Although a Plantagenet of primarily French descent, King Henry III was fascinated by his English ancestry, and revived two traditional Anglo-Saxon names for his sons. He named his eldest son Edward, and his second son Edmund. There had been Pre-Conquest English kings with those names.
A demonym is any name derived from a place. The word “demonym” was coined by Paul Dickson, an editor at Merriam-Webster, in his 1997 book Labels for Locals. Californian, Frenchmen, New Yorker, French and Swiss are all demonyms.
A dispreoportionate numbr of famous cartooniss were borh or raised in Missouri, including
Al Hirschfeld and George Boooth, both familiar to readers of New Yorker magazine. Other Missouri native cartgoonists include Lee Falk (The Phantom), Fred Lasswell (Barney Google and Snuffy Smith), George McManus (Maggie and Jiggs), Mike Peters ( Mother Goose & Grimm), Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey), and, of course, Walt Disney. And Mark Twain, America’s most famous humorist, who certainly would have been a cartoonist if he could draw.
Mark Twain did discuss the art lessons he took in Germany in his book A Tramp Abroad, which was a sequel of sorts to his The Innocents Abroad. Neither was the basis for Bette Midler’s memoir A View From A Broad, however.
Bette Midler, now 70, was born in Honolulu. She was named after Bette Davis, although she pronounces her name with only one syllable. Growing up in Honolulu, she was one of the few Jewish students in a mostly Asian school. In high school she was voted Most Talkative, and also Most Dramatic. She first worked with singer and pianist Barry Manilow soon after moving to New York in the early 1970s.
The typical school in Hawaii is still “mostly Asian”, In the last census, Asians comprised 38% of Hawaii’s population, compared to 24% White. Ten percent are Pacific Islanders, and most of the rest listed as “mixed”.
USS Hawaii, the third Alaska-class cruiser, was launched in 1945 after the Japanese surrender in World War II but never commissioned. Her construction was stopped and then, in 1947, cancelled, and she was finally scrapped in 1959.
The German submarine U-505 was captured on 4 June 1944 by United States Navy Task Group 22.3 (TG 22.3). Her codebooks, Enigma machine, and other secret materials found on board helped the Allied efforts in the closing year of World War II. She is one of six U-boats that were captured by Allied forces during World War II, and the first warship to be captured by U.S. forces on the high seas since the War of 1812.
The submarine was donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois and is now a museum ship.
Just two months after the United States declared war on the United Kingdom in the War of 1812, Washingon, D.C. was burning. It was the only time in US history that Washington, D.C. has been occupied by a foreign force.
The Battle of Bladensburg took place on August 28, 1814, during the War of 1812… The defeat of the American forces there allowed the British to capture and burn Washington, D.C… It has been called “the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms”. A Brisih force of uder 5,000 troops utterly routed over 7,000 Americans, including President James Madison, who was at the battle site.
Scotland has had seven kings named James. The first four of them died violently, of murder (James I), in battle (James III and IV), and by an unfortunate explosion of a siege cannon (James II).
James IV was the last British king killed in battle.
James Madison was one of only three U.S. Presidents to exercise personal command of U.S. troops in the field, when he did so at the Battle of Bladensburg (and, by some accounts, only narrowly escaped capture by the British). The other two were George Washington during the Whiskey Rebellion, and Abraham Lincoln near Norfolk, Va. in 1862 (with a small party, he rowed ashore onto Confederate territory and personally selected a landing site for U.S. troops).
Newfoundland’s Royal St. John’s Regatta is the oldest continuously contested sports event in North America, a rowing competition that has occurred every year since 1816, and dates back to at least 1761. The event is staged on Quidi Vidi Lake, on a date announced early on the morning of the first day (after the first Tuesday in August) in which water is calm enough in the notoriously windy location, which is then proclaimed a public holiday in St. John’s.
The city name of St. John, NL has been attributed to the feast day of John the Baptist, who is a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Bahá’í Faith, and Mandaeism.
Saint John the Baptist Parish is one of nine parishes in Louisiana named for Saints. One of them, St. Tammany, though, is not on the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. St. Tammany is the familiar name of an Indian chief, who after his death rose to legendary status in Philadelphia,
A statue of Tammany, honoring New York City troops who served in the Civil War, stands on the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pa. Tammany Hall, the notorious political machine, took its name from the same Indian chief.
Tammany Hall leader William Marcy “Boss” Tweed was portrayed in Gangs of New York by Jim Broadbent whose other portrayals of historical figures include Frank Pakenham, Earl of Longford in Longford and Sir William S. Gilbert (of & Sullivan fame) in Topsy-Turvy.
Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City and New York State politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise up in American politics from the 1790s all the way to the 1960s.
ETA: Looks like a bunch of us went after the same word–see where the next poster will take us.
Tammany’s power was effectively ended by the successful candidacy for mayor of Congressman Fiorello LaGuardia in 1933. Although a reformist Republican, he ran on a Fusion ticket as the candiate of a group of independents - New York has unusual election laws that lead to the existence of state-level Conservative and Liberal parties as well.
Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, ran as a Liberal-Conservative.