Louis IX was a reformer and developed French royal justice, in which the king was the supreme judge to whom anyone could appeal to seek the amendment of a judgment. He banned trials by ordeal, tried to prevent the private wars that were plaguing the country, and introduced the presumption of innocence in criminal procedure. To enforce the application of this new legal system, Louis IX created provosts and bailiffs.
The first ever team to lose back-to-back Super Bowls was the Minnesota Vikings when they lost Super Bowl IX, after also having lost Super Bowl VIII.
To date, only three teams have ever lost back-to-back Super Bowls: the Vikings. Broncos, and Bills:
VIII, IX: Minnesota Vikings
XXI, XXII: Denver Broncos
XXV, XXVI: Buffalo Bills
XXVI, XXVII: Buffalo Bills
XXVII, XXVIII: Buffalo Bills
The Vikings and Bills both have 0-4 records in the Super Bowl, but two teams have lost more times in the Big Game: The Patriots are 5-5, and the Broncos are 3-5. The Steelers (6-2) have the most wins in the Super Bowl; the Patriots, the Cowboys (5-3) and the 49ers (5-1) are tied for second for the most wins.
The New England Patriots have played in the most Super Bowls, with a record ten appearances. The Pittsburgh Steelers, The Dallas Cowboys, and the Denver Broncos are tied for second, with 8 appearances each.
During World War II, the NFL faced a player shortage, as many young men were in the military. Due to this, in 1943, the Pittsburgh Steelers fielded a joint team with the Philadelphia Eagles. This joint team was officially called “Phil-Pitt Combine,” but it was unofficially nicknamed the “Steagles.”
In 1944, the Steelers fielded another joint team, this time with the Chicago Cardinals. That team was officially known as “Card-Pitt,” but was nicknamed “Carpets,” as they went winless for the 1944 season.
Bruce Springsteen, who has won numerous Grammy Awards and won the Oscar® for Best Original Song for “Streets Of Philadelphia” from “Philadelphia,” was presented with a special Tony Award at the 2018 Tony Awards for his live Broadway show.
Hopefully, he’ll win an Emmy and join the EGOT club.
The Philadelphia Eagles lost their first two Super Bowls before winning. They are 1-2 in Super Bowls.
Super Bowl XV: Oakland Raiders 27-10 Philadelphia Eagles
Super Bowl XXXIX: New England Patriots 24-21 Philadelphia Eagles
Super Bowl LII: Philadelphia Eagles 41-33 New England Patriots
And the San Francisco 49ers have a better Super Bowl winning percentage than any of those teams.
0.833: San Francisco 49ers
0.750: Pittsburgh Steelers
0.625: Dallas Cowboys
0.375: Denver Broncos
GO NINERS!
At the end of MAS*H episode 22 of season 5, “Movie Tonight”, the song My Darling Clementine is sung by all the staff in the operating room after an abortive attempt to view the John Ford movie My Darling Clementine.
In a cavern, in a canyon
Excavating for a mine
Dwelt a miner, forty-niner
And his daughter, Clementine
Winston Churchill, twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and his wife Clementine often wrote affectionate notes to each other during the day, even while living under the same roof.
Clementine oranges were named for Père Clément Rodier, a French monk living in North Africa at the beginning of the 20th century. Allegedly, he either found a natural mutation of the mandarin orange which he grew, or he created a hybrid of the mandarin and the Seville oranges. The fruit, however, may have originated long before in Asia.
The calamansi, a hybrid between what is likely the mandarin orange and the kumquat, is native to the Philippines and surrounding areas in southern China, Taiwan, Borneo, and Sulawesi.
gImages: https://goo.gl/oYTFHP
There is no “Chinese Navy,” there is a People’s Liberation Army Navy (the last word sometimes put in parentheses). The maritime armed forces of China currently have over 255,000 personnel and 500 ships, including one aircraft carrier.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy’s sole aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was originally built to serve as a Soviet aircraft carrier, the Riga (renamed the Varyag while under construction). The Varyag was still under construction when the Soviet Union fell in 1991, and the hull of the Varyag was eventually sold by Ukraine to a Macau company, ostensibly to be refit as a floating casino.
The hull eventually made its way to China, where it wound up being refit and completed as an aircraft carrier, and was finally commissioned in 2012.
Although China is currently finishing a sister ship to the Liaoning (the Shandong); the only other ship of the Liaoning’s class is the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov (which, like the Liaoning, is its country’s only aircraft carrier).
Ironically for the timing of this post (and as being discussed in this SDMB thread), the Kuznetsov has been in dry dock, undergoing a refit; the dry dock itself sunk last week, damaging the Kuznetsov, and leaving its refit in question.
Nikolay Kuznetsov was a Soviet naval officer who achieved the rank of Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union and served as People’s Commissar of the Navy during The Second World War. He also defied Stalin by ordering all Soviet fleets to battle readiness the day before the German Wehrmacht began Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia. The Soviet Navy was the only branch of the military in the highest state of combat readiness at the start of the initial German push.
Only one person has ever held the rank of Admiral of the Navy in the United States Navy - George Dewey, a veteran of the Civil War and hero of the Battle of Manila Bay. Fleet Admiral is otherwise the highest uniformed rank in the U.S. Navy; no one now holds the rank.
The island of Corregidor divides the entrance of Manila Bay into two channels. The north passage, between Corregidor and the Bataan peninsula, is called Boca Chica and is two miles wide. The southern channel, Boca Grande, is five miles in width. The north channel is generally used for inter-island shipping while the south channel is used for large ocean-going vessels.
Corregidor Island can be visited on a day trip from Manila, by ferry boat. The island has remained undeveloped, except for a few buildings constructed as war memorials and a 31-room guest house built in 1930s style. Most of the war-ravaged buildings have not been restored, left as they were after the war out of respect for the Filipino and American soldiers who died there. Tourists can visit the ruins of fortresses, gun batteries and barracks as well as the Malinta Tunnel, carved under a hill, which housed a hospital and the headquarters of the joint Philippine and American military prior to the Japanese takeover during World War II.
(I’ve been there and if ever you’re in the area, it’s well worth a visit)
The Gotthard Base Tunnel is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland. It opened in June 2016 and full service began on 11 December 2016. With a route length of over 35 miles, it is the world’s longest railway and deepest traffic tunnel.
President-elect Donald Trump said, in late 2016, that he was considering 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, a particularly harsh critic, for the post of Secretary of State. He ultimately did not appoint Romney, who was today elected to a U.S. Senate seat from Utah.
Among the varieties of fielding gloves worn by baseball players, those worn by catchers and first basemen are referred to as “mitts,” because they don’t feature individual fingers. Conversely, those worn by other infielders, pitchers, and outfielders are referred to as “gloves,” as they do have individual pockets for each of the wearer’s fingers.