US President Franklin Pierce’s Gadsden Purchase is a 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States purchased via a treaty that took effect on 08 Jun 1854. The purchase was the last substantial territorial acquisition in the contiguous United States.
Both John Quincy Adams and Franklin Pierce swore on a book of law instead of on a Bible at their Presidential Inaugurations, with the intention that they were swearing on the constitution. Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in on a Roman Catholic missal on Air Force One after the assassination of Kennedy. Theodore Roosevelt did not use a Bible when taking the oath in 1901, as he was at a private house after the death of William McKinley.
Dwight Eisenhower used two bibles at his first inauguration. He swore on the George Washington Bible and his own West Point Bible.
The name “Dwight” is derived from the English given name “Diot”, a diminutive for the feminine name “Dionysia”, a feminine version of “Dionysius”, the Latinised version of “Dyonsios”.
President Eisenhower was thus named after the Greek God of Party! Party! Party!
(Ike should have made Silenus his V-P. Would have been better than Tricky Dick. )
Dionysus was also known as Bacchus and the frenzy he induces is referred to as, “Bakcheia”. He is also the patron deity of agriculture, theater and wine.
The United States Department of Agriculture can trace its beginnings back to 1839, when Congress established the Agricultural Division within the Patent Office and allotted $1,000 for “the collection of agricultural statistics and other agricultural purposes.” In 1849, the Patent Office was transferred to the newly created Department of the Interior. In 1862, Abraham Lincoln established the independent Department of Agriculture to be headed by a commissioner without Cabinet status. Finally, on February 9, 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law elevating the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet level.
In the division of legislative authority between the Parliament of Canada and the provinces, most matters are assigned exclusively to either Parliament or the provinces. Agriculture is one of the three exceptions: Parliament and the provinces have concurrent jurisdiction over agriculture, immigration, and old age pensions.
The longest freshwater beach in the world is on the Great Lakes, on Lake Huron’s southeastern shore. It is on the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, some 90 miles north of Toronto’s Rogers Centre where the Toronto Blue Jays play baseball. Wassaga Beach is 8.6 miles long.
gMap, from Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Google Maps
Goderich salt mine, located 1,800 feet under Lake Huron in Canada, is the largest underground salt mine in the world. The mine is as deep as the CN Tower in Toronto is tall. The salt deposits were discovered in 1866 during a search for petroleum; the mine has operated since 1959.
The Morton Salt mine in Rittman, Ohio, uses water that is pumped into an underground salt deposit. The salt dissolves, and is pumped back to the surface as saturated brine, which is boiled in a series of vacuum pans. Salt crystals fall to the bottom of the pan as a slurry and is then dried and packaged.
Not in play: I was born and raised about 8 miles from the Morton salt plant; my mother’s family all lived in Rittman.
The first written reference to salt is found in the Old Testament, in thr Book of Job, recorded about 2,250 BC. There are 31 other references to salt in the Bible, the most familiar probably being the story of Lot’s wife who was turned into a pillar of salt when she disobeyed the angels and looked back at the wicked city of Sodom.
American comedian Steven Wright once said, “The New Testament is actually pretty old. I think they should refer to them as ‘the Old Testament’ and ‘the More Recent Testament.’”
Some pundits have compared Justin Trudeau’s reaction to Trump as similar to Hugh Grant as Prime Minister of the UK responding to President Billy Bob Thornton in Love, Actually.
Except without President Trump hitting on Justin’s secretary.
That we know of, at least.
Donald Trump appeared in the 1990 film Ghosts Can’t Do It, where he played himself. He later won the Worst Supporting Actor Razzie Award for the role.
N/M
He bodyslammed, beat, and shaved Vince McMahon at Wrestlemania 23.
Vince Coleman (born 1961 in Jacksonville FL), American former Major League Baseball player. In his 13 seasons he played for six teams: the St. Louis Cardinals (6 seasons), New York Mets (3 seasons), Kansas City Royals (almost 2 seasons), Seattle Mariners (part of 1 season), and the Cincinnati Reds, and Detroit Tigers (1 season each).
Despite his stellar career, and notable for his speed, Vince “Vincent Van Go” Coleman is best known for a leg injury he sustained when run over by the automated tarp at Busch Stadium in St. Louis in the 1985 National League Championship Series.
One of the worst blown calls by an umpire in Major League Baseball occurred during that same postseason (and it almost certainly cost the St. Louis Cardinals the World Series Championship).
Don Denkinger was the first base umpire in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals led the Kansas City Royals by 3 games to 2 and had taken a 1–0 lead in the 8th inning. Jorge Orta, the leadoff batter for the Royals hit a slow roller to first baseman Jack Clark, who tossed the ball to the pitcher, Todd Worrell, who was covering first base. Denkinger called Orta safe, even though television replays and photographs clearly showed that he was out by half a step. The Royals went on to win Game 6 by the score of 2–1. The Royals went on to win Game 7, and the World Series Championship.
Denkinger believed he had made the right call until he later met with Commissioner Peter Ueberroth after the game and had the opportunity to see the replay himself.
YouTube: WS1985 Gm6: Denkinger calls Orta safe at first base - YouTube
More than 20 years after the 1985 series, Denkinger has regularly appeared at sports memorabilia shows (including ones in St. Louis) willing to autograph photos depicting “The Call.” Denkinger even owns a painting featuring himself, Todd Worrell, and Jorge Orta involved in the play, claiming that he keeps it to remind himself that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes.
At nine months, Prime Minister Joe Clark had the shortest term in office of all Canadian prime ministers who won an election.
Sworn into office in June, 1979 with a minority government, his government fell in December when the budget was defeated. That triggered an election in February, 1980, which Pierre Trudeau won by a majority. Trudeau took office in early March.
On election night, when Trudeau gave his victory speech, he began with: “Well, welcome to the 1980’s.”