On February 28, 202 BCE, Liu Bang was crowned as Emperor Gaozu of Han, beginning four centuries of the Han dynasty in China.
Harrison Ford was not immediately cast for the role of Han Solo, as George Lucas had already used him in the film American Graffiti and wanted somebody new for the role. However, he hired Ford to rehearse lines with other actors and was so impressed by him that he eventually gave him the role. Other actors that were considered for the role include Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Nick Nolte and Burt Reynolds.
The famous song “O Solo Mio” is not from an opera. It was written for the popular stage in 1898 and enjoyed immediate success in Naples. The title does not mean “Oh Lonesome Me” (later the title of an American country song sung by Don Gibson), but rather “My Sunshine” (later the title of a famous song written by Jimmie Davis, who later became governor of Louisiana).
The song which many refer to as “O Solo Mio” is actually “’O sole mio”; “sole” means sun. It has been performed and covered by many artists, including Enrico Caruso, Rosa Ponselle, Beniamino Gigli, Mario Lanza and Luciano Pavarotti.
A parody of “O Solo Mio” has these lyrics:
O solecism
Just say it right
Look through a prism
You’ll see the light
A miscue
I heard you state
Why don’t you talk true
And get it straight
Although the President of the United States serves as de facto head of state and has been recognized as such by foreign countries dating back to the first Washington Administration, the Constitution does not specifically designate him as such. Art. II does say, “He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls [and] shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers…”
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that invalidated prohibitions on desecrating the American flag enforced in 48 of the 50 states. Justice William Brennan wrote for a five-justice majority in holding that the defendant Gregory Lee Johnson’s act of flag burning was protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
By the year 2050, it is projected that Nigeria will become the world’s third most populous country, passing #4 Indonesia and #3 the United States. By 2030, India will also overtake China as the world’s largest population.
Tom Vilsack, the current United States Secretary of Agriculture, is a graduate of Shady Side Academy, a prep school in suburban Pittsburgh. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough is also a graduate of the school.
Oh, yeah - and so am I.
David McCullough has won two Pulitzer Prizes, for his books Truman and John Adams.
John Quincy Adams was the first president to have his photograph taken, to adopt a short haircut instead of long hair tied in a pigtail, and to regularly wear long trousers instead of knee breeches.
John Quincy Adams is the US president whose name is most frequently mispronounced. The C is pronounced like a Z. The city of that name in Massachusetts is also pronounced with a Z, but the C pronunciation is used in Quincy, Illinois.
On March 7, 1985, the charity single “We Are the World” by the supergroup USA for Africa was released, and would go on to sell over 20 million copies. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album We Are the World.
“We Are the World 25 for Haiti” is a charity single recorded by the supergroup Artists for Haiti in 2010. It is a remake of the 1985 hit song “We Are the World.” Following the devastating January 2010 magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, the song was re-recorded by new artists, to reach a new generation and help benefit the people of Haiti.
The song was recorded in fourteen and a half hours by over eighty artists on February 1, 2010. It was produced by Quincy Jones, and executively produced by Lionel Richie, and Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean.
On February 4, 960, Taizu became Emperor in China, beginning the Song dynasty that would last for over three centuries.
The Yosemite Decimal System (YDS) is a system used for rating the difficulty of walks, hikes, and climbs. A Class-Three hike/climb is defined as: Scrambling with increased exposure. Handholds are necessary. A rope should be available for learning climbers, or if you just choose to use one that day, but is usually not required. Falls could easily be fatal.
In 1876, Kudzu was introduced to the United States, and has since become he emperor of ground cover in the southeastern states, nearly at the halfway mark of its 300-year reign. It was brought to the USA by well-intention people who had a number of valid uses in mind for the Japanese plant, but it has since become a nuisance. It occurs widely up to and just across the Ohio River, and was found in Canada in 2009. The US military planted it on Pacific islands during WWII, whee it spread and grew quickly enough to provide camouflage cover for vehicles which would otherwise have exposure. (Unninjaed)
In 1944 or 1945, Walter Gieseking and Artur Rother made a stereophonic tape recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #5 (the “Emperor”) for German radio. It was one of the very earliest high-fidelity magnetic tape recordings, as well as one of the earliest stereo recordings, and was one of about 300 such recordings made during the war. However, only three are known to survive. During the quiet passages, anti-aircraft weapons can be heard firing.
On April 7, 1805, the premier performance of Beethoven’s Third Symphony was conducted in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien.
John A. MacDonald served as co-premier of the Province of Canada on three separate occasions.