James Hepburn, fourth Earl of Bothwell, was the abductor, lover, and final husband of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots. He was suspected, but never proven, to be the murderer of her second husband, Lord Darnley.
Mitch Hepburn was Premier of Ontario in the Depression period. He was well-known as a somewhat … extravagant … speaker.
On one occasion, he was addressing a group of farmers during a campaign and climbed up onto a piece of farm equipment to be able to address the group.
The piece of equipment was a manure spreader.
One of the farmers in the crowd yelled, “Just turn it on and let it fly, Mitch!”
Manure was known since ancient times to be a good soil conditioner and fertilizer. For centuries, the manure was shoveled and spread by human labor. In 1875, the first successful mechanized manure spreader was introduced, and it was in wide use within 10 years. The implement was horse-drawn, and was powered by a gear assembly attached to the rear wheels.
Harry Truman, when he was U.S President, once addressed the Washington Garden Club and kept referring to ‘good manure’ that must be used on flowers. Some society ladies complained (later) to the First Lady Margaret Truman, “Bess, can’t you get the President to say fertilizer instead of manure?”
The First Lady replied, “Heavens, it took me 25 years to get him to say ‘manure’.”
The New York Times, known for their not printing swears in the paper, transcribed President Richard Nixon’s tapes, and actually published the word “shit” in the paper. When asked about their policy, they replied “We’ll take shit from the President, but not from anyone else.”
The New York Times crossword puzzle first appeared in the paper on Sunday, February 15, 1942. It became a daily feature in 1950. The puzzle becomes increasingly difficult throughout the week, with the easiest puzzle on Monday and the most difficult puzzle on Saturday. The daily puzzles are 15 squares x 15 squares, while the Sunday crossword is 21 squares x 21 squares.
The Times is a British daily (Monday to Saturday) national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under its current name on 1 January 1788. It’s sister paper The Sunday Times was founded in 1821, and while published by the same company, they do not share editorial staff, were founded independently, and have only had common ownership since 1967.
The Times is the originator of the widely used Times New Roman typeface, developed in 1931 by typographer Stanley Morison, in collaboration with the Monotype Corporation.
Helvetica is a 2007 documentary film about typography and graphic design, and the history of the namesake typeface. The film was directed by American filmmaker Gary Hustwit, and was released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the Helvetica typeface.
Gutenberg! The Musical! is a musical written by Scott Brown and Anthony King. Brown and King developed the show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, where it ran for over a year. n the play-within-a-play, Johann Gutenberg is a wine presser in the medieval German town of Schlimer, a happy and cheery place except for the fact that the town is horribly dirty and depressing and no one except Gutenberg can read. Intent on saving the townspeople from their own ignorance, Gutenberg turns his wine press into a printing press (he accomplishes this in one night). His beautiful (but dim) assistant Helvetica is in love with him, but Gutenberg is unaware of her feelings. Meanwhile, the show’s villain, Monk, an evil monk who worships Satan, attempts to keep ignorance alive so he can control the townspeople through inaccurate readings of the bible and seeks to destroy the printing press.
It is believed that about 180 copies of the Gutenberg Bible were printed, which took place over a 3 year period beginning about 1451. There are now 49 surviving copies, but only 21 of these are complete. The last sale of a complete Gutenberg Bible took place in 1978, which sold for 2.2 million dollars.
In 1969, a man named Vido Aras hid in a bathroom in Harvard’s Widener Library until after the building had closed. He then made his way to the roof and used a rope to climb into the window of the room where the University kept its copy of the Gutenberg Bible. Aras succeeded in prizing the two volumes from their case and stashing them in his knapsack, but when he tried to climb back up the rope, he found that the 70-pound tome weighed him down. After struggling for a time, the would-be thief lost his grip and tumbled six stories to the ground below, where he was found the next morning. The Gutenberg Bible was recovered with only minor damage. Aras, on the other hand, suffered a fractured skull.
The “Black Brunswickers” was the nickname of a cavalry force raised by Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick. Excluded from inheriting his possessions in Brunswick and an ardent foe of Napoleon, the Duke raised the squadron of loyalists to oppose Napoleon. They were noted for their black uniforms and the Totenkopf (“skull and crossbones”) cap badge.
The Black Brunswickers played an important role at Waterloo, although the Duke was killed at the preliminary skirmish at Quatre Bras.
ETA: portrait of the Duke. Don’t think I’d want to make an enemy of him.
Jeremy Clyde, actor and musician and part of the duo Chad and Jeremy, is a direct descendant of the first Duke of Wellington, hero of the battle of Waterloo. His mother, born Lady Elizabeth Wellesley, was the daughter of the 7th Duke of Wellington.
In 1953, when Jeremy was 12, he participated in the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as a Page of Honour for his grandfather and carried his grandfather’s ducal coronet during the ceremony.
He attended Eton College; the first Duke of Wellington supposedly said that “the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton”, but the line is probably apocryphal.
The Swedish pop quartet ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision song contest with their song Waterloo, which proved to be their breakthrough hit. The single was a #1 hit in the United Kingdom and Germany, and hit #6 on the U.S. chart.
[another play on Waterloo]
Waterloo Station in London is the busiest railway station in the UK. It is also the country’s largest station in terms of floor space and has the greatest number of platforms at 24. When combined with the Underground and Waterloo East stations, it is the busiest station complex in Europe.
In the early stages of planning for the Chunnel, the British proposed that Waterloo be the London terminal for the Chunnel trains. This was considered by the French to be somewhat insensitive.
St Pancras was eventually chosen as the London terminus.
St. Pancras is adjacent to King’s Cross Station, which for years has attracted visitors unavailingly looking for Platform 9 3/4 and the Hogwarts Express. It can, however, be found at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Universal Orlando Resort.
The name of Harry Morgan’s character in MAS*H was Sherman T. Potter. Morgan had heard that writer Larry Gelbart based the name on his family doctor. What the T. stood for was however never revealed. Even Morgan never knew although he speculated that it might be “Tecumseh,” as in General Sherman.
William Tecumseh Sherman was universally called “Cump” by his close friends and family, including his wife. Exactly why is unclear.