On 2 March 1882, Roderick Maclean, a disgruntled poet apparently offended by Victoria’s refusal to accept one of his poems, shot at the Queen as her carriage left Windsor railway station. Two schoolboys from Eton College struck him with their umbrellas, until he was hustled away by a policeman. Victoria was outraged when he was found not guilty by reason of insanity, but was so pleased by the many expressions of loyalty after the attack that she said it was “worth being shot at—to see how much one is loved”.
According to Internet nutjob Steve Lightfoot, government codes in magazines “prove” that Stephen King shot John Lennon until directions from the government. He further believes that the whole Dallas “Who Shot J.R.?” was a government plan to make people not care about “Who Shot J.L?” Furthermore, he believes, and I quote, “John Hinckley shooting Reagan and Brady was likely a smokescreen hoax just to cover up Chapman, who was then about to go on trial. (I admitted I had no proof regarding this ‘theory’ unlike my hard evidence regarding Lennon.)” No, Reagen and Brady were never shot, it was all a big act.
Gordon Lightfoot’s “Song for a Winter’s Night” was written on a hot summer night in Cleveland while Lightfoot was performing there in 1967. He was missing his wife of the time, Brita Olaisson, and his thoughts turned to winter. When The Raftsmen and Harry Belafonte covered it, they retitled it “The Hands I Love”.
The current mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, Frank Jackson, a Democrat, has served longer than any other person in the role - it will be fourteen years as of Jan. 2.
Cleveland is the 52nd-largest city in the US.
In the mid 1940s, Fred Gehrke, a running back for the Cleveland Rams football team, who was also a technical illustrator, proposed to the team’s management that he could design and paint a logo on the team’s helmets.
With management’s approval, Gehrke spent the summer of 1948 painting ram horns on the sides of every Ram helmet, making them the first NFL team to have a painted logo on their helmets. The Rams (now based in Los Angeles) still use Gehrke’s logo design on their helmets today.
(Side trivia: Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, who won the 2018 National League MVP award, is Gehrke’s great-grandson.)
Great trivia, especially about Christian Yelich being Fred Gehrke‘s great grandson.
In 1084, Los Angeles Rams running back Eric Dickerson became the second player to run for over 2,000 yards in a season. The first was in 1973, when OJ Simpson of the Buffalo Billlls ran for 2,003 yards in a 14 game season. Dickerson ran for 2,105 yards in a 16 game season, and that record still stands today, even though five other players have run for over 2,000 yards.
- 2,105 yards in 1984: Eric Dickerson, Los Angeles Rams
- 2,097 yards in 2012: Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings
- 2,066 yards in 2003: Jamal Lewis, Baltimore Ravens
- 2,053 yards in 1997: Barry Sanders, Detroit Lions
- 2,008 yards in 1998: Terrell Davis, Denver Broncos
- 2,006 yards in 2009: Chris Johnson, Tennessee Titans
- 2,003 yards in 1973: OJ Simpson, Buffalo Billlls
O.J. Simpson wrote a book called IFI DID IT.
There’s no greater way to say “I’m guilty” than to publish a book detailing how you would hypothetically do it, all in the name of profit. An excerpt from the book reads:
“If I had actually done it… I would have brought my good gloves that day. I would have thought it was shame they shrunk when I left them out on the patio, but I would have brought them just the same. They were my lucky gloves, and I would have needed them cause I was going to stab my slut of a wife… hypothetically.”
The profits from the book went to the Goldmans, as part of a settlement for their civil case, where OJ was found GUILTY!!!
24 Jan 1995: The OJ Simpson case (criminal trial) began
15 Jun 1995: Simpson tried on the leather gloves and said they do not fit
06 Jul 1995: the prosecution rested
27 Sep 1995: defense attorney Johnnie Cochran told the jury, about the glove, “If it doesn’t fit; you must acquit."
29 Sep 1995: the defense rested; the case went to the jury
03 Oct 1995: after less than 4 hours of deliberation, the jury returned a Not Guilty verdict
(But, yeah, he did it)
OJ Simpsons excuse for his first criminal trial was “I didn’t do it. The racist police set me up. I was totally innocent.”
OJ Simpson’s excuse for his second criminal trial was “Well, I didn’t know that’s what was going to happen. I didn’t know the guys had guns.”
His attorney for this second trial claimed the trial was influenced by the first trial. Ya Think?
Beer brewer Robert Simpson was the first mayor of Barrie, Ontario in the 19th century and also the founder of the Robert Simpson Brewing Company. The 21st-century Robert Simpson Brewing Company, now named The Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery, was named in his honor.
An alternative version of The Simpsons Classic “Who Shot Mr. Burns” had Waylan Smithers as the culprit. But, as Troy McClure put it “For that ending to work, you’d have to ignore all the Simpson DNA evidence. And that would be downright nutty.”
On February 3, 1959 in Mason City, Iowa, singer Waylon Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight in 1959 that crashed in nearby Clear Lake IA and killed Buddy Holly, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and Ritchie Valens.
February 3, 1959 became known as “The Day the Music Died”.
The crash spot’s latitude and longitude is 43.220361, -93.381417; gMap >> Google Maps
On February 3, 1959 in Mason City, Iowa, singer Waylon Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight in 1959 that crashed in nearby Clear Lake IA and killed Buddy Holly, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and Ritchie Valens.
February 3, 1959 became known as “The Day the Music Died”.
The crash spot’s latitude and longitude is 43.220361, -93.381417;
gMap >> Google Maps
… and I’ve been to that spot. Sad.
Great. Double post. Damned 50x errors!
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=886461
On March 31, 1931, a Fokker F-10, bound for Los Angeles, took off from Kansas City Municipal Airport. The first leg of the flight was to Wichita, but the plane crashed near Bazaar, Kansas, killing all eight aboard the plane. Most notable among the dead was Knute Rockne, legendary football coach at Notre Dame.
Investigation of the crash was severely hampered by lack of evidence, as most of the wreckage had been taken by souvenir hunters and scavengers, leaving only engines, wings and propeller. It was eventually determined that the glue connecting the wooden wing to the body of the aircraft had weakened over time, causing the wing to separate from the aircraft, which caused the crash.
On September 20, 1973, a chartered Beechcraft E18S bound for Sherman, Texas took off from Natchitoches Regional Airport in Natchitoches, Louisiana. During takeoff the plane crashed into a pecan tree at the end of the runway, killing all five aboard the plane. According to the official report, the charter pilot had suffered a heart attack. Most notable among the dead was Jim Croce, budding and up-and-coming singer of such hits as Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown, I’ve Got a Name, Lover’s Cross, and I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song.
gMap, 300 miles from Natchitoches, Louisiana to Sherman, Texas
>> Google Maps
Jim Croce related that the inspiration for his song Bad, Bad Leroy Brown was a fellow soldier he knew when he was stationed at Fort Dix, in New Jersey.
Croce said that the man was strong, but “was not made to climb the tree of knowledge,” and when he decided he didn’t like the Army, he simply left and went home. However, the man then returned to the base to collect his paycheck at the end of the month, apparently not realizing that having gone AWOL would lead to his arrest.
Jim Croce’s last concert was on the night he died in the plane crash posted above. This concert was sparsely attended. On that same night, the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs took place at the Houston Astrodome and drew huge TV ratings, on Thursday, September 20, 1973.
Houston, Texas is the largest American city named after an individual - Sam Houston, former governor of both Tennessee and Texas, the only person to be elected governor of two separate American states.