On December 18, 2006, the cartoonist Joseph Barbera died at the age of 95. In collaboration with William Hanna, they founded Hanna-Barbera, which became the most successful television animation studio in the business, producing programs such as The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, Top Cat, The Smurfs, Huckleberry Hound and The Jetsons.
Animation character Foghorn J. Leghorn was created by illustrator Robert McKimson and appeared in Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. McKimson also created Speedy Gonzales, and in 1943 he became well known for defining Bugs Bunny’s look. McKimson died at 66 years old on September 29, 1977, from a massive heart attack while eating lunch with animation producers Fritz Freleng and David DePatie.
Only a few days earlier McKimson had been given a clean bill of health during a physical, and his doctor suggested his family history (his father lived to be 100) would allow him to live many more years.
What’s up, doc?
The Leghorn variety of chicken originated in Tuscany, Italy and was first exported (1828) to the USA through the port of Livorno, so the birds were called by the traditional Anglicization of the port, Leghorn. Leghorns are the characteristic white birds that are widely used for egg-laying, producing nearly 300 eggs per year.
The old question of ‘Which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ was answered by our own Cecil! Which came first, the chicken or the egg? - The Straight Dope
Because of what jtur88 tells us, that leghorn chickens were imported to the US from Livorno, Italy beginning in 1828, they were called “Italians” before finally, by around 1865, they became known as leghorns.
Prominent people of Italian descent in American public affairs have included Fiorello LaGuardia, Antonin Scalia, Geraldine Ferraro, Mario Cuomo, Andrew Cuomo and Rudy Giuliani.
In 2011,Rudy Ruettiger, a motivational speaker, was charged with security fraud by the SEC, for participating in a pump-and-dump scheme. Settlement of the case required Ruettiger to pay $382,866 in fines. Ruettiger was the real life “Rudy”, as portrayed in the film of that name, carried off the field by his Notre Dame football teammates.
South Bend, Indiana – home of Notre Dame – was originally called “Southold.” The only Southold in the US is on the eastern end of Long Island in NY.
Sean Astin, the actor who played Rudy who finally got accepted to Notre Dame, is the son of Patty Duke and Desi Arnaz, jr. He took the name of his adoptive father, actor John Astin.
There are 28 municipal entities in Quebec named “Notre-Dame”, each community’s name expanded to distinguish them, such as Notre-Dame-Auxiliatrice-de-Buckland, which in spite of its fomal name is simply referred to as Buckland.
William Buckland was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and palaeontologist, writing the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus. His work proving that Kirkdale Cave had been a prehistoric hyena den, for which he was awarded the Copley Medal and was praised as an example of how scientific analysis could reconstruct events from the distant past. He was a pioneer in the use of fossilised faeces, for which he coined the term coprolites, to reconstruct ancient ecosystems.
Meriadoc Brandybuck eventually became the Master of Buckland.
Meriadoc is a name of Brythonic (or, British Celtic) origin, corresponding to Meiriadog in medieval and modern Welsh, Meryasek (or similar spellings) in Cornish, and Meriadek in modern Breton. It was Latinized as either Meridiadocus or Meriadocus.
Celtic F.C., mor widely known as Celtic United, is a professional football (soccer) club based in Glasgow, Scotland who play in the Scottish Premiership. The club was founded in 1887 with the purpose of alleviating poverty in the immigrant Irish population in the East End of Glasgow. The club enjoyed their greatest successes during the 1960s and 70s under Jock Stein when they won nine consecutive league titles and the European Cup.
Celtic have a long-standing fierce rivalry with Glasgow Rangers F.C., and the clubs have become known as the Old Firm. The two clubs have dominated Scottish football, winning 100 league titles between them since the inception of the Scottish League in 1890.
The highest point in Scotland is the mountain peak of Ben Nevis. It is the highest peak in the UK at 4,418 ft.
Big Ben is not the name of the clock tower attached to the Parliament building in London. It’s the name of the bell within the tower. The tower itself is officially named Elizabeth Tower (prior to 2012, it was just called “Clock Tower”).
Elizabeth Tower was an infant daughter of Charlemagne Tower, a lawyer and businessman active in acquiring land in the Schuylkill Valley in Pennsylvania and serving as an officer for coal and railroad companies. Elizabeth died in her second year, in 1855.
Big Ben in Elizabeth Tower was the largest bell in the British Isles until “Great Paul”, a 16¾ ton bell currently hung in St Paul’s Cathedral, was cast in 1881.
The Isles-class trawlers were a class of naval trawler used by the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy during World War II. The type comprised 197 vessels built between 1939 and 1945 in the nearly identical Isles, Dance, Tree and Shakespearian classes.
In 197 BC, Philip V of Macedon loses his war against the Romans after the Battle of Cynoscephalae.