Richard Mentor Johnson, the only US Vice President elected via the Twelfth Amendment, was the 1836 Democratic candidate with Martin Van Buren. Using his military experience in his campaign, he used the slogan “Rumpsey Dumpsey, Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh”, even though the claim is dubious. He did, however, serve in the Battle of the Thames in Upper Canada, where *somebody *killed Tecumseh and the British and Indians lost control of southwestern Ontario.
Doug Henning graduated with honors from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario with degrees in science and psychology, planning the plan to enter medical school. However, he decided to take a year off to work at perfecting his magic act.
Besides his other writing and political activity, Alexander Hamilton also wrote a number of poems. When a friend’s 2-year-old daughter passed away in 1774, he eulogized her in a touching tribute called “Poem on the Death of Elias Boudinot’s Child.” Another piece helped Hamilton win over his bride-to-be, Eliza Schuyler. As they courted, he sent a tender sonnet to the object of his affection. Eliza liked it so much that she placed the poem in a little bag and hung it around her neck.
Ninja’ed!
Hamilton creator Linn-Manual Miranda has won one Emmy, three Grammy and three Tony Awards. Will somebody please give him an Oscar so he can be a member of EGOT?
There have been two U.S. Navy warships named after Alexander Hamilton, and three U.S. Coast Guard cutters, the most recent of which was commissioned in 2014 and is still in service. Hamilton was the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and the Coast Guard had its start as the Revenue Marine (later the Revenue Cutter Service), an arm of the Treasury. The Coast Guard now operates under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Although the US Coast Guard’s official motto is Semper Paratus, “Always Ready”, its unofficial one is “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back” - the rescue must be attempted no matter the danger.
The Pontifical Swiss Guard is a group of 135 soldiers who act as the bodyguards of the Pope, and the de facto military force of the Vatican City. Established in 1506 by Pope Julius II, they are one of the oldest continuously-operating military units in the world.
The Swiss Guard recruits its members from unmarried Swiss men, between the ages of 19 and 30, who are at least 1.74 meters in height, and who have completed basic training with the Swiss Armed Forces.
The tailors of the Swiss Guard work inside the Vatican barracks. There the uniform for each guardsman is tailor-made individually. The total set of Renaissance style clothing weighs 8 pounds (3.6 kg), and may be the heaviest and most complicated uniform in use by any standing army today. A single uniform requires 154 pieces and takes nearly 32 hours and 3 fittings to complete.
John Wilkes Booth, was inspired by the legends of Swiss hero William Tell. Lamenting the negative reaction to his action of assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, Booth wrote in his journal on April 21, 1865 “with every man’s hand against me, I am here in despair. And why; For doing what Brutus was honored for and what made Tell a Hero. And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew am looked upon as a common cutthroat.”
The name of the cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii), a member of the Pacific trout group that also includes the rainbow trout, refers to the distinctive red coloration on the underside of the lower jaw. The specific name *clarkii *was given to honor explorer William Clark, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
In 1957, Theodore Sturgeon moved to Truro, Massachusetts, where he befriended Kurt Vonnegut, then working as a salesman in a Saab dealership. At the time, both were writing in the genre of science fiction; Vonnegut had already published Player Piano, retitled Utopia 14 in paperback, while Sturgeon’s then more-successful career (mainly as a short story writer) stretched back to 1938. In fact, at the time of their initial meeting, Sturgeon was the most anthologized English-language science fiction author alive.Kilgore Trout
Vonnegut was amused by the notion of a person with the name of a fish, Sturgeon, that he named his own fictional writer Kilgore Trout.
Slaughterhouse-Five was Kurt Vonnegut’s most popular novel. The story is about the World War II experiences and journeys through time of Billy Pilgrim. A central event is Pilgrim’s surviving the Allies’ firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner-of-war. This was an event in Vonnegut’s own life, and the novel is considered semi-autobiographical.
In the 1986 comedy film Back to School, Rodney Dangerfield played Thornton Melon, a successful (but uneducated) middle-aged businessman, who bribes his way into college in order to spend time with his son. Once at school, Melon decides he likes partying more than studying, and hires other people to do his coursework for him – including hiring author Kurt Vonnegut (who appears in a cameo) to write an essay for him about (of course) Kurt Vonnegut.
The actor Kurt Russell moved to a mansion in Shaughnessy, Vancouver along with his long time girlfriend Goldie Hawn in 2003 in order to be closer to their son, Wyatt, who at that time played junior hockey in Canada.
The national name of Canada is simply that single word - not “The Kingdom of Canada,” although Queen Elizabeth II is its head of state. Canada was officially a Dominion from 1867 until 1953.
“And death shall have no dominion” is a poem written by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The title comes from the Bible, in St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans.
The Pauline Epistles, or Letters of Paul, are 13 books of the New Testament that are attributed to Paul the Apostle. A 14th New Testament book, the Letter to the Hebrews, was originally believed to have been authored by Paul, but that is no longer believed to be true.
As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36: “As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?”
So remember Christian ladies: Paul wrote and signed his name to the idea that it is disgraceful for women to speak in church. In other words STFU.
The Corinth that Paul wrote to in Corinthians, in Greece, was completely destroyed by 1858, the last parts of it being finished off by an earthquake. The modern town of Corinth was settled a few miles away. The ruin of the old city is still there.