Theodore Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. He planned to return from his first European vacation in 1912 on the Titanic, but was talked out of going by an English publisher who recommended he board a cheaper boat.
The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility (originally called Futility) is an 1898 novella written by Morgan Robertson. The story features the fictional ocean liner Titan, which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg.
Morgan cars, built since 1910, are unique and unusual for having wood used in their chassis and/or their body shells throughout their existence. Today the Morgan Aero 8 can be purchased, and its sooden body substructure is made of ash.
All Morgan horses trace back to a single foundation sire, a stallion named Figure, who was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts in 1789. In 1792, he was given to a man named Justin Morgan as a debt payment, who used him extensively for breeding. Figure’s grandson Black Hawk, born in 1833, went on to become a foundation stallion for the Standardbred, American Saddlebred and Tennessee Walking Horse breeds, and was known for his unbeaten harness racing record.
Morgan 3-Wheeler cars were built from 1932 to 1952, and they are currently built and sold today. The current version has been manufactured since 2011.
1952 was the last full year of Harry Truman’s Presidency. Truman, a Democrat of Missouri, supported the candidacy of Adlai Stevenson of Illinois that fall, but Stevenson was defeated in the Presidential election - as he would be again, four years later - by Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican of New York.
Harry S. Truman enlisted in the Missouri National Guard in 1905. At his induction, his eyesight had been an unacceptable 20/50 in the right eye and 20/400 in the left. The second time he took the test, he passed by secretly memorizing the eye chart. Truman ended up serving in WWI, rising to the rank of Captain in charge of an artillery battery.
Former San Diego Padres catcher Doug Gwosdz was nicknamed Eyechart. Current Seattle Mariners pitcher Marc Rzepczynski is nicknamed Scrabble.
Seattle, Washington is the only large American city to have a municipal flag in teal and white: Flag of Seattle - Wikipedia
George Vancouver was the first European to visit (what is now) Seattle in May 1792 during his 4-year-long expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest.
George Washington resigned his general’s commission and relinquished his military authority before the Continental Congress, then meeting in Annapolis, Md., and rode home to Mount Vernon in time for Christmas 1783.
The top three highest-grossing films adjusted for inflation as of 2014 are:
1939: Gone with the Wind
2009: Avatar
1977: Star Wars — by George Lucas
The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm, George Lucas’s production company, in 2012 at a valuation of $4.06 billion.
Actor Lucas Black has said that if he could have any other career, it would be fisherman.
British author J.K. Rowling, creator of the Harry Potter universe, once said in an interview that she cried when she killed off the characters of both Albus Dumbledore and Sirius Black.
Sirius, a main sequence white star in the constellation Canis Major, is 8.6 light years away. Osiris, the God of Life, Death, Fertility and Rebirth was connected with Sirius because every year just prior to the heliacal rising (rising with the Sun) of the “Star of Isis” the river Nile flooded its banks, and even though the flood could (and did) often bring death and destruction, it also brought about a revitalization of the Nile Valley by depositing a layer of fertile silt, which was perhaps a fitting celebration of the everlasting cycles of life. Sirius’ heliacal rising also marked the beginning of the Egyptian year.
“Walk Like an Egyptian” is a song made famous by American band The Bangles. It was released in 1986 and became Billboard’s number-one song of 1987. It was one of the songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks, and was also included in a “list of records to be avoided” drawn up by the BBC during the Gulf War in 1990-91.
The 1990-1991 Gulf War had 35 nations in the coalition forces. By number of personnel they were:
- 697,000: USA
- 160,000: SAU
- 53,462: GBR
- 20,000: EGY
- 18,000: FRA
- 14,500: SYR
- 13,000: MAR
- 9,900: KWT
- 6,300: OMN
- 5,500: PAK
- 4,600: CAN
- 4,300: UAE
- 3,500: ESP
- 2,600: QTR
- 2,300: BGD
- 1,900: ITA
- 700: AUS
- 700: NLD
- 600: NER
- 525: SWE
- 500: ARG
- 500: SEN
- 400: BHR
- 400: BEL
- 319: POL
- 314: KOR
- 280: NOR
- 200: CZE
- 200: GRC
- 100: DNK
- 100: NZL
- 50: HUN
Estimating Confederate casualties in the American Civil War with any precision is difficult, in part, because record-keeping at the regimental level was very haphazard, and many records were lost with the fall of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va. in the last days of the war.
The process by which the British North American provinces merged into the new country of Canada is generally referred to as “Confederation”, but the term “Confederate” is not used. The most recent province to join Confederation was Newfoundland in 1949.