Condoleezza Rice and Benjamin Netanyahu were briefly next door neighbors when their parents both worked at the University of Denver. Rice did not know Netanyahu much, but she has fond memories of his father. The younger Netanyahu was away at college at the time. Rice’s father was an assistant dean, while Netanyahu’s father was a professor of Hebraic Studies.
Rice seeds were first brought to Australia by Chinese gold prospectors around 1850. Commerical rice cultivation in south-eastern Australia began in 1906.
In a non-drought year, up to 80% of the Australian rice crop is exported overseas.
The first-ever property to be included in the cultural landscape category of the UNESCO World Heritage List were the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras inscribed in 1995.
The Pink and White Terraces were natural wonders of New Zealand. They were lost after the eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886.
The White Terraces were the larger formation, covering 3 hectares and descending over approximately 50 layers and a drop in height of 40 metres. The Pink Terraces descended 30 metres over a distance of 75 metres.
Recent underwater mapping of the lake floor suggests that parts of the Terraces may still exist.
The animated Pink Panther cartoons began in 1964 with The Pink Phink which won the 1964 Academy Award for Animated Short Film.
*The Hind and the Panther *is an allegorical poem published by John Dryden in 1687. It is the longest of Dryden’s poems.
It is essentially a theological debate between the Catholic church, portrayed as a hind, and the Anglican church, portrayed as a panther.
The Florida Panther (about the animal, not about the hockey team) used to range as far west as eastern Texas and Oklahoma in the 1500s and 1600s, but now the Florida Panther is limited mostly to the southern Everglades.
The Syme Cup is awarded annually to the champion men’s university hockey team at the Australian InterVarsity Competition. It was awarded for the first time in 1925, having been donated by Sir George Adlington Syme, the President of Melbourne University Hockey Club.
The Syme Cup is currently held by the University of Queensland.
The annual National Rifle and Pistol Matches held in Camp Perry, Ohio have been held since the 1870s. Since 1875 at least 22 Marines have won its trophy, including Gunnery Sergeant Paul H. Holcombe in 1967, Gunnery Sergeant William A. Lee in 1934, and Gunnery Sergeant John J. Andrews in 1916. The winner is awarded the Wimbledon Cup Trophy.
ETA: Semper Fidelis from Gunny Bullitt.
The actor Julian McMahon is the son of former Australian Prime Minister Sir William McMahon.
Johnny Carson’s sidekick Ed McMahon was a USMC veteran of World War II. He was a flight instructor for two years, then was ordered to the Pacific Fleet in 1945 but the war ended and his orders were cancelled.
ETA: McMahon served in the Marines during the Korean War as an air spotter for artillery. He flew a total of 85 combat missions. McMahon retired from the Marine Corps in 1966 as a Colonel.
The pompous and jingoistic British cartoon character Colonel Blimp made his first appearance in the 1930s in Lord Beaverbrook’s London Evening Standard.
The Pink Panther cartoon character appeared in 124 short films, 10 TV shows and 3 prime time specials.
In the first movie, The Pink Panther refers to a jewel that is the McGuffin of the film. David Niven was the star; Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau was just comic relief, but he was so popular that director Blake Edwards did an entire series of films featuring Clouseau.
TV reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) is a self-styled ladies’ man in Anchorman, and has an extensive collection of colognes. One of his favorites is Sex Panther, but it doesn’t have quite the effect he’d hoped for: Anchorman - Sex panther - YouTube
[out of play]Cuncator is quite correct. I have seen a few references (the first in a 1960s anatomy book) to the millihelen as a theoretical unit of beauty.
[in play]In the fictional world created by Fanta advertising, the models in the commercials were found on Fantana Island
More invented units of measurement. 
The plane that appeared in the opening scene of every episode of “Fantasy Island”, causing Herve Villechaize as Tattoo to exclaim “Ze plane! Ze plane!” was a Grumman Widgeon seaplane, U.S. registry N4453. She formerly belonged to aviation author Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull and others). Following the show, she was used to smuggle drugs, was confiscated and sold by the US Marshals Service, and is now owned by an airshow company although not flown.
The responsibilities of the U.S. Marshals Service include apprehending fugitives and protecting Federal judges, among others. The marshal for every district is a Presidential appointee, subject to advice and consent by the U.S. Senate; his or her deputies are typically career law-enforcement professionals.
In the 1993 film The Fugitive, based on the 1960’s television series, when Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble tells Tommy Lee Jones as Marshal Samuel Gerard “I didn’t kill my wife!”, Gerard memorably answers “I don’t care!”
Ford Motor Company famously paid its workers $5 a day – a high rate at the time. Though often cited as an example of paying your workers so they can afford your products, it seems that Ford did it as a way to reduce the high turnover of employees, who didn’t like assembly line work.