he first Nielsen ratings for radio programs were released the first week of December 1947. They measured the top 20 programs in four areas: total audience, average audience, cumulative audience and homes per dollar spent for time and talent. Since about October 2017, Nielsen has also begun to track select programs from specific partners that air on subscription-based video on demand (SVOD) services like Netflix. Partnering distributors insert a “tag” into the program to be distributed on these services which Nielsen can track without input from Netflix. Partnering distributors are able to determine if these ratings can be released publicly or not.
Harry Truman was President of the United States in 1947; in 2017, Barack Obama was President until Jan. 20, when Donald J. Trump was inaugurated. Truman and Obama are Democrats; Trump is a Republican, but had identified himself as an independent and as a Democrat earlier in life.
Bess Truman served as both First Lady of the United States and Second Lady of the United States. (The Second Lady is the wife of the vice-president.) Ms. Truman died in 1982 at the age of 97 years, 247 days. She currently holds the record of both the longest-lived First Lady and the longest-lived Second Lady.
Margaret Truman, the only child of Harry and Bess Truman, was a professional singer and actress, before focusing on writing. She wrote both non-fiction and fiction (including a series of murder mysteries set in Washington D.C.), though at least some of the books published under her name were apparently written by ghostwriters.
Harry R. Truman was a resident of the U.S. state of Washington who lived near Mount St. Helens. He was the owner and caretaker of Mount St. Helens Lodge at Spirit Lake near the foot of the mountain, and he came to fame as a folk hero in the months preceding the volcano’s 1980 eruption after he refused to leave his home despite evacuation orders. Truman is presumed to have been killed by a pyroclastic flow that overtook his lodge and buried the site under 150 ft (46 m) of volcanic debris.
The sheriff in the David Lynch TV series Twin Peaks, set in Washington State, was also named Harry Truman. He was played by Canadian actor Michael Ontkean, who is now retired and declined to appear in the 2017 revival of the series.
In San Francisco, only the 928’ tall Mount Davidson is higher than 925’ tall Twin Peaks.
Francisco Franco of Spain’s height is listed as 5’3" or 5’4". In contrast, his contemporary Charles de Gaulle of France was over a foot taller, 6’4" or 6’5" and at St Cyr military academy was given the nickname of “the great asparagus” because of his height, high forehead, and large nose.
According to BuzzFeed, France spans twelve different time zones - more than any other country in the world - thanks to its overseas territories, which are dotted round the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, as well as South America.
The Collectivity of Saint Martin commonly known as simply Saint Martin, is an overseas collectivity of France in the West Indies in the Caribbean. It encompasses the northern 60% of the divided island of Saint Martin. The southern 40% of the island of Saint Martin constitutes Sint Maarten, since 2010 a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Princess Juliana International Airport (IATA code: SXM) is the main airport on the island of St. Martin, and is located on the Dutch (Sint Maarten) side of the island. The airport is named for Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, who visited the island (and landed at the airport) in 1944, while still a princess.
The airport has a single runway, one end of which is located very close to the island’s shoreline (and a popular beach). Planes landing at the airport fly directly over the beach, at a low altitude, while the jet exhaust from planes throttling up before taking off can also be felt at the beach; online photos and videos of these are very popular.
Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, who was born in 1909, assumed the throne in 1948 when her mother, Queen Wilhemina, relinquished her royal duties due to failing health. Juliana reigned until 1980, when she abdicated the throne on her 71st birthday. Her eldest daughter, Queen Beatrix, reigned until 1913, when she abdicated in favor of her son, Willem-Alexander. He is the current King of The Netherlands.
The three boys in Judith Viorst’s children’s classic Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day are based on Viorsts three now grown up song: S: Anthony Jacob Viorst, an attorney practicing in the Denver, Colorado, area; Nicholas Nathan “Nick” Viorst, an Assistant District Attorney for New York County, and Alexander Noah Viorst, who finances affordable apartment properties around the country.
For over 100 years, from 1801 to 1917, every Russian Tsar was named either Alexander or Nicholas. It was due to Alexander I that the first name “Alexander”, rarely used in Russia before him, and its variant Alexei, became common Russian names. The Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany is named for him, as was Queen Victoria of England, his god-daughter, who was christened Alexandrina Victoria.
Never mess with royalty with time machines.
In play:
Queen Victoria was not Queen of England, but of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. She was also the only British monarch to hold the title Empress of India.
A queen regnant is a female monarch, equivalent in rank to a king, who reigns in her own right, as opposed to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigning king, or a queen regent, who is the guardian of a child monarch and reigns temporarily in the child’s stead. An empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right over an empire.
Queens County, the easternmost and largest borough of New York City, was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of New York. It was named for the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705), wife of Charles II and Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland.
Mary, Queen of Scots, became queen when she was just six days old.
Mary, Queen of Scots, was in her private dining room in the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh with her secretary / musician David Rizzio and with her half-sister, Jean, Countess of Argyll, when a large group of rebels burst in and demanded that Rizzio be handed over. Mary refused; Rizzio hid behind her but was seized and stabbed to death by the rebels in her presence. At the time she was six months pregnant. The room can still be seen on tours of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and for generations visitors said that they could see bloodstains on the floor.
Walter Bagehot pithily summarised the principle of constitutional monarchy: “The Queen reigns but she does not rule.”