeared on a map in 1550, more than two hundred years before the United States of America even existed.
The Sigsbee Deep is the deepest point in the Gulf of Mexico and is named for US Navy Admiral Charles Sigsbee. He is best remembered as the captain of USS Maine which exploded in Havana Harbor in 1898. Sigsbee Deep was discovered in the 1870s by ships under his command.
The three highest points in Mexico are all volcanoes. The highest, Citlatepetl (meaning Star Mountain and named Pico de Orizaba by the Spanish) is 18,491 feet and last erupted in 1846.
The second highest, Popocatepetl (the smoking mountain) is 17,694 feet and last erupted in 2024. The third highest, Iztaccihuatl (the salt-white woman), 17161 feet, is dormant. These two volcanoes are visible from Mexico City. According to legend, Popocatepetl is a warrior watching over his beloved, the princess Iztaccihuatl.
For decades if not centuries, Mexico’s wine culture was overshadowed by its beer culture and tequila culture. In fact, so good was Mexican wine that in 1699, King Charles II of Spain banned wine production in Mexico (except for sacramental purposes) because it was better than Spanish wine and was threatening Spain’s vineyards. In recent years, Mexican wine has undergone a resurgence, growing in popularity with younger drinkers. Further, Mexican vintners are making wines with grape combinations (such as Nebbiolo mixed with Tempranillo) that are unheard-of (and indeed would cause much pearl-clutching) in Europe.
In 1973, Oregon passed its landmark land-use law, which imposed strict separation between agricultural and urban uses of land via such mechanisms as the Urban Growth Boundary and Exclusive Farm Use Zones. This prevented many hillsides, deemed inappropriate for other crops which are easier to grow on flat fields, from being converted to housing, and were purchased by Oregon vintners who planted grape varietals. By 1979 the wine industry in Oregon was going head to head with French and European wines in contests, and winning accolades.
To hear a Frenchman tell it (and indeed, once a Doper even said the same thing), the worst French table wine is better than the best esteemed California vintage. Of course, it’s all elitist bullshit, and I really expect better from Dopers.
Urban Shocker was a major-league baseball pitcher, who played for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Browns from 1916 until 1928. Shocker, who was one of the last legal “spitball” pitchers, had a heart condition (possibly a diseased heart valve), which caused him to pass out on the field while pitching batting practice before a game in 1927. Shocker died in 1928, at age 37, from heart failure and pneumonia.
The St. Louis Browns existed as a team in St. Louis (yes, they became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, never mind that) for over 50 years. During that time, they were the Gold Standard for futility in baseball. Yes, they won an unlikely pennant in 1944 (when most of America’s able-bodied men were at war), but in a general sense, year after year, decade after decade, they produced naught but suckitude and misery for the people of St. Louis (at least, those who weren’t Cards fans). So awful was the team that, under the ownership of legendary owner Bill Veeck they resorted to hare-brained stunts to put butts in the seats. One such stunt was bringing in Eddie Gaedel, a man of the staggering height of 3’7”, to pinch hit. Four pitches went straight over head, as Eddie stood there like a statue. Rumor has it Veeck had told him that he (Veeck) would be in the stands with a shotgun pointed at Gaedel, should he deign to move an inch.
There have been three one-handed players to play at the major league level.
Hugh Daily lost his left hand in a childhood accident. He was a pitcher (and hitter, of course) for Buffalo, Cleveland, and St. Louis in the 1880s.
Pete Gray, who lost his right arm in a childhood accident, played one season (1945) for the St. Louis Browns.
Jim Abbott, who was born without a without a right hand, pitched in the majors from 1989 through 1999. He pitched for the Angels, Yankees, White Sox, and Brewers.
Both Daily and Abbott pitched a no-hitter in the majors.
The major league baseball franchise known today as the Baltimore Orioles played in St. Louis, as the Browns, for 52 seasons, before moving to Baltimore for the 1954 season. But, prior to playing in St. Louis, they were the Milwaukee Brewers.
Originating as a team in the minor Western League in 1894, the Brewers were in the American League during its first year as a “major” league in 1901; after a last-place finish that year, the franchise moved to St. Louis.
Ned Garver, pitcher for the St. Louis Browns, had a record of 20-12 in 1951. The team has a record of 52-102, meaning Garver was responsible for 38% of the team’s victories, a record until Steve Carlton won 45% in 1972.
Garver batted .305 that year, with an OPS+ of 111, 12 points higher than any regular batter. He finished second in MVP voting to Yogi Berra.
Eddard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and later the Hand of the King in the Game of Thrones books by George R.R. Martin, was nicknamed “Ned.” He was mostly played in the subsequent HBO series by Sean Bean, but also by Sebastian Croft and Robert Aramayo in flashbacks.
Wild Cards is a long-running “shared universe” series of superhero anthologies, stories, and novels, set in an alternate-history version of the United States.
The series came into being as the result of an ongoing campaign of the Superworld superhero role-playing game, played by a group of science-fiction authors in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the 1980s. George R.R. Martin was the gamemaster of the group, which also featured Victor Milan, Gail Gerstner-Miller, John J. Miller, Melinda M. Snodgrass, and Walter Jon Williams.
In addition to spawning several comic / graphic novel adaptations, Wild Cards was also re-adapted back into role-playing game products, originally for the GURPS system, and later for the Mutants & Masterminds system.
Introduced in 1995, the MLB Wild Card in the postseason has evolved from a single team per league, to a three-team-per-league format starting in 2022 involving a best-of-three Wild Card Series. Eight Wild Card teams have won the World Series, with the 2002 California Angels, 2014 San Francisco Giants, and 2023 Texas Rangers among those highlighting the path’s success.
The Washington Senators were a team in Major League Baseball from 1901 until 1961, when they relocated to Minneapolis to become the Minnesota Twins. Later that year a new Washington Senators team was formed; they would relocate to the Dallas / Fort Worth area and become the Texas Rangers in 1972. In 2005, the Montreal Expos moved to the D.C. area and are now the Washington Nationals.
Damn Yankees is a musical comedy, originally premiering on Broadway in 1955. A modern retelling of the Faust story, it depicts a long-suffering fan of the pathetic Washington Senators, who makes a deal with the Devil to become a talented baseball player, in hopes of finally winning the American League pennant for the Senators, against the “damn Yankees.”
The original production won the Tony for Best Musical, with stars Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, and Russ Brown winning acting Tonys, and Bob Fosse winning the Tony for choreography.
The musical has been revived (and revised) numerous times, and was also adapted into a theatrical film version in 1958, and a made-for-TV version in 1967.
The musical Damn Yankees was based on a 1954 novel by Douglass Wallop, which was titled The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. Wallop, who authored 14 works, helped adapt the novel to the musical, along with George Abbott. Wallop was born in 1920 and died in 1985.
Note: The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant was also adapted into a Reader’s Digest condensed book, which I read as a young lad. As a lifelong Yankee hater, I loved it!