The Saudi Bin Ladin Group is a construction conglomerate headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The SBG was founded in 1931 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Laden Sayyid. Osame Bin Ladin once held part ownership of the company but was forced to sell his stake in 1993 due to his radical activities.
The Statue of Westminster 1931 recognized that the British Dominions (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Newfoundland) were autonomous and provided that no British statute would apply to a dominion unless the Dominion in question specifically asked for the British Parliament to enact the statute.
The power of the UK Parliament to enact laws for Canada under this provision ended with the Canada Act 1982.
Composer Tim Minchin’s first two London musicals, Matilda and Groundhog Day, won Britain’s theatre’s highest award, the Olivier for Best Musical.
The Matilda I was a British infantry tank of the Second World War. Despite being slow, cramped and only armed with a single machine gun, the Matilda I had some success in the Battle of France in 1940, owing to its heavy armor which was proof against the standard German anti-tank guns. It was soon withdrawn from service in favor of the “Matilda II”.
“And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” was written in 1971 by Scottish-born Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle. In 1974 Bogle entered the National Folk Festival songwriting competition, in Brisbane. The judges awarded the song third place, but their decision caused a small storm of protest, focusing more attention on the song, Bogle thought, than outright victory would have done. It has been covered by over thirty artists and in 2001 was named one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.
Her Majesty the Queen has her own distinctive flag in her role as monarch of Australia. It incorporates the heraldic symbols of the six Australian states (and, in my non-factual opinion, is fugly): Queen's Personal Australian Flag - Wikipedia
Queen are a British rock band that formed in London in 1970. Their classic line-up was Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon. In 1991, Mercury died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS, and Deacon retired in 1997. Since then, May and Taylor have performed under the name of Queen with Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert as vocalists on several tours.
The symbol for the planet Mercury may be based on a combination of the god Mercury’s winged helmet and the caduceus: ☿
Mercury/Hermes also had wings on his sandals, an image which was selected as a corporate logo for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company by its founder, Frank Seiberling, whose Akron mansion contained a statue of the god.
Stan Hywet Hall, Frank Seiberling’s vast and ornate Akron mansion, has been open to the public since 1957 and is well worth a visit. It was named the #1 Historic Home Tour in America by readers of USA Today.
Butchart Gardens are a group of floral gardens located on Vancouver Island. The Gardens are located within a former limestone quarry. The Gardens are still privately owned by the Butchart family. The site is a designated National Historic Site.
The Victoria Gardens in the Canada Pavilion in the Epcot theme park in Walt Disney World are inspired by the Butchart Gardens (which are near Victoria in British Columbia).
The architect of the provincial Parliament buildings in Victoria was Francis Rattenbury, an English architect. Some years after his return to England, he was murdered by his gardener, who was having an affair with his wife.
Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. Bacon is considered the father of what is known as the ‘scientific method’. In sum, he argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. Most importantly, he argued this could be achieved by use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves
20th century artist Francis Bacon in person was highly engaging and charismatic, articulate, well-read and unapologetically gay. He was a prolific artist, but nonetheless spent many of the evenings of his middle age eating, drinking and gambling in London’s Soho with like-minded friends such as Sigmund’s grandson Lucian Freud (though the two fell out in the 1950s, for reasons neither ever explained), John Deakin, Muriel Belcher, Henrietta Moraes, Daniel Farson and Jeffrey Bernard.
FWIW, Wiki says it was the chauffeur: Francis Rattenbury - Wikipedia
In play:
Francis Bacon’s 1969 oil-on-canvas triptych depicting artist Lucian Freud sold in November 2013 for US$142.4 million, which at the time was the highest price attained at auction for a work of art when not factoring in inflation.
Oklahoma artist Harold Stevenson was a friend of Andy Warhol and art patroness Iris Clert. He is known for painting a giant painting of the Spanish bullfighter El Cordobes, which hung on the Eiffel Tower until it was taken down for causing traffic problems. Perhaps his most famous work is “The New Adam”, a nude painting of a young Sal Mineo, which Stevenson dedicated to his then-lover, Lord Timothy Willoughby de Eresby, the heir to the Earl of Ancaster.
Lord John Marbury (Roger Rees) was a British diplomat who was a recurring character on The West Wing. An old friend of President Josiah Bartlet and First Lady Abigail Bartlet, he sometimes seemed like a stereotypical foppish nobleman (among his other personality quirks, he invariably referred to White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry as “Gerald”), but was actually a skillful, shrewd foreign policy expect.
First Lady Abigail Adams took an active role in politics and policy, unlike the quiet presence of Martha Washington. She was so politically active, her political opponents came to refer to her as “Mrs. President.” At times Abigail planted favorable stories about her husband in the press.
“abigail” was a colloquial term for a lady’s personal maid in the 18th and early 19th centuries in England. The usage probably comes from the fact that Abigail in the Bible referred to herself as the “handmaiden” of King David.