In 1704, 23 French women were brought to Mobile, to help populate what had been a military garrison. But during a stop in Havana, the women contracted yellow fever, which they then spread with disastrous results to Mobile’ s Europeans and Native Americans…
Before the mechanism of yellow fever transmission was understood, residents of Panama would put their tables in bowls of water to keep ants from climbing up them. The bowls were the perfect breeding place for the yellow fever mosquito, making the building a canal a deathtrap until Walter Reed discovered the cause.
Joseph Pulitizer, after whom an excellence in journalism prize is named, actually led the most spectacular decline in journalism excellence. He and William Randoloph Harst originated “Yellow journalism” in the 1890s, in which they tried to outsell each other’s papers with splashy headlines of trivial news, ushering in the era of tabloid journalism
Lilly Pulitzer, known for marketing her brightly colored summer shift dresses, was married to Peter Pulitzer, a grandson of Joseph. She was born Lillian McKim; her mother, Lillian Bostwick McKim, was an heiress to the Standard Oil fortune.
Barry Bostwick is an American stage and screen actor. He is known for playing Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, as well as portraying Mayor Randall Winston in the sitcom Spin City and the father of the President in the TV series Scandal.
Actor Lee Majors attended the acting school of Dick Clayton, who had previously been James Dean’s agent.
The song “Midnight Train to Georgia” was inspired by Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett. Songwriter Jim Weatherly phoned his friend Lee Majors one day in 1972, and the call was answered by Fawcett. Weatherly and Fawcett chatted briefly and she told him she was going to visit her mother and was taking “the midnight plane to Houston.” Although Majors and Fawcett were both successful by that time, Weatherly used them as “characters” in his song about a failed actress who leaves Los Angeles, and is followed by her boyfriend who cannot live without her. Eventually the genders were swapped, the plane turned into a train, and Houston was changed to Georgia.
On October 23, 1989, a massive explosion and fire ripped through the Phillips 66 Houston Chemical Complex, killing 23 employees and injuring 314 others.
Sam Houston, hero of the Texas Revolution, was Governor of Texas at the time the Civil War broke out. He remained loyal to the United States and was ousted by the pro-Confederate state legislature, but warned his fellow Texans of what was to come.
Texas has voted for Donald Trump, and as of right now he holds a slim lead in delegates, in a national race that is much much closer than the polls predicted.
Donald Duck’s first starring role was the 1937 Disney short, Don Donald. The eight-minute cartoon follows Donald’s adventures in Mexico (including riding a burro, which goes poorly), though it’s mainly centered on his bumbling attempts to win over his lady love, Donna Duck.
Disney’s The Three Caballeros, starring Donald Duck, Panchito and Jose Carioca, premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944, ahead of its release in the United States on February 3, 1945. The film was produced as part of the studio’s good will message for Latin America.
While Disney’s 2013 movie Frozen was easily the most successful film with that title, other such movies include:
Frozen (1997 film), a film by Wang Xiaoshuai
Frozen (2005 film), a film by Juliet McKoen
Frozen (2007 film), a film by Shivajee Chandrabhushan
Frozen (2010 American film), a thriller film by Adam Green
Frozen (2010 Hong Kong film), a film by Derek Kwok
Frozen Fever, a 2015 short sequel to the 2013 film, Frozen
Frozen (advertisement), a 2014 political advertisement
There’s a hidden code in some of the main characters’ names of Frozen. The characters of Hans, Kristof, Anna and Sven are a tribute to Hans Christian Andersen, the author of “The Snow Queen,” which inspired “Frozen.” Say the names quickly in sequence and hear the similarity.
Mary Mapes Dodge was an American writer in the 19th century, who created the fable of the little Dutch boy who saved his city by putting his finger in a leak in the dike. The allusion came in her popular young-readers novel “Hans Brinker”.
On August 23, 1614, the University of Groningen was founded in the Dutch Republic.
Michael E. Brady was the nine-year-old boy who became the inspiration for the famous Dutch Boy paint trademark. He was not Dutch at all, but an Irish-American who lived near Lawrence Earle, the artist commissioned to create the logo. Since 1907, the Dutch Boy logo has been refreshed eight different times.
On January 4, 1912, the Boy Scout Association was incorporated throughout the then British Empire by royal charter.
A number of people have been named after Baron Robert Baden-Powell, the founded the world scouting movement. Among them is Baden Powell de Aquino, a Brazilian musician, arranger and composer, who was instrumental in popularizing the Bossa Nova genre.
Corazon Aquino was the first female president (1986–92) of the Philippines and first woman president in Asia. She was a key figure in the 1986 People Power movement and restored democratic rule in the Philippines after the long dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.