On November 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes was arrested in the Palace of Westminster. His capture foiled a plot to demolish the House of Lords and its occupants. Fawkes was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who had planned the failed conspiracy known today as the Gunpowder Plot. Fawkes was discovered guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder—enough to reduce the House of Lords to rubble—and arrested.
The Four Great Inventions of ancient China that are celebrated in Chinese culture for their historical significance and as symbols of ancient China’s advanced science and technology are:
The Compass
Gunpowder
Papermaking, and
Printing
Commercial enterprises just north of Joppa, Maryland, utilize water power from the Little Gunpowder Falls. The most notable of these is the still standing Jerusalem Mill Village complex in Kingsville, which, among other enterprises, fabricated weapons for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
Henry IV of England wanted to go on Crusade, partly as penance for usurping the throne from his cousin, Richard II. However, the affairs of state meant that Henry could not find the time. His hope that he would one day go on crusade were buoyed by a prophecy that he would die in Jerusalem.
After several years on the throne, one day he suddenly collapsed. He was carried into a room where he could be laid on a long bench. He realized that the room was called the Jerusalem Chamber and gave up the ghost.
The Star Chamber, while a metopher for arbitrary and capricious judicial power actually introduced some widely accepted legal concepts, such as perjury, attempts and judicial panels.
In Ohio, a person may be prosecuted for perjury if he or she lies about a material fact in either a deposition, affidavit or court testimony.
After Mr Pickwick is found liable to his landlady for breach of promise to marry, Mr Weller senior says sorrowfully to his son, “Oh Sammy, why worn’t there an affydavit?”
American actor Peter Weller, probably best known for Robocop, Naked Lunch and Buckaroo Banzai, was nominated for an Academy Award for his direction of the 1993 short Partners, in which he also acted.
Musician Freddy Weller, who got his professional start playing guitar for Paul Revere and the Raiders, had his biggest solo hit as a country music artist with “Games People Play,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1969; “Promised Land” and “Indian Lake,” both 1971, peaked at No. 3. He also co-wrote “Dizzy” and “Jam Up and Jelly Tight” which were hits for Tommy Roe in 1970.
Paul Revere provided the copper hull sheathing for the sail frigate USS Constitution, still the oldest-commissioned U.S. Navy warship.
Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders fame’s full name is Paul Revere Dick. Just like Tim Allen’s full name is Tim Allen Dick.
Revolutionary patriot and hero Ethan Allen famously captured Fort Ticonderoga with the help of the Green Mountain Boys. This group was originally formed by Allen as a result of legal issues during Allen’s attempt to acquire land in New Hampshire. Basically a gang of thugs, the Green Mountain Boys used intimidation and property destruction to drive New York settlers out of the land grants.
Ethan Allen Global, Inc. is an American furniture chain with almost 300 stores across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1932 by two brothers-in-law, Nathan S. Ancell and Theodore Baumritter. The firm adopted the name “Ethan Allen” for its early-American furniture introduced in 1939.
Theodore Roosevelt has been and will be, until Jan. 20, 2017, the only U.S. President born in New York City.
U S Grant is the only president to be buried in New York City. All presidents have received trasitional burials, as well as all vice-presidents except Spiro Agnew, who was cremated.
In fact, nowadays, you’d prctically have to be a president to be buried in Manhattan, where it is now nearly impossible to arrange to have a traditional burial in any existing cemetery.
On February 16, 1862, Union forces in the Battle of Fort Donelson captured the Confederate fort near the Tennessee–Kentucky border, thereby opening the Cumberland River. The river was an important means with which to invade the South. The victory gave General Ulysses S. Grant the nickname “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.
In Canada after World War I, some labour leaders thought that there should be a single union for all workers, nicknamed the One Big Union, which would call strikes of all workers on behalf for individual groups of workers. The idea contributed to the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.
American soldiers who returned from WWI were promised bonuses for their services. These were not paid. In 1932, when the depression was in full swing, some 40,000 veterans comprising what became known as the “Bonus Army” marched on Washington, DC, demanding their bonuses in order to be able to feed their families. A bill was introduced and passed in the House, but failed in the Senate. President Hoover called the soldiers criminals and called out active duty Army troops replete with tanks to drive them from the city. This force was commanded by Douglas MacArthur.
Clan Douglas was one of the most powerful Lowland clans in Scotland. As it grew in power, the Clan acquired two different leaders: Earl Douglas, called the “Black Douglas” by the English for his ferocity in war, and the Earl of Angus, nicknamed the “Red Douglas”. The Red Douglas branch of the clan eventually turned on the Black Douglas branch, leading to the downfall of the Black Douglases.
The term “mondegreen,” for misheard song lyrics, refers to the Scottish folk ballad “The Bonnie Earl o’ Moray”. The actual words are
“Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where have you been?
They have slain the Earl o’ Moray,
And laid him on the green”.
The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term “mondegreen” in an essay “The Death of Lady Mondegreen,” which was published in Harper’s Magazine in November 1954. In the essay, Wright described how, as a young girl, she misheard the final two lines of the above verse as “they have slain the Earl o’ Moray, and Lady Mondegreen.” She said that she always imagined the Earl dying beside his faithful lover “Lady Mondegreen”, and refused to hear the real words, because they were less romantic than her misheard version. The term “mondegreen” has since been adopted for any misheard song lyric which changes the meaning of the original.