Cornwallis is buried where he died, in Ghazipur, India, overlooking the Ganges River. He had just returned to the post of Governor-General of India, where he had been assigned after Yorktown. Between his India terms, he had been Master of the Ordnance, and then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
John F. Kennedy held the rank of Lieutenant (Junior Grade) at the time that his command, PT-109, was run down and sunk by a Japanese destroyer during World War II.
JFK’s brother, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., died in a test of an early drone design, using a war-weary B-24 stuffed with explosives and planned to be piloted remotely into a German target. The B-24 was flown to altitude by a human pilot who would then bail out. Unfortunately, the man who Joe Sr. was grooming for the Presidency was caught in an accidental explosion of the payload he was flying.
Lyndon Johnson, on leave from his Congressional seat and punching his ticket for future elections by getting combat-veteran experience, would also have died in a bomber if he hadn’t grounded himself from a mission in a B-26 which was then shot down.
Retired Lt. Cmdr. Kohei Hanami of the Imperial Japanese Navy, who commanded the destroyer Amagiri at the time of its purposeful Aug. 1943 collision with PT-109, attended President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in Jan. 1961.
The ABC show “McHale’s Navy” was based on a dramatic movie, “Seven Against the Sea”, starring Ernest Borgnine as heroic PT boat captain Quinton McHale. The network brass decided the show had a better future as a comedy, however.
Ernest Borgnine won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the film Marty. He was nominated for Emmy awards for his work in McHale’s Navy, All Quiet on the Western Front, and ER. He was known as the voice of ‘Mermaid Man’ on SpongeBob SquarePants from 1999 until his death in 2012.
Linn-Manuel Miranda won an Emmy Award for his 2013 Tony opening number Bigger, threer Grammy Awards and three Tony Awards. He will be starring as Jack (the Dick Van Dyke Role) in Mary Poppins Returns, now in post-production. If hew wins an Oscar for the role, he will be the 13th member of the EGOT club.
Not in Play: Edit of my previous post…Ernest Borgnine won the Academy Award in 1955, not 1995.
Oliver Cromwell was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son, Richard Cromwell, who was in power for less than a year.
His short tenure and rapid over-turning by the Army led to his nickname: “Tumbledown Dick”.
At 6’ 6.5" tall, James Cromwell is the tallest actor ever nominated for an Academy Award. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Babe (1995). Kevin Spacey won the award for his work in The Usual Suspects.
Léo McKern is noted for playing two completely different lawyers: Rumpole, a principled (albeit eccentric and somewhat off-kilter) defence lawyer, and Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s completely unprincipled and Machiavellian lawyer in A Man for All Seasons.
ninja’ed.
Rumpole of the Bailey, in both book and TV, has a penchant for giving literary or historical nicknames to friends and foes. His wife Hilda’s moniker, “She Who Must Be Obeyed,” was originally applied to the title character of H. Rider Haggard’s novel “She”.
The Old Bailey is the informal name for the Central Criminal Court in London. It is named for its location on Old Bailey Road, which in turn takes its name because it ran along side the ancient city wall, part of the bailey which protected the City.
There has been a criminal court on this location for at least five centuries. The current building is located on the site of the old Newgate Gaol, which took its name from a new gate in the city defences which dated back to Roman times.
Cartoonist Mort Walker died earlier this year. He lived to be 94 years old. His comic strip Boner’s Ark was a reference to Noah’s Ark. Mort Walker‘s most famous comic strip is Beetle Bailey.
When Jimmy Stewart was born, in 1908, the first name George was the 4th most popular boy’s name. It was in the top 10 from the time that name count records were kept, in the 1880s, until 1938. George Bailey, the character whom Stewart plays in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, is an everyman with a common name.
In 2012 the name George dropped to #166, its lowest popularity rank ever. By 2017 it had risen to #124, probably because of the birth of Prince George in England in 2013.
(I actually know a George Bailey, born sometime in the 40s)
“WKRP in Cincinnati” staffer Bailey Quarters, the occasional girlfriend of Dr. Johnny Fever, was played by Jan Smithers. She and Jennifer Marlowe, played by Loni Anderson, were the frequent subject of Ginger/Mary Ann-type polls.
Jan Smithers met James Brolin on the set of Hotel in 1985, and they married in 1986. The couple’s daughter, Molly Elizabeth, was born the following year. Jan Smithers filed for divorce from Brolin in 1995.
In 1996, Brolin met Barbra Streisand through a friend, and they married on July 1, 1998.
Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond both attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood, and performed together in the Choral Club, although they were not close friends.
The song You Don’t Bring Mr Flowers was written by Neil Diamond with Alan and Marilyn Bergman for the ill-fated daily TV sitcom All That Glitters. The song was intended to be the theme song, but Norman Lear, the show’s creator, changed the concept of the show and the song was no longer appropriate. Diamond then expanded the track from 45 seconds to 3:17, adding instrumental sections and an additional verse.
In 1977, Neil Diamond released the album I’m Glad You’re Here with Me Tonight, which included the track “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” as a solo performance. Early in 1978, Barbra Streisand covered the song on her album Songbird.
These solo recordings were famously spliced together by different radio stations, creating unofficial duets, the success of which led to the studio bringing the two performers together for an official duet recording