Peter Baker, now covering the White House for The New York Times for a second time (he earlier did it in Bill Clinton’s second term), is a graduate of my alma mater, Oberlin College, where he worked on the student newspaper, The Oberlin Review, as a reporter.
In the post WWII years, the White Motor Company was America’s largest producer of semi-trailer tractors, after acquiring Autocar, REO and Diamond T. White originated in 1900 in Cleveland, with a steam-driven truck. It has since been acquired by Volvo. A 1911 White Steamer was the first automobile owned by a sitting president, in the White House garage, William Howard Taft.
William Howard Taft was the first US President whose mother was a college graduate. His mother, Louisa Torrey of Boston, graduated in 1845 from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts (then known as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), the first of the Seven Sisters women’s colleges, founded in 1837. Mount Holyoke’s Torrey Hall, a dormitory, is named for her.
As Harvard College grew, it built new dormitories for its burgeoning student population. Each dormitory, called a “house” was traditionally named after a past-president of Harvard. However, no dormitory has ever been named after President Leonard Hoar (1672-75), as it is not though proper that Harvard should run a Hoar House.
Hoar House — especially for a college named after a minister.
The childless John Harvard bequeathed half his personal fortune and his library to Newtowne Colledge which, three years after his death in 1638 and five years after its founding in 1636, had its name changed to Harvard Colledge. John Harvard died of tuberculosis.
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is a 2008 documentary film by Kevin Rafferty, covering the 1968 meeting between the football teams of Yale and Harvard in their storied rivalry. Yale was heavily favored to win and they quickly led the game 22–0. With two minutes remaining on the clock Yale still led 29–13. As the clock ticked down, Harvard tied the game by scoring 16 points in the final 42 seconds. The Harvard Crimson college newspaper declared victory with the famous headline, that provided the title for Rafferty’s documentary.
When President John F. Kennedy appointed Orville Freeman, former Governor of Minnesota, as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, it was joked that this was because “Harvard doesn’t have a School of Agriculture.” Kennedy’s Cabinet was otherwise quite heavy with Harvard men.
The first open heart surgery (1952, Dr. F. John Lewis) and the first bone marrow transplant (1968) in the United States were done at the University of Minnesota.
In 2013, civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis became the first member of Congress to write a graphic novel, with the launch of a trilogy titled March. This is a black and white comics trilogy about the Civil Rights Movement, told through the perspective of Congressman John Lewis, who still bears the scars from a beating by Alabama state troopers during the 1965 Pettus Bridge March in Selma.
On today’s date in 1973, US President Richard Nixon signed into law the Endangered Species Act. The Act is administered by two federal agencies, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
President Richard Nixon had declared species conservation efforts to be inadequate and called on the 93rd United States Congress to pass comprehensive endangered species legislation. Congress responded with a completely rewritten law, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which was signed by Nixon on December 28, 1973.
Alligators had been hunted to near-extinction before being protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973. They have recovered to the point where they are not only no longer listed, but are arguably even a pest species. Alligator tastes like chicken with a more rubbery texture, btw.
There are two living species of alligators, the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in the southeast USA, and the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) found in eastern China, a critically endangered species.
The order Crocodilia includes the families of Crocodylidae and Alligatoridae.
► Alligators and caimans are of the family Alligatoridae.
► Crocodiles are of the family Crocodylidae.
“See You Later, Alligator” is the title of an iconic rock and roll song of the 195’0s written and first recorded by American singer-songwriter Bobby Charles. The song was a Top Ten hit for Bill Haley and His Comets.
“See You Later, Alligator; After ‘While, Crocodile” are the beginning lyrics of that song by Bill Haley. Louisiana songwriter Robert Charles Guidry wrote the song. Guidry, known as Bobby Charles, also wrote Walking to New Orleans and It Keeps Rainin’. He wrote them for (or also with) Fats Domino.
“In a while, crocodile” is a common reply when someone says “See you later, alligator.”
The group that later became Bill Haley and the Comets initially formed as Bill Haley and the Saddlemen around 1949–1952, and performed mostly country and western songs. Haley began his rock and roll career with what is now recognized as a rockabilly style in a cover of “Rocket 88” recorded for the Philadelphia-based Holiday Records label in 1951.
Play: Halley’s Comet returns to earth every 74-79 years. Its next perihelion will be in 2061, when I am 100 years old.
After a request from a Touchstone Pictures friend, President Bill Clinton permitted studio personnel to have a tour of the Presidential aircraft to guide them in preparing set designs for the action thriller Air Force One.
ETA: Ninja’d! The movie is not set in 2061.
Air Force One, not the movie that’s not in 2061, but the dedicated POTUS airplane, originated in 1943 when officials of the United States Army Air Forces became concerned over the reliance on commercial airlines to transport the president.
Planes have included:
► Consolidated C-87 Liberator Express, a reconfigured B-24 Liberator bomber (image) — rejected by Secret Service due to reliability issues
► Douglas C-54 Skymaster (image) — dubbed the “Sacred Cow”
► Lockheed Constellation (image)
► Boeing VC-137C, a customized Boeing 707-320 (image) — the first purpose-built Air Force One
► Boeing VC-25A, a customized Boeing 747-200B (image) — current Air Force One
► Boeing 747-8 (image) — the next Air Force One
The play Boeing-Boeing is a farce written by the French playwright Marc Camoletti, about a young man engaged to three stewardesses at the same time. It premiered in Paris in 1960. The English language adaptation, translated by Beverley Cross, was first staged in London at the Apollo Theatre in 1962 and ran for seven years. In 1991, the play was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the most performed French play throughout the world. It has successfully been revived in the West End (2007) and on Broadway (2008) with Mark Rylance starring in both productions.
The winner of the 1950 Academy Award for Best Animated Short, “Gerald McBoing-Boing” is the story of a little boy who speaks through sound effects instead of spoken words. It was adapted by Phil Eastman and Bill Scott from a story by Dr. Seuss, directed by Robert Cannon, and produced by John Hubley. In 1994, it was voted #9 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked UPA cartoon on the list.