Retired USAF General Lloyd “Fig” Newton, a South Carolina native, was the first African-American pilot in the Thunderbirds.
Calvin J. Spann was an original Tuskegee Airman and fighter pilot with the 100th Fighter Squadron of the 332nd Fighter Group. Spann received his wings from the Tuskegee Flight School as a part of the graduating class of 44G. As a member of the United States Army Air Corps, he served in Europe during World War II, where Spann flew 26 combat missions before the end of the war in the European Theatre.
In 2006, Spann was inducted in to the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame and was honored by President George W. Bush with a bronze replica of the Congressional Gold Medal, which is the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Spann died on September 6, 2015 at the age of 90 (and, may I add, Spannie was a close personal friend of mine).
According to Wiki, the latest person to receivee the Congressional Gold Medal is Steve Gleason, former NFL player for the Colts and Saints. Following his retirement in 2008, Gleason revealed in 2011 that he had been diagnosed with ALS. His experiences while living with the disease were captured on video over the course of a five-year period and featured in the 2016 documentary Gleason. He is the first NFL player to receive the award.
The Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom are the highest civilian awards in the US. The Congressional Gold Medal normally is awarded to persons, but in 1979 the American Red Cross became the first organization to be honored with a gold medal.
In 1880, at the first International Millers’ Exhibition, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Washburn-Crosby Company (based in Minneapolis, Minnesota) won gold, silver, and bronze medals for their flour products.
As a result of these awards, Washburn-Crosby (which became part of General Mills in 1928) re-branded their highest-quality wheat flour as Gold Medal.
Both Ted Williams (#9) and Carl Yastrzemski (#8) played minor league ball for the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association in the Boston Red Sox system.
Ted Williams is a US Marine. He once said, towards the end of his life, that being a Marine is the one thing he is most proud of.
ETA, added quote:
Missed the edit window for Ted Williams quite 2:
The Marines’ Hymn begins with one of the most readily recognized verses anywhere:
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
The music to this hymn is believed to have been adapted from an 1859 French comic opera composed by Jacques Offenbach. The author is unknown.
Traveler’s diarrhea, also known as “Montezuma’s Revenge” and “Delhi belly” is typically suffered by travelers visiting developing countries, including Mexico, and portions of Asia, Africa, and Central and South America.
The condition is caused by ingesting an infectious agent, including bacteria such as E. coli and Shigella. Typical mechanisms for becoming infected include drinking contaminated water, eating improperly-cooked food, and insufficient hygiene.
Mary Mallon, aka Typhoid Mary, was a carrier of the typhoid virus, but did not show any signs of having it. This, plus the fact that she insisted on finding work as a cook, and her lack of basic hygiene, led to the disease being spread. She was institutionalized, but an outcry led to her being released, on the condition that she not seek work as a cook. She did, people got sick from typhoid, and she was institutionalized for the rest of her life.
Walt Disney originally considered Angela Lansbury, Mary Martin, and Bette Davis for the role of Mary Poppins.
Bette Davis!? Really?
In play: a piece of sad Mary Poppins trivia that I learned only recently.
Matthew Garber, who played Michael Banks in Mary Poppins (1964), died in 1977, age 21. In 1976-1977, Garber was in India and contracted hepatitis, possibly from infected food. He returned to London in June 1977 for medical treatment. It was too late as the disease had infected his pancreas. He died soon after, the official cause being haemorrhagic necrotising pancreatitis.
The recent remake of Mary Poppins was so successful, despite mixed reviews, that Disney is already considering a sequel.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned more times in the Qur’an than in the New Testament.
Both the ‘Catholic Bible’ and the ‘Protestant Bible’ contain 27 books in the New Testament. However, the Catholic Bible has 46 Old Testament books, 7 more than the Old Testament in the Protestant Bible.
In Marvin Olasky’s Standing for Christ in s Modern Babylon, he argues that since abortion is against the Bible and a child needs a mother and a father, women facing an unwanted pregnancy should not make the selfish choice of killing the baby or subjecting him to a life of poverty as a single mother, but should either marry the baby’s father or let it be adopted by a straight, married Christian couple. He states (direct quote) Christians need to work to double the choice, going from two–reluctant homicide or life imprisonment–to four, adding adoption and emphasizing marriage when appropriate and possible.
Because, you know, must pregnant single woman are too stupid to have heard about adoption and marriage.
Dave Thomas, the founder, CEO, and longtime commercial spokesperson for the Wendy’s restaurant chain, was born to an unwed mother, and was adopted when he was six weeks old. As an adult, Thomas became an adoption advocate, and created the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a charity organization which works to find permanent homes for children in foster care.
US Olympic diver Wendy Wyland competed in the 1984 Summer Olympics. She won a bronze medal in the Women’s 10m Platform competition at the age of 19. She was recognized in a 1990 People magazine article as one of the “50 most beautiful people”.
She died unexpectedly at the young age of 36. She had suffered from migraines and dizziness for 22 months before her death. An autopsy was performed but could not determine the cause of death. An annual diving competition bears her name, The Wendy Wyland Invitational.
Diving first became an Olympic event in the summer games at St. Louis in 1904. There were two diving events, both contested by men. One was ‘fancy diving’, which was a platform event during which the contestants performed acrobatic moves (like somersaults and twists) during the dive. The other event was called ‘plunge for distance’. In this event, competitors dove into the pool from a standing position and their attained distance was measured after either 60 seconds passed or their head broke the surface, whichever came first.
Plunge for distance did not appear in any subsequent Olympic Games.