John Wesley Powell (1834–1902) served as the second director of the U.S. Geological Survey, from 1881 through 1894. Despite losing most of his right arm during the Battle of Shiloh in the Civil War, he led the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition, a three-month river trip down the Green and Colorado rivers, including the first official U.S. government-sponsored passage through the Grand Canyon.
As a young man, Powell spent four months walking across Wisconsin, rowed the Mississippi River from St. Anthony, Minnesota, to the sea, and rowed down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to the Mississippi River.
Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Lewis Powell, a corporate lawyer, wrote a highly influential memo for the US Chamber of Commerce, urging business interests to donate heavily to foundations intended to defend free enterprise. The Powell Memo is believed to have been one of the inspirations for subsequent sustained campaigns by businesses to advance their political interests.
Bob Dylan’s 1967 album John Wesley Harding was named (though with an incorrect spelling) after John Wesley Hardin, a 19th century outlaw and folk icon from Texas.
Dylan’s album featured the song “All Along the Watchtower,” which became even better known when it was covered by Jimi Hendrix. Another song on the album, “The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest,” was the inspiration for the name of the English heavy metal band Judas Priest.
Jimi Hendrix’s recording of “All Along the Watchtower” is prominently featured in the 2009 alternative-history superhero movie Watchmen, based on the acclaimed graphic novel of the same name. The song can be heard as Nite Owl and Rorschach approach Ozymandias’s lair in Antarctica.
The sonnet “Ozymandias”, published in 1818, is one of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s most famous works and is frequently anthologized. Ozymandias (Ὀσυμανδύας) was a Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, and the sonnet refers to the ruins of a giant statue of the pharaoh in the desert.
The Marine Corps Hymn is a song central to all Marines and Marine heritage. Its two opening lines,
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
represent two key battles in early USMC history.
In the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), at the Battle of Chapultepec, Marines fought in the Halls of Montezuma. In the Battle of Derna (1805), Marines commanded by Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon assaulted the shores at the Gulf of Bomba east of Derna, and east of Tripoli and north of the Sahara Desert (gMap, Google Maps). This was the inspiration for to the shores of Tripoli.
The Sahara Desert is the world’s largest ‘hot’ desert. The two largest deserts in the world are Antarctica and the Arctic. After the Sahara, the next largest are the Australian Desert, the Arabian Desert, and the Gobi Desert.
The largest desert in North America, the Great Basin Desert, is #10 on the list of the world’s largest deserts. This desert is generally considered to contain most of Nevada, the western third of Utah, and parts of California and Idaho.
The Atacama Desert of Chile is one of the driest deserts in the world. The driest desert in the world is in Antartica, the snow-free McMurdo Dry Valleys.
The McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research center on the south tip of Ross Island on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents
The time of day at the South Pole of Antarctica can use any of the world’s time zones. But since the South Pole is usually reached from New Zealand, the Amundsen-Scott station located on the South Pole observes New Zealand Standard Time (NZST) during standard time and New Zealand Daylight Time (NZDT) during the DST.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is 38 years old, making her the world’s youngest current female head of government. She gave birth to a daughter this past June, making her only the second elected head of a national government to give birth while in office (Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto was the first, in 1990).
Symphony of the Seas is currently the largest cruise ship in operation. It has 26 distinct bars or lounges on it’s 16 passenger decks. The ship has 2,744 staterooms with a 5,518 passenger capability.
Although most were born in the 1930s and 1940s, all of the main actors of the cruise ship TV series The Love Boat (1977-1986) are still living: Gavin MacLeod (1931), Bernie Kopell (1933), Fred Grandy (1948), Ted Lange (1948), Lauren Tewes (1953), Jill Whelan (1966), Ted McGinley (1955), and Pat Klous (1948).
Even Jack Jones (1938), the singer who sang the theme song, is still living.
“Hqppy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” was a 1961 hit song for Neil Sedaka, whowrote the music and performed the song, while the lyrics were written by Howard Greenfield. The song is noted for being similar in musical structure to Take Good Care of My Baby by Bobby Vee (another 1961 hit), and additionally for its resemblance to the melody of the Chiffons’ subsequent 1963 hit “One Fine Day”. Both of these songs exhibiting similarity to “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen” were penned by the team of Carole King and Gerry Goffin.
ETA: This was supposed to be a “16” domino, but now I guess it’s a “song.” Whatever.
Nominees for the popular Internet game of Death Pool must still be living when chosen by competitors. The joke of picking Bob Hope first became obsolete when he finally did die, in 2003.
Bob Hope hosted the Academy Awards show 19 times, more than any other host. 19x. Billy Crystal, 9x. Johnny Carson, 5x. They are the three most frequent.