There has never been a Duke of Portsmouth in the British aristocracy, although there was a single Duchess of Portsmouth, Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille, a mistress of King Charles II. Through her son by Charles II, Charles Lennox, first Duke of Richmond, she is an ancestor of both wives of HRH Prince Charles: Diana, Princess of Wales, and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Spartan Stadium still stands in Portsmouth, Ohio, used by local high schools. It was the home field of the NFL’s Portsmouth Spartans, who are now the Detroit Lions. The Lions’ later homes of Tiger Stadium and the Pontiac Silverdome have since been demolished. The team now plays at Ford Field.
The word “stadium” is ultimately derived via Latin from the Greek word "stadion ", meaning a foot-race of approximately 600 feet, based on the original Olympic Games.
By extension, the word came to mean the place or building where the race occurred.
The stadion’s descendent, the modern 200-meter dash, is considered the oldest event at the Olympic Games.
The San Mames Stadium in Bilbao, Spain, was the oldest football stadium still in use in the Spanish La Liga, until the Athletic Bilbao team received a new stadium in 2013. The new stadium retains the name of the old one.
Athletic Bilbao is a professional football club, based in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. They are known as Los Leones (The Lions) because their stadium was built near a church called San Mamés. Mammes was a semi-legendary early Christian thrown to the lions by the Romans. Mammes pacified the lions and was later made a saint.
The Basque language, Euskara, is not related to any other known human language. It is believed to have been the region’s indigenous language since before the Indo-European migration into the area (there are many theories with no evidence), and to have survived because the Basque area was never considered worth the trouble to conquer.
On August 6, 1506, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania achieved one of the greatest Lithuanian victories against the Tatars in the Battle of Kletsk. The Tatars had been a tribal confederation on the Mongolian plateau subjugated by Genghis Khan around the year 1206, later moving westward with other Turkic people. The largest group that Russians have called “Tatars” are the Volga Tatars, settlers in the Volga region—who are often simply known as "Tatars” (their language is known as the Tatar language).
Volga Tatars come from neighboring states Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, actor Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky), and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff are Tatars.
The “Song of the Volga Boatmen” (known in Russian as Эй, ухнем! [Ey, ukhnem!, “yo, heave-ho!”) is a well-known Russian folk tune, sung by barge-haulers on the Volga River. Glenn Miller’s jazz arrangement took the song to #1 in the US charts in 1941.
Alton was Glenn Miller’s first name.
Alton was the first name of the first-ever principal of Latham Ridge Elementary School in Latham NY, Alton (“Tony”) Downer.
Alton Crawford Brown is a well known foodie and author. He found his niche by analyzing what happens when you do certain things to food, basically educating cooks everywhere as to the why as well as the how of good cooking. Brown is also a cinematographer and musician.
John Brown Gordon was no relation to John Brown. The first was a Confederate general and later Georgia politician; the second was a possibly-mentally-ill violently militant abolitionist.
The Battle of Osawatomie, Kansas took place on August 30, 1856 when 250-400 Border Ruffians led by John W. Reid attacked the town of Osawatomie, defended by John Brown. Heavily outnumbered, Brown was forced to withdraw and the town was sacked by the pro-slavery forces.
Most people who are asked about famous lines from The Wizard of Oz remember Dorothy’s line as ‘Looks like we’re not in Kansas anymore,’ or ‘Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore’. Dorothy actually says ‘Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.’
Nothing is known of the two blue wizards, or Istari, who went to the Far East of Middle Earth.
Radagast the Brown is a wizard who is mentioned in one line of The Hobbit; his character and actions are more fully described by Gandalf in Lord of the Rings: "a worthy Wizard, a master of shapes and changes of hue; and he has much lore of herbs and beasts, and birds are especially his friends.” He never appears directly in the books. Tolkien fans have objected to Peter Jackson’s portrayal of him in the film version of The Hobbit, where his eccentricity seems to be emphasized for comic relief.
United Parcel Service, or UPS, is known for its trademark brown delivery trucks and uniforms, hence the company nickname “Brown.” This has been used in advertisements for the company, with the signature line “What can Brown do for you?”
Peter Marc Jacobsen and Fran Drescher met when they were 15, moved in together at 18, married at 21, she let him when they were 30, and theydivorced at 33. Jacobsen then came out as gay.
A 2012 study by Friends Reunited, a British social-networking site, found that 70% of respondents over age 40 claimed they were not truly happy until they reached 33.