Latrobe, PA is the home of Arnold Palmer, who holds the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the world including refueling stops, in a Learjet 36, 57 hours 25 minutes 42 seconds in 1976. He was a pretty good golfer, too.
Jim Palmer was major league baseball’s winningest pitcher in the 1970s.
According to Wiki, in 1995 an Air France Concorde achieved the fastest non-orbital circumnavigation, starting at New York/JFK International Airport, in 31 hours 27 minutes 49 seconds, including six refuelling stops at Toulouse, Dubai, Bangkok, Andersen Air Force Base (Guam), Honolulu, and Acapulco. Concorde continues to hold the record.
Fort Toulouse, a restored 18th century fort in what is now Wetumpka, Alabama was named for Louis, the Comte de Toulouse, an illegitimate son of Louix XIV and an ancestor through two of his grandchildren of the artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (whose inbred ancestry was believed responsible for his legs never growing again after a childhood accident).
Toulouse is known in France as “the pink city”, because most of its historical buildings were made with naked clay bricks (example).
The flower Pink is not named for its colour - it’s the other way around. The flower is named for the shape of its petals, which have a jagged edge - when used deliberately and decoratively, such edges are called ‘pinked’.
One member of the Scaffold, which had a British hit single with “Lily the Pink” in the 60s, was Paul McCartney’s brother Mike. So as not to play off his brother’s fame, he used the pseudonym Mike McGear (“Gear” being Liverpool slang for “great”).
Near East Liverpool, Ohio may be found the Beginning Point of the U.S. Public Land Survey that led to the opening of the Northwest Territory. It is the starting point of surveys for almost all other lands to the west, reaching all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ***South Pacific ***was based on a collection of stories by James Michener.
The Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942-43 marked the first major clash between the Imperial Japanese Army and the U.S. Marine Corps and Army. The Americans were victorious, but with heavy losses.
[del]Mike Hammerstein was a defensive lineman for the University of Michigan and then the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals during the 1980’s.[/del]
Guadalcanal is one of the Solomon Islands, and is home to the country’s capital, Honiara. Solomon Islands (the country’s official name does not feature the definite article) is a former British protectorate which became independent in 1978.
Cincinnati Bengals All-Pro defensive tackle Mike Reid, a Penn State grad, went on to become a country singer and songwriter. His best-known songs are Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” and Ronnie Milsap’s “Stranger in my House”, but he reached #1 on his own with “Walk on Faith”.
Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, is majority leader of the U.S. Senate. He has trailed in the polls for his reelection campaign for several months now, and is considered highly vulnerable to his Republican challenger.
Reno, Nevada is further west than Los Angeles, California.
The mother of former Attorney General Janet Reno was a professional alligator wrestler.
The writers/cast/producers of Reno 911 agreed to never portray actual Washoe County sheriffs in the series as part of the agreement for doing some of their filming on location; the characters are part of a fictional Reno city sheriff’s department.
{Beaten to the punch.}
[nevermind]
Washoe, a chimpanzee residing at Central Washington University, was the first non-human to learn and use American Sign Language.
Never mind, I’ll check back later:(