The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ was a decisive miscalculation by the French. The war in Indochina ended shortly after and the 1954 Geneva Accords were signed. France agreed to withdraw its forces from all its colonies in French Indochina,
The United States and South Vietnam rejected the 1954 Geneva Accords and never signed.
The Geneva Accords established the 17th parallel as the temporary dividing line between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Elections were to be held within two years to unite the country, but those elections never took place. Vietnam was eventually unified in July of 1975.
The Jet d’eau, a fountain in Lake Geneva that rises 140 meters in the air, has been one of Geneva’s iconic attractions since 1891. It is visible throughout the city and from the air, even when flying over Geneva at an altitude of 10 kilometres (33,000 ft).
The City of Cleveland, Ohio was founded in 1796, as noted on the city seal and flag, adopted in the centennial year of 1896.
Baseball pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander (who was born during the presidency of Grover Cleveland, and named after him) was one of Major League Baseball’s most successful pitchers during the 1910s. After the 1917 season, Alexander was traded from the Philadelphia Phillies to the Chicago Cubs. However, he was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly after, and spent much of 1918 in France, as an artillery sergeant in the final stages of World War I.
Alexander was exposed to mustard gas during the war, which caused partial hearing loss, and led to him suffering from epileptic seizures. He had already had drinking problems before the war, but he increasingly turned to drinking due to his health issues. Despite all of that, he remained a successful pitcher through most of the 1920s, though his heavy drinking eventually contributed to the end of his career.
Grover Cleveland, while a Democratic Governor of New York, worked closely with the young Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican state Assemblyman, to pass a civil service reform bill and expose corruption in state tax policy. Once Roosevelt was himself President, he occasionally consulted with Cleveland, his predecessor.
Alexander Watzke Jr was the son of a member of the Louisiana Legislature, and in the early 1900s (ETA: during Roosevelt’s presidency) , an accomplished musician. In the New Orleans style, he formed a band playing rag-time music. Although he never went to New Orleans, it is likely that Irving Berlin’s first successful hit song was influenced by “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” in New Orleans.
Before they became a famous actor and rock star respectively, Joe Pesci and Jimi Hendrix both played in a house band called Joey Dee and the Starliters, though not at the same time. They played at a venue called The Peppermint Lounge in Manhattan; Pesci in 1962, and Hendrix in 1965.
Peppermint Patty was a character in the Peanuts comic strip. First appearing in 1966, her ‘real name’ was Patricia Reichardt. She always referred to Charlie and Lucy as ‘Chuck’ and ‘Lucille’.
Pesci put out an album in the 60s, Little Joe Sure Can Sing. Google at your own peril.
Ninja’d, reply to post above.
Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts ran for fifty years, from 1950-2000, with 17,897 strips published in all.
ETA: A cartoon version of Joe Pesci never appeared in the strip.
Christina Desforges, a Canadian 15-year-old, was widely reported to have died after kissing a boy who’d eaten peanut butter, in a case called “the peanut butter kiss of death” by the media. However, the actual cause of death was an asthma attack that led to “cerebral anoxia,” a lack of oxygen to the brain, according to the Quebec coroner’s report.
Béla Kiss was a 19th century Hungarian serial killer. He is thought to have murdered at least 23 young women and one man, and attempted to pickle their bodies in large metal drums that he kept on his property. Kiss is a very common Hungarian surname.
The "S"s in the logo for the rock band KISS are stylized to resemble lightning bolts. However, this also makes them resemble the symbol of the Nazi SS, which has caused the band to have to use an alternate logo, with differently-shaped "S"s, in Germany and several other European countries (where use of Nazi symbolism is discouraged, if not illegal), as well as in Israel.
So instead of lightning bolts, each S now looks like half a swastika. Fucking genius.
Ignore the hijack, carry on.
The 120-seat Knesset is the unicameral legislative body of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister, approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government. There are currently 17 different political parties represented in the Knesset. No party has ever won a majority of seats in an election.
The only country in the entire world that has more trees today than it had 50 years ago… is Israel.
https://www.erjcchouston.org/israel-content/fun-facts-about-israel/
Vermont is now the most heavily-forested state in the United States, although much of it is second- or third-growth forest, as the vast majority of the state’s trees were cut down for logging in the late 1800s.
The most populous city in Vermont, Burlington, is the least populous city to be the most populous city in a US state.