Magnet North, for about a decade around 1820, was actually situated in a temparate zone, just south of the Arctic Circle. It had drifted that far south, then abruptly turned back north, and is now very close to the geographic North Pole.
In their song “Miracles”, the Insane Clown Posse expressed their wonder and awe at a range of natural phenomena, despite deriding actual science, famously including asking “Fucking magnets, how do they work?”
The American thoroughbred racehorse named Bold Ruler sired one of the greatest racehorses in American history, Secretariat. Bold Ruler was also the damsire of a racehorse with an unspectacular racing career named Posse.
An old aviators’ saying (quoted in the widely-panned 1979 Disney sf adventure The Black Hole) is, “There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are very few old, bold pilots.”
If you were to stay in a different room every night at the Disney World resorts, to sleep in them all would take you 68 years.
On June 9. AD 68, the Roman Emperor Nero commited suicide four miles outside Rome. He had been deserted by the Praetorian Guard and died by stabbing himself in the throat. He was suceeded (for a reign of seven months) by Servius Sulpicius Galba
During 69, the Year of the Four Emperors, after the emperor Galba failed to provide a donative for the Praetorians, they transferred their allegiance to Otho and assassinated the emperor. Otho acquiesced in the Praetorians’ demands and granted them the right to appoint their own prefects, ensuring their loyalty.
By the early fourth century, the Romans had built a road network of 53,000 miles throughout the empire. Each Roman mile was about 1,000 paces (about 4,800 feet) and was marked by a milestone.
The nautical mile was originally defined as the distance of one minute of arc of latitude measured along any meridian, and that is still a good enough definition for most uses. It is formally defined to day as exactly 1852 meters, or about 15% longer than the statute mile from (mille passus, “thousand pace” in Latin). The so-called “metric mile” is the 1500-meter track race, slightly shorter than a statute mile.
The idea that converting Celsius into Fahrenheit by doubling the number and adding 30 works fine for the weather. Not so much for cooking and science.
Ray Bradbury’s 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, about the dangers of censorship, ironically has itself been censored, banned, criticized or restricted in Panama City, Fla., Irvine, Calif. and Montgomery County, Tex.
The last Democratic Presidential candidate to win Montgomery County, TX, was LBJ in 1964.
Shortly after Lyndon Johnson’s death on December 26, 1972, his press secretary Tom Johnson telephoned Walter Cronkite at CBS; Cronkite was live on the air with the CBS Evening News at the time, and a report on Vietnam was cut abruptly while Cronkite was still on the line, so he could break the news. The only time I ever saw Cronkite on the phone while on the air.
Walter Cronkite covered WWII for United Press. His coverage included parachuting into the Netherlands with the 101st Airborne Division and landing with Allied troops at Normandy as part of the D-Day Invasion.
The name “Netherlands” is an English formation of the words “Low Country”, which is the meaning of Nederland, its Dutch name. Nederland, Texas, is just ten feet above sea level. But Nederland Colorado is 8,228 feet up in the high Rockies. The name “Holland” correctly applies only to two provinces on the west coast of Netherlands.
In June 1998, Jessica Sklar married Eric Nederlander, a theatrical producer and the son of theater owner Robert Nederlander. After returning from an Italian honeymoon with Nederlander, she took up with comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Nederlander filed for divorce in October 1998, only four months after marrying .[15] Sklar and Seinfeld became engaged in November 1998, and were married on December 25, 1999
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and his bride Princess Salama hold the world’s record for the most expensive wedding, which was held in 1981. The prince’s father ordered a custom-made stadium to be built for the 20,000+ guests that were to attend, and at the wedding, Fifty Arab and African song-and-dance troupes paraded before the princes, emirs, sheiks and ambassadors who had been flown in on 34 private jets. In total, the extravaganza had a price tag of $100 million.
Millions and millions of dollars are spent every day for the myriad of things the United States Government does. Sen. Everett Dirksen once joked, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
In 1967, 71 year old Sen. Everett Dirksen became the oldest performer ever to reach the Billboard Hot 100 with his recording of his own poem, “Gallant Men”, collaborating with Charles Osgood and composer John Cacavas. He was known as “The Wizard of Ooze” for his oratorical style.
In 1939’s Wizard of Oz, the cowardly lion’s costume was made of a real lion skin.
And just try getting that past PETA today!