Strontium has a radioactive half life of 28.9 years. Strontium is named after the Scottish village of Strontian as it was discovered in the 1700s in the ores taken from the lead mines there. Strontium 89 is a short-lived artificial radioisotope used in the treatment of bone cancer.
President Jimmy Carter and his staff wore plastic booties in visiting the Three Mile Island, Pa. nuclear accident site in 1979 to avoid being contaminated by radioactive particles.
Worldwide there have been 99 accidents at nuclear power plants. 57 accidents have occurred since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and 57% (56 out of 99) of all nuclear-related accidents have occurred in the USA. Serious nuclear power plant accidents include the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, and the 1961 SL-1 accident in Idaho Falls.
In the spring of 1979 in Canada, Joe Clark led the Progressive Conservatives to a minority federal government, ending 16 years of uninterrupted Liberal government.
Prime Minister Clark’s government was defeated on a budget vote in December, 1979, triggering a new federal election in the New Year. Pierre Trudeau led the Liberals back to power.
All told, Clark was Prime Minister for nine months, one of the shortest terms for a Canadian Prime Minister.
Clark Joseph Kent was adopted by Jonathan and Martha Clark Kent, and given his mother’s maiden name as a first name.
Since its formation in 1975, the heavy metal band Iron Maiden has gone through 24 members, including five lead vocalists, twelve guitarists, five drummers and two keyboardists.
In the adult animated movie Heavy Metal (1981), the opening scene showed a space shuttle orbiting the earth. When its cargo bay doors opened, a Chevy Corvette came out.
Initially, The TV show Bonanza aired on Saturday evenings opposite Perry Mason. Bonanza’s ratings were dismal and the show was soon targeted for cancellation. NBC kept it because Bonanza was one of the first series to be filmed and broadcast in color. .
NBC moved Bonanza to Sundays at 9:00 pm Eastern with new sponsor Chevrolet (replacing The Dinah Shore Chevy Show). The new time slot caused Bonanza to soar in the ratings, and it eventually reached number one by 1964, an honor it would keep until 1967.
In 1911, Louis Chevrolet founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in Detroit. Louis Chevrolet’s motto was “Never give up.” During World War II, Chevy provided trucks such as the G506, a 1½-ton truck, to the US Army.
Louis Chevrolet was Swiss. The familiar trademark logo of Cevrolet, which was recently changed from blue to gold, was originally chosen by Chevrolet as a stylized rendition of the white cross on the Swiss flag.
Jazz musician and trumpeter Louis Armstrong is widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to “cross over”, whose skin color was secondary to his music in an America that was extremely racially divided.
Chevrolet cofounder William Durant’s version of how the bow tie logo came into existence is well-known. The long-accepted story, confirmed by Durant himself, was that it was inspired by the wallpaper design in a Parisian hotel. However, conflicting accounts have emerged, each of which is plausible enough to deepen the mystery and suggest it may never be solved. Two of the alternate origins come from within the Durant family itself, the dinner table sketch and the Swiss flag cross theories.
ETA: ninja’d, so I added cross.
When Oscar Wilde was dying in a Paris hotel, one of his last known statements was: “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go.”
Actress Olivia Wilde is no relation to Oscar Wilde. She was born Olivia Jane Cockburn in New York City. The actress appeared in The Right Stuff, no not the movie but her first episode of the TV series House.
Olivia deHavilland was rare among actresses in Hollywood’s golden age, in that she didn’t need to change her real name into something marketable as a film star. Her sister did, using the stage name Joan Fontaine. She was a cousin of the deHavilland whose aircraft industry created the WWII bomber deHavilland Mosquito. Olivia was born in Japan, where her father was a professor and attorney, and she won two Oscars.
The de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada. It was conceived to be capable of performing the same roles as the earlier and highly successful Beaver, but is overall a larger aircraft. The Otter received Canadian certification in November 1952 and entered production shortly thereafter.
About five years ago, the venerable Beaver magazine had to change its name to Canada’s History because internet searches under that name were leading Canadian history buffs to … inappropriate … webpages. :eek:
A number of colleges’ teams are nicknamed the Beavers:
Babson (Wellesley, Massachusetts)
Bemidji State (Bemidji, Minnesota)
Bluffton (Bluffton, Ohio)
Buena Vista (Storm Lake, Iowa)
Caltech (Pasadena, California)
CCNY (New York, New York)
Champlain (Burlington, Vermont)
Maine-Farmington (Farmington, Maine)
Minot State (Minot, North Dakota)
Oregon State (Corvallis, Oregon)
St. Edward, Nebraska, is 35 miles west of Columbus, and has a population of 705. The girls basketball team, the Beavers, currently has a record of 3-11 on the season. Sara Baustert, a 5’6" senior, is the leading scorer, averaging eight points per game. She’ll be amazed to find this on google.
Sara Baustert also plays volleyball for the St. Edwards High School team. St. Edwards was named for Catholic priest Edward Sorin.