Rio in 2016 is the first South American city to ever host an Olympic games. Every continent, except Antarctica, now has hosted an Olympic games.
Africa hasn’t either.
The Rio Las Vegas hotel and casino, with its Carnaval decor, is the site of the Penn and Teller Show.
When there is a call for a recorded vote, or division, in the British House of Commons, the members separate, with those supporting the motion going through one entrance to the chamber and those opposing it going through another. Four members act as the tellers counting the vote, two counting all the members who support the motion and two counting those who oppose it.
Oops, my bad!
Only the UK and Canada have a House of Commons. South Korea did, from 1960 to 1961, when it had a parliamentary government for the only time in its history.
Cast recordings of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera have been released of the productions that performed in London, Austria, Holland, Germany, the three Japanese productions, Sweden Korean, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Russia and Canada.
Sweden’s women’s soccer team bested the USA’s team yesterday at the Rio Olympics, eliminating USA from any medal contention. USA goalie Hope Solo did not speak graciously in defeat after the game - (comment: that was unfortunate, and quite disrespectful).
Before hitting iconic stardom as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford appeared in George Lucas’s American Graffiti as Bob Falfa.
Harrison Ford worked as a carpenter and contractor before becoming an actor fulltime. He is now a trained fixed-wing and helicopter pilot who has taken part in several rescues in Wyoming, where he lives.
During a 1928 interview with the Detroit Times’ George Sylvester Viereck, Henry Ford expanded on his religious thoughts, owing his strokes of brilliance to a “Master Mind”: “Somewhere is a Master Mind sending brain wave messages to us. There is a Great Spirit. I never did anything by my own volition. I was pushed by invisible forces within and without me.”
A prime-time variety program, The Ford Show, ran on NBC television from October 4, 1956, to June 29, 1961. The show was named not after its star, Tennessee Ernie Ford, but rather, the sponsor, Ford Motor Co.
In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams named one of the characters “Ford Prefect.” Most Americans don’t get the joke: the Ford Prefect was a line of British cars produced in the 40s and 50s.
The Morris Marina is an British-made car that was manufactured by Morris from 1971 until 1980. It was sold in some markets as the Austin Marina, the Leyland Marina and the Morris 1700. The BBC2 motoring show* Top Gear* has featured several Morris Marinas, all of which have been destroyed. A running gag throughout the series involves dropping a piano on a Marina every time the car is featured.
At 5:04pm on Tuesday October 17, 1989, the San Francisco Bay Area was rocked by the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake. The earthquake was centered at the Forest of Nicene Marks State Park and was named for the nearby Loma Prieta Peak, a 3,790’ mountain in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Some 75 miles to the northwest, in San Francisco’s Marina District, because that area was built on landfill, the water-saturated unconsolidated mud, sand and rubble suffered liquefaction, and the earthquake’s vertical shock waves rippled the ground more severely. Seven buildings collapsed and four people died.
George H.W. Bush, only the second incumbent Vice President of the United States after Martin Van Buren to be elected President, was sworn into office at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 1989.
Richard Nixon is the only former Vice-President to be elected President, eight years after his term as VP ended.
Missed the Edit window: Bush and Van Buren were the third and fourth incumbent VEEPs to be elected, but they are the only two who were elected after the passage of the 12th Amendment, which changed the election process.
Adams and Jefferson were both incumbent VEEPs, but they were elected under the original process set out in Article II.
Spiro Agnew, VP for Nixon, resigned the Vice Presidency in 1973 due to charges of accepting bribes and tax evasion. Only one other VP resigned from office. John Calhoun, VP for John Quincy Adams, resigned in 1832 over political differences with Adams.
Spiro Agnew was famous for his often alliterative insults, mostly written by Pat Buchanan and William Safire. Insults included “pusillanimous pussyfooters”, “nattering nabobs of negativism”, and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”
Spiro Agnew’s father was Greek, and shortened his Greek name, Anagnostopoulos, to Agnew, which is normally a Scottish name.
Off-Game: when Calhoun resigned, he was Vice-President to Andrew Jackson, not John Quincy Adams. He resigned over the Nullification Crisis.