Oops, I see I’ve duplicated some info from Annie’s post. Sorry Annie!
Head of Christ, a 1648 painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn, used as a model for Jesus a young Sephardic Jew from the neighborhood in which Rembrandt lived and worked. It is not as well-known as Warner Sallman’s 1940 painting of the same name (referred to in this recent column by The Master Who came up with our popular image of Jesus? - The Straight Dope) which had been reproduced over half a billion times worldwide by the end of the 20th century and is said to be the basis for the visualization of Jesus for many millions of people.
For much of its existence, Rembrandt’s painting The Night Watch was coated with a dark varnish, which gave the incorrect impression that it depicted a night scene, leading to the name by which it is now commonly known. This varnish was removed only in the 1940s.
Per Wiki:
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS), traces its roots back to 1725. It is now an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The regiment was created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881, when the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot (The Black Watch) was amalgamated with the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot. It was known as The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) from 1881 to 1931 and The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) from 1931 to 2006. It was the last British military unit to leave Hong Kong in 1997, and played a prominent role in the handover ceremony to China.
Before the 19th century the Scottish Highlands was home to a large population, but due to a combination of factors including the Jacobite Rising of 1745, the infamous Highland Clearances, and mass migration to urban areas during the Industrial Revolution, the area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe.
[del]1st Battalion, 14th Marines was a US Marine Corps Reserve artillery battalion headquartered at Treasure Island Naval Station, San Francisco, before moving to Alameda. It has been decommissioned and the unit replaced by a Force Recon unit.[/del]
Ninja’d. Still in play:
Poet Robert Burns was from the Scottish Lowlands, born in Ayrshire and buried in Dumfries. His words, in “Auld Lang Syne”, are sung by millions every year. He also wrote movingly of the Scottish Highlands, in “My Heart’s in the Highlands.”
Loch Ness is a long, narrow lake in the Scottish Highlands. It is approximately 22 miles long, and 1 mile wide. Urquhart Castle sits on is northwestern shore and dates from the 1200s C.E.
Francis Urquhart (Ian Richardson) was the British parliamentary schemer at the center of the TV dark political satire House of Cards. His counterpart in the more recent American version is Francis “Frank” Underwood (Kevin Spacey).
On August 22, 1128, English forces repelled a Scottish army at the Battle of the Standard near Northallerton in Yorkshire. Richard of Hexham says that of the army which came forth from Scotland, more than ten thousand were missing from the re-mustered survivors.
ETA: The battle was a major one in British history.
The disappearance of the Imperial Roman Army’s Legio IX Hispana inspired Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel *The Eagle of the Ninth *(made into the Channing Tatum film The Eagle), in which its commander’s son goes north of Hadrian’s Wall to find them. He returns with only the legion’s eagle standard, after learning of their destruction by the northern tribes.
Following the disastrous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, in which three Roman legions were destroyed by a German uprising, the numbers of the Legions, the XVII, XVIII and XIX, never again appear in the Roman Army’s order of battle. The commander, Publius Quinctilius Varus, committed suicide, and the Emperor Augustus was said to moan, from time to time for years afterwards, “Quinctilius Varus, give me back my Legions!”
In Monty Python’s Life of Brian, People’s Front of Judea leader Reg (John Cleese) irritably lists the Romans’ contributions to the ancient world: “All right… all right… but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order… what have the Romans done for us?”
The song for the opening/closing of Monty Python’s Flying Circus was The Liberty Bell, a march written by John Philip Sousa. It was chosen, among other reasons, because the recording was in the public domain, thus free to be used.
And if anyone needs refreshing: Monty Python's Flying Circus Intro - YouTube
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus played its final show on Sunday May 21 after 146 years as the “Greatest Show on Earth.” The circus performed its engagement at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island, New York; it had been doing spring performances there for many years.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus played its final show on Sunday May 21, 2017 after 146 years as the “Greatest Show on Earth.” The circus performed its final engagement at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island, New York; it had been doing spring performances there for many years.
[Sorry for the double post, I missed the edit deadline. Reposting just to add a personal note: for the past 21 years I’ve worked in a building next to the railroad siding where the circus train sits for 10 days while the circus is in town. It’s usually there in March or April and my kids (who went to a daycare nearby) used to love trying to get a peek at the performers. I didn’t know until I heard of the closing why the circus was so much later this year and that it was the last time the train would be there.]
When Barnum & Bailey was touring Europe in 1899, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany ordered the imperial General staff to study the logistics of the circus, particularly their train loading and unloading operations, and apply them to the movement of the German Army.
On May 29, 1852, Johanna Maria Lind ended her extraordinarily popular concert tour of America. She was better known as Jenny Lind, a Swedish opera singer often called the “Swedish Nightingale.” In 1850, Lind had gone to America at the invitation of the showman P. T. Barnum, She gave 93 large-scale concerts for Barnum and then continued to tour under her own management. She earned more than $350,000 from these concerts, donating the proceeds to charities.
P. T. Barnum was a benefactor of Tufts College, now Tufts University, in Medford Massachusetts, giving over $1 million. The Barnum Museum of Natural History (Barnum Hall) was constructed to house his collection of animal specimens including the stuffed hide of Jumbo the elephant. Jumbo remains the university’s mascot and the Tufts Jumbos are the varsity intercollegiate athletic teams.
Baraboo, Wisconsin, the former winter home of the Ringling Brothers Circus, is known as Circus City. It is the home of the Circus World Museum and the Al. Ringling Theatre.