Humphrey the Humpback Whale gained fame in 1985 when he apparently got lost and emtered San Francisco Bay in October 1985. He continued inland and swam up the Sacramento River Delta into fresh waters. In the news reports he was given the name Humphrey. He swam far, under the Rio Vista Bridge, about 75 miles in by car from the Golden Gate Bridge (gMap Google Maps).
Numerous attempts to coax him back to the ocean failed. None of the traditional herding techniques were working, and Humphrey appeared to be dying — his skin was greying and he appeared more and more listless. Humphrey was eventually coaxed back to the Pacific Ocean with help from the US Navy and their powerful sound system playing whale social noises that got his attention.
The 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home features the command crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise heading back in time to 1986 San Francisco, on a mission to bring two humpback whales (a species which had, in the Star Trek timeline, become extinct in the 21st century) back to the 23rd century, in order to communicate with an alien probe.
In the film, the mated pair of whales which become the focus of the crew’s quest are on exhibit at the fictional Cetacean Institute in Sausalito. The Monterey Bay Aquarium was used for location shots of the Cetacean Institute.
The whales in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home were called George and Gracie, after the comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen. Between radio and TV, they were on the air from 1934 to 1958, and Burns became well-known again for his appearances in the movies The Sunshine Boys and Oh, God!
In 1940, Gracie Allen ran for President, as the candidate of the Surprise Party. While it started as a publicity stunt for her radio show with George Burns, Eleanor Roosevelt herself invited Gracie to speak before the Women’s National Press Club in Washington. Also, she was endorsed by Harvard University and received several thousand write-in votes.
Los Angeles has the steepest street in California. Eldred St., near Mt. Washington in Highland Park, has a 33% elevation grade, and that is 1.5% higher than the grades on two of San Francisco’s most notoriously steep streets, 22nd St. and Filbert (gMap — Google Maps).
Lombard Street in San Francisco would have had a 27 percent grade between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets on Russian Hill if not for 8 switchbacks that make it reputedly “the crookedest street in the world”. Chase scenes in many movies were filmed on the street, including Good Neighbor Sam and What’s Up, Doc?.
The Lombards were a Germanic people who gradually moved south from the Baltic area, through Austria and eventually to Italy in the sixth century AD. They conquered much of northern Italy and set up the Kingdom of Lombardy, which lasted for two centuries until they were defeated by Charlemagne and incorporated into his Empire. Their name lives on in the Lombardy region of northern Italy.
In 800 CE Charlemagne visited Rome, and Pope Leo III crowned him Emperor of the Romans over the Holy Roman Empire. The title of Emperor of the Romans of the Holy Roman Empire was largely a non-power titled but it led to him being highly respected throughout most of Europe.He was given the title on a holiday - Christmas Day.
The first recorded Christmas in Hawaii was in 1786. Today, the Honolulu City Lights ceremony features a 50-foot Norfolk pine Christmas tree. And linking back to steep streets, according to the Huffington Post, The 10 Steepest Streets In America, of the 10 steepest streets in the USA, #1 is in Hawaii (on the big island), two of them (including #2) are in Pittsburgh PA, and seven of them are in California — four are in the Los Angeles area, one is near San Diego, and San Francisco barely makes the list at #9 and #10.
45% gradient: Waipio Rd. in Honokaa HI; gMap Google Maps
37% gradient: Canton Ave. in Pittsburgh PA; gMap Google Maps
33.30% gradient: Eldred St. in Los Angeles CA; gMap Google Maps
33% gradient: 28th St. in Los Angeles CA; in San Pedro, a short, 50 foot stretch; gMap https://goo.gl/wWdYqf
32% gradient: Baxter St. in Los Angeles CA; gMap Google Maps
32% gradient Fargo St. in Los Angeles CA; gMap Google Maps
32% gradient: Maria Ave. in Spring Valley CA; on Dictionary Hill, gMap Google Maps
31.98% gradient: Dornbush St. in Pittsburgh PA; gMap Google Maps
31.50% gradient: 22nd St. in San Francisco CA; gMap Google Maps
Admiral James T. Kirk, former captain of the USS Enterprise, has an apartment in San Francisco in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. If you listen carefully in some scenes, you can hear the ringing of cable-car bells on the street below.
Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp is a native of Yakima, Washington. Kupp is a third-generation NFL player: his father, Craig Kupp, played quarterback for the Cardinals and Cowboys in 1991, and his grandfather, Jake Kupp, was a guard for several teams (primarily the Saints) from 1964 through 1975.
Enos Edward “Yakima” Canutt is one of the most famous people with that nickname with no real connection to Yakima, Washington. A champion rodeo rider from 1912 to 1923, he adopted the nickname Yakima after being misidentified in a newspaper report. He became a film extra and stuntman in Hollywood’s silent era and ended up as one of the top stunt and fight coordinators, appearing in films such as Ben Hur, Gone With the Wind and Stagecoach. He also worked for many medieval films, making him “the most active stager of tournaments since the Middle Ages”.
Canutt has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1500 Vine Street. In 1967, he was given an Academy Honorary Award for achievements as a stunt man and for “developing safety devices to protect all stunt men everywhere”. He died at age 90, in 1986.
Gone with the Wind was the highest-earning film made up to the date of its release, holding that record for over a quarter-century, until the release of The Sound of Music in 1966.
George Washington had to borrow money from a neighbor to afford the trip from Mount Vernon to New York City for his first inauguration as President of the United States in April 1789. The ceremony itself was memorably depicted in the HBO miniseries John Adams, with Paul Giamatti as Vice President John Adams and David Morse as Washington: George Washington, oath of office - YouTube
ETA: Gone with the Wind was also fictionalized history (quite a bit more so than John Adams).
George Washington was inaugurated for the first time on April 30, 1789; his second inauguration was on March 4, 1793. Subsequent inaugurations were held on March 4 until the second inauguration of President Franklin Roosevelt on January 20, 1937. Since then Inauguration Day has been held on January 20 and the term of office officially starts at 12:00 noon on that date.
The convention of days being broken into two twelve-hour periods dates to at least 2200 BC, in Egypt. The Egyptians started out using a sundial to divide daylight into 12 hours, and then llater began using water clocks and other such things to divide darkness the same way.
Since ancient times, sundials have been inscribed with mottoes, often in Latin, some about mortality, such as* Una ex his erit tibi ultima* (One of these hours will be your last), or, from the poet Martial, [Nobis] pereunt et imputantur. ([The hours] are consumed and will be charged [to our] account). Several refer to the shadow cast by the sundial gnomon as a metaphor, such as “Life is but a shadow: the shadow of a bird on the wing.”
Among more cheerful mottoes are Nunc est bibendum (Now is the time to drink), or the French Il est tojours l’heure de ne rien faire (it’s always the time to do nothing).