California Representative Leo Ryan was shot and killed at an airstrip in Guyana on November 18, 1978, as he and his party were attempting to leave. He had traveled to Guyana to investigate claims that people were being held against their will at the Peoples Temple Jonestown settlement. Shortly after the airstrip shootings, 909 of Jim Jones’s followers died in a mass suicide/murder by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid. Following the mass murder-suicide, Jones was found dead on the floor; he was resting on a pillow near his deck chair, with a gunshot wound to his head that Guyanese coroner Cyrill Mootoo stated was consistent with suicide.
Although the majority of the population speak Guyanese Creole as a first language, Guyana is the only South American nation in which English is the official language.
Just wanted to mention that I visited this museum in October of this year. It’s an odd place, with a lot more restored cars and motorcycles than aircraft, although they do have a P-40 Warhawk on display.
Carry on.
Jackie Speier was a 28 year old lawyer and member of California Representative Leo Ryan’s staff when she travelled with his party to Guyana. She was struck by five bullets and was left for dead on a jungle airstrip for 22 hours. She is now a California Representative and represents much of the territory that had been represented by Leo Ryan.
Interesting, Chefguy. I’ve worked near that museum for 20+ years but have never been inside. For years there was a parking lot behind them where they were storing several old planes and a Polaris missile; I should really take a look inside sometime.
Ryan Airline Company‘s Ryan NYP, registration N-X-211, was the custom-built airplane flown across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 by Charles Lindbergh. Ryan Airline Company had been founded shortly before Lindbergh’s flight in 1925 in San Diego. The company’s founders included Tubal Claude Ryan (1898 – 1982).
On March 23, 1925, Tennessee Governor Austin Peay signed into law a bill which forbade the teaching of evolution in that state. Less than two months later, on May 3, a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was arrested for teaching evolution. The teacher, John T. Scopes, was convicted of the crime on July 21 and was fined $100.00.
Austin Peay State University in Clarksville TN was established in 1927 and named for then-sitting Governor Austin Peay, who was Tennessee’s first governor since the Civil War to win three consecutive terms.
Reelfoot Lake State Park, Tennessee’s first state park, was created under his governorship. The lakes were created when a series of violent earthquakes in 1811-1812 caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for a short period of time, creating Reelfoot Lake.
Two men who served as governor of Tennessee also served as President of the United States: James Polk and Andrew Johnson.
Another governor of Tennessee was Sam Houston, who served as President of the Republic of Texas.
double post
Patti Page’s recording of “Tennessee Waltz” is the best known version of the song, selling 10 million copies, the largest selling record by a female artist in recording history. It was concurrently #1 on the pop, country and R&B charts, which according to songfacts.com is a feat unequalled by no other artist in recording history.
(Yes, every other artist has also accomplished that feat!)
No1 in both pop and country, but not R&B was Bruce Springteen with his 1985 hit “I’m on Fire”. Bruce successfully sued Alan Dixon of the Triconderoga Co. for unauthorized use of the song as the alarm for his brand of soothing fire alarms that were unalarming but managed to convey the general message via song lyrics.
“Blinded By The Light” is a song written by Bruce Springsteen. It appeared on Springsteen’s 1973 debut album Greetings from Asbury Park N.J., and was also released as a single. The single was commercially unsuccessful and did not appear on the music charts.
However, in 1976, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band included a version of the song on their album The Roaring Silence. Also released as a single, this version reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Bob Dylan wrote and first recorded the song in 1967 during the Basement Tapes sessions, but did not release a version for another three years. Meanwhile, the song was picked up and recorded in December 1967 by the British band Manfred Mann, who released it in early 1968 under the title “Mighty Quinn”. The Manfred Mann version reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart for the week of 14 February 1968, and remained there the following week. It also charted on the American Billboard chart, peaking at #10, and reached #4 in Cash Box.
Personal Note: I’ve always thought that Blinded by the Light was written when Bruce Springsteen was trying to be the next Bob Dylan. Only three things wrong with that idea:
- Nobody could be the next Bob Dylan. The fact that Bob Dylan is Bob Dylan is pretty miraculous.
- The world does not need another Bob Dylan.
- The world could definitely use Bruce Springsteen as Bruce Springsteen
The Quinn River in Nevada is an intermittent river that starts in the northern part of the state boundary with Oregon and flows, when it is flowing, southwest for 100 miles into the Black Rock Desert where it ends. Two towns are closest to the river’s source. They are McDermitt NV and Dickshooter ID.
Yes, Dickshooter.
English actress Jane Seymour, who starred in the long-running U.S. television Western series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg. She took her stage name from the name of Henry VIII’s third wife.
Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife, was queen for little more than a year. She married Henry VIII on 30 May 1536, days after Anne Boleyn’s execution on May 19, and died on 24 October 1537, 12 days after the birth of her only child, the future Edward VI. Possible causes of her death include infection from a retained placenta, puerperal fever following a bacterial infection contracted during the birth, or a pulmonary embolism.
Jane Seymour (the actress) served as an executive producer on the 2014 documentary film, Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me. As an artist who paints and sketches, Jane Seymour was selected as one of the official painters of the 2005 Torino Winter Olympics, and as an official artist of the 2006 Naples Winter Wine Festival, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
“Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life)” or “Amics per sempre” is a song written for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The lyrics, written by Don Black, are in English, except for the title phrase which is repeated in English, Spanish and Catalan. It was one of two musical themes for the event. The other, simply titled “Barcelona”, was sung by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé, and reached number two in the UK.
The 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team, nicknamed the “Dream Team”, was the first American Olympic team to feature active professional players from the National Basketball Association. Coached by Chuck Daly, the team won all its games during the Olympic competition, defeating its opponents by an average of 44 points.
The “Dream Team” refers to the team of trial lawyers that represented O.J. Simpson in his trial for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. The team included Robert Shapiro, Sara Caplan, Johnnie Cochran, Carl Douglas, Shawn Chapman, Gerald Uelmen, Robert Kardashian, Alan Dershowitz, F. Lee Bailey, Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, Robert Blasier and William Thompson.
They managed to get a “not guilty” verdict.