(Commentary: Belief in Hauptmann’s innocence is entirely contrary to the evidence. It is based only on his wife’s refusal to accept her husband’s guilt - but she was so clueless she didn’t even know his real first name until the trial.)
The electric chair was developed by Thomas Edison’s staff, partly as a way to demonstrate to the public how dangerous was the alternating-current technology being developed by his archrival, George Westinghouse, compared to Edison’s DC approach. Edison even tried to get the verb “to Westinghouse” accepted as a synonym for “to electrocute”. Its first use was at New York’s Sing Sing Prison, on the banks of the Hudson, from which we get the term “to get sent up the river”.
Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Warren G. Harding went car-camping together in March 1921.
Warren G. Harding gave the nominating speech for Taft at the 1912 RNC. Harding would later nominate Taft for Chief Justice of the United States.
Taft Broadcasting, founded by William Howard Taft’s brother Charles, was at various times the owner of such major media and entertainment properties as Hanna-Barbera Productions, Worldvision Enterprises, Ruby-Spears Productions, KECO Entertainment and many television and radio stations. What’s left of it is now a division of Clear Channel Communications.
In imperial Rome Antonia the Elder (Antonia Major) was the eldest daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia, sister of the Emperor Augustus. Antonia was the grandmother of both the emperor Nero and the empress Messalina (third wife of the emperor Claudius).
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council served as the highest imperial law court of the British Empire, although technically it was not a court.
Generations of Canadian legal historians with centralising tendencies have critiqued the JCPC’s constitutional interpretation, arguing that the JCPC unduly favoured the provinces over the federal government. Some have referred to their Lordships as the Wicked Godfathers of Confederation.
Two members of the Court family have served as Premier of Western Australia: Sir Charles Court (1974-1982) and his son Richard Court (1993-2001).
Sir Charles’ daughter-in-law Margaret Court is the 1960s tennis champion who still holds the record of 24 Major titles.
Combined, in music there are 24 major & minor keys.
Three of the eighty-eight modern constellations contain the word ‘minor’ in their title: Canis Minor, Leo Minor and Ursa Minor.
Hydra, a water snake, is the largest of the 88 constellations, measuring 1303 square degrees. For comparison, the third largest is Ursa Major at 1280 square degrees. The smallest is Crux, the Southern Cross, at 68 square degrees.
In Greek mythology the Lernaean Hydra was an ancient serpent-like water monster with reptilian traits. It possessed many heads, and for each head that was cut off, two more grew in its place. Heracles killed the Hydra as the second of his Twelve Labours.
The Hydra-Matic Drive, introduced in 1940-model Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles, was the first mass-produced fully-automatic transmission in US makes. It was designed to combine hydraulic operation of a planetary gearbox (allowing much shifting to be automated) with a fluid coupling instead of a friction clutch, eliminating the need for de-clutching.
The sixth sesssion of the 18th Canadian Parliament was the shortest session in Canadian history: one day.
(In the fall of 1939, Prime Minister King had made a commitment to the Opposition parties that Parliament would sit again before the upcoming election, in exchange for speedy passage of measures needed to put Canada on a war footing right away. He kept his promise by calling Parliament into session for one day in January, 1940, then going to Rideau Hall to advise the Gov Gen to call an election.)
Prime Minister Mackenzie King met German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler during a visit to Berlin in 1937. He confided in his personal journal that Hitler “is really one who truly loves his fellow-men, and his country, and would make any sacrifice for their good”. He predicted that “the world will yet come to see a very great man–mystic in Hitler. […] I cannot abide in Nazism -– the regimentation -– cruelty -– oppression of Jews -– attitude towards religion, etc., but Hitler, him –- the peasant -– will rank some day with Joan of Arc among the deliverers of his people.”
Mackenzie King was a spiritualist, who participated in séances and had his own crystal ball. During séances, he often sought political advice from the spirit of his deceased mother, and his deceased dog, Pat. [I am not making this up! :smack:] Curiously, the advice from the spirits often matched the approach that he had already tentatively decided upon.
Prime Minister King was the most successful Prime Minister in Canadian history, serving for over 21 years in three different terms.
Subsequent Prime Ministers have not sought spiritual guidance, so far as we know, and none have lasted in office as long. Cause and effect? 
The Agatha Christie short story *The Last Seance *includes what must be the most gruesome death scene in all of her works:a medium, who has been contacting the soul of a dead child, provides one last sitting for the child’s bereaved mother. The child materialises in bodily form, attached to the medium. The mother snatches up the child and flees, leaving the medium dead, her bodily horribly shrunken and mutilated.
In the Sayers book Strong Poison, Lord Peter’s assistant, Miss Climpson, engages in fraudulent mediumistic tricks to hijack a séance, resulting in an important piece of evidence being discovered.
Taking all 13 tricks in a hand of bridge is known as a grand slam.
In Christie’s novel, Cards on the Table, Mr Shaitana invites four detectives to a bridge party: Poirot, Colonel Race (military intelligence), Superintendent Battle (Scotland Yard) and Ariadne Oliver (detective novelist). Mr Shaitana invites four other guests to the party, and Poirot realises that Shaitana has invited the other four because he suspects them each to have committed a murder. For his own amusement, Shaitana has set up the party for the conflict between four murderers and four detectives.
Then Shaitana is stabbed by one of his guests, unseen, and Poirot has a mystery on his hands.