That “Titanic Baby” was John Jacob “Jakey” Astor VI (August 14, 1912 – June 26, 1992). He was born in New York City four months after the Titanic sank.
Christina-Taylor Green was born in the midst of tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001, and died January 8, 2011 while trying to meet Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Slayer has released two albums on September 11th. The first, God Hates Us All in 2001, was clearly coincidence, whereas the second, Repentless (due to be released on Sept. 11, 2015) was clearly by choice – especially since albums are almost always released on Tuesdays, and 9/11/15 is a Friday.
According to NPR, if you release an album on a Tuesday, then you get the maximum seven days of sales counted toward your total (including a full weekend).
Car Talk is a Peabody Award–winning radio talk show broadcast weekly on NPR stations and elsewhere. Its subjects were automobiles and automotive repair, usually discussed in a humorous way. It was hosted by brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi, known also as “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers”. The show was produced from 1977 to October 2012, when the Magliozzi brothers retired. However, the show still is broadcast on NPR using material from the past twenty-five years.
Sadly, Tom Magliozzi died on November 3, 2014, at age 77, due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.[
Tappet clearances are what are measured and adjusted when ‘adjusting valve clearances’ on a car’s engine. The tappets are actuated by a rotating cam which has a lobe on it. When the cam shaft rotates, the cam lobe pushes on the tappet, which then actuates either the pushrods in an overhead valve engine or the valve stems in an overhead cam engine. Too much clearance between cam and tappet means the valve won’t fully open, resulting in loss of power. Too little clearance means the valve won’t fully close and its edges will likely burn during the combustion cycle in a 4-stroke engine.
The Irish Rovers recorded the song for an animated 1960’s commercial for Mobil gasoline - “We’re the rocker arm assembalee, we don’t like dirt!”, unfortunately not on YouTube. It was a response to a Gulf Oil commercial in which the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, later heroes of NPR Pledge Week, sang a paean to the company’s Universe-class tankers - “Bringin’ home the oil, me boys, bringin’ home the oil!/ Sailin’ all around the world, bringin’ home the oil!/ A-workin’ on a giant ship, it’s very hard we toil,/ Sailin’ into Bantry Bay, bringin’ home the oil!”
They were young. They needed the money.]]
ETA: Link - rocker arms are also called tappets
During a 1963 visit to Ireland, from which his ancestors had come, President John F. Kennedy presented a historic Irish Brigade regimental flag from the American Civil War to the Irish parliament.
In 2011, President Barack Obama visited his family’s ancestral village of Moneygall, Ireland, on the border of Counties Offaly and Tipperary. His maternal greatx3-grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, left it for America in 1850. The President was greeted upon arrival by his eighth cousin, Henry Healy, and following a walkabout on the main street where they shook hands with many local residents, the Obamas entered a house that had been built on the site where Falmouth Kearney had lived. Afterwards, they visited Ollie Hayes’s pub to meet more of the President’s distant relatives and to study the birth records of his ancestors. President and Mrs. Obama drank Irish stout to the traditional toast, sláinte (meaning “good health”), and Mrs. Obama went behind the bar to learn how to pull a pint.
The Barack Obama Plaza service area was opened at Junction 23 of the M7 on the outskirts of Moneygall in June 2014. And no, the name was never spelled “O’Bamagh”.
Ohio and Texas are the only US state names that are normally/commonly touch-typed with only one hand on a standard QWERTY keyboard: Ohio with just the right hand, and Texas with just the left (shift key not included).
The longest common English word that is typed solely with the left hand is “stewardesses”.
English rule in Ireland began when an English pope gave an English king overlordship of Ireland.
The only English Pope was Adrian IV.
ETA: The only Dutch Pope was Adrian VI.
Contrary to the Lenox Corp.'s supposed artistic vision, Dwight D. Eisenhower was never Pope.
The Red Wing Bridge is a cantilever bridge which carries U.S. Route 63 across the Mississippi River from Wisconsin to Red Wing, Minnesota. It is officially named the Eisenhower Bridge for Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, who opened the bridge in November 1960.
Completed in 1979, the Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 in Colorado was one of the last major pieces of the US Interstate Highway system to be completed. With a maximum elevation of 11,158 ft (3,401 m) above sea level, it is one of the highest vehicular tunnels in the world. It is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point on the Interstate Highway system.
Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT) is the new name for the former Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. The city took the name when Kansas City renamed its own Mid-Continent Airport to Kansas City International Airport. The code MCI remained with Kansas City even though the airport with the matching name was then in a different city.
The song ‘Wichita Lineman’ by Glenn Campbell is #192 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Written by Wrecking Crew member Jim Webb as Washita Lineman, it was changed to Wichita Lineman. Glenn Campbell said it was because: “Wichita sings better.”
Glen Campbell was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for writing the film’s theme “I’m Not Gonna Miss You” from the 2014 film Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, about how he is facing his advancing Alzheimer’s case and growing loss of memory.
Surrounded by uniformed White House military aides and via remote broadcast, First Lady Michelle Obama announced the winner of the 2013 Best Picture Oscar, Argo.
