Poe v. Ullman, 367 U.S. 497 (1961), was a United States Supreme Court case that held that plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge a Connecticut law that banned the use of contraceptives and banned doctors from advising their use because the law had never been enforced. Therefore, any challenge to the law was deemed unripe because there was no actual threat of injury to anyone who disobeyed the law. The same statute would later be challenged again (successfully) in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965).
Justice John Harlan dissented and, reaching the merits, took a broad view of the “liberty” protected by the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process to include not merely state violations of one of the first eight amendments which had been held to be “incorporated” in the Fourteenth, but against any law which imposed on “liberty” unjustifiably. Harlan described the “liberty” protected by that clause as “a rational continuum which, broadly speaking, includes a freedom from all substantial arbitrary impositions and purposeless restraints.”
John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911) was a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice from 1877–1911. A Kentuckian, he was appointed by President Hayes and is especially remembered for his dissent from the Court’s separate-but-equal decision upholding segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson. His grandson, also named John Marshall Harlan (1899–1971), was from Illinois and served on the Court from 1955–1971, having been appointed by President Eisenhower. He was generally more conservative than his colleagues on the Warren Court.
The first John Marshall Harlan on the Supreme Court was one of five Kentuckians who have served on the USA’s highest court. New York leads this list, having produced fifteen justices. Ohio is next with ten, followed by Massachusetts with nine, and Virginia has eight.
There are 19 states that have never produced a Supreme Court Justice, including both Delaware and Rhode Island, two of the original 13 states.
Henry Clay, the Kentuckian known to history as “The Great Compromiser”, not only was a key leader in the formation of both the Whig and Republican Parties, but in 1810 became the first of only two freshman Congressmen ever to be elected Speaker of the House (also William Pennington in 1860).
Cassius Marcellus Clay, a cousin of Henry Clay, was a Kentucky planter, politician, and emancipationist who worked for the abolition of slavery. He freed the slaves that were handed down as his inheritance from his father. The freed slaves who stayed on his plantation were paid a wage.
Cassius Marcellus Clay, the boxer and social activist who changed his name to Muhammad Ali, was named for the abolitionist. He was a native of Louisville, which has just renamed its airport after him. He is often listed as the most famous person in the world, based on the percentage of the human population that was aware of him.
The triple crown of American horse racing includes the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont. Of the 13 horses that have won the Triple Crown, a4s of 2018, American Pharoah and Justify are the only living Triple Crown winners.
Stakes race refers to the stake, or entry fee, owners must pay, which generally forms part of the prize money offered to the top finishers. There are four different levels of grading, from Listed at the bottom to Grade I at the top. The latter are higher-class races for bigger prizes for horses of the same age group (2, 3 or 3 and up) and may further be restricted by gender.
Llano Estacado, literally translated as Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. The name comes from geology: it means ‘stockaded’ or ‘palisaded’ plains - which is precisely how the edge of the plains appear when viewed from below the caprock.
The Northwestern Territory was a part of British North America encompassing parts of what is now Saskatchewan, Alberta, the NWT and Yukon. It was governed by the Hudson Bay Company, but was not part of Rupert’s Land, which was defined by the drainage area of Hudson Bay.
Lake Traverse, which is located on the border between Minnesota and South Dakota, is the southernmost body of water in the Hudson Bay watershed of North America.
The steam frigate USS Minnesota ran aground during the Battle of Hampton Roads, Va. on March 8, 1862, and was threatened but never sunk by the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia during her attack on the U.S. Navy blockading fleet there that day. The following day, when the Virginia renewed her attack, the Minnesota was protected by the “cheesebox on a raft” ironclad USS Monitor.
Hampton Court, home of Henry VIII, is said to be haunted. His third queen Jane Seymour died giving birth to Henry’s only legitimate son, Edward, later Edward VI. It’s said her ghost, a ‘white wraith’ appears on the anniversary of her death. Henry’s fifth wife Catherine Howard was arrested there and later executed at the Tower of London for adultery and treason. Supposedly her ghostly presence still screams for mercy along the corridors of the palace.
The best-selling postcards at Hampton Court in the early 1900s were of spectres in historic spaces, with faked double exposed photographs offered as ‘proof’.
“Real” (royal), or court, tennis, an indoor game which includes caroms off the walls, was popularized by the young King Henry VIII, who had a court built at Hampton Court Palace. His second wife Anne Boleyn was watching a game of real tennis when she was arrested and it is believed that Henry was playing tennis when news was brought to him of her execution.
I’m Henery the Eighth, I Am" (also “I’m Henery the VIII, I Am” or “I’m Henry VIII, I Am”; spelled “Henery” but pronounced “'Enery” in the Cockney style normally used to sing it) is a 1910 British music hall song by Fred Murray and R. P. Weston. It was a signature song of the music hall star Harry Champion. In 1965, it became the fastest-selling song in history to that point when it was revived by Herman’s Hermits. Lead singer Peter Noone’s grandfather was a music hall singer who taught the song to Peter when he was young.
The song “I’m Henery the Eighth, I Am” is prominently featured in the 1990 supernatural romance Ghost, starring Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg.
The Righteous Brothers recording of the song “Unchained Melody” is best known today as the theme song from Ghost - which is a remarkable achievement for the theme song from Unchained.
The Righteous Brothers were the musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. The story about how they adopted their name says that in 1962, while performing together in the Los Angeles area as part of a five-member group called The Paramours, a U.S. Marine in the audience shouted, “That was righteous, brothers!”, prompting the pair to adopt the name as they embarked on their duo career.
“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” was the The Righteous Brothers’ first hit, in 1964.
According to BMI, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” became the most-played song on American radio and television of the 20th century, with more than eight million airplays by the end of 1999.
On an episode of Chuck Barris’s 1970s game show / talent show “The Gong Show,” every single contestant performed the same song: the Morris Albert pop song “Feelings.”