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Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first president of Liberia, was born and raised in Norfolk, VA.
The current President of Liberia is a woman, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson had a thing for the LBJ initials: his wife was called “Lady Bird Johnson,” and his daughters were named “Lynda Bird Johnson” and “Lucy Baines Johnson.” His first dog, a beagle, was named “Little Beagle Johnson.” (This wasn’t the dog whose ears he pulled, leading to some harsh criticism. Those were named “Him” and “Her.”)
Lady Bird Johnson’s real initials were CAT: for Claudia Alta Taylor.
Lady Diana Frances Spencer was teaching in London at the time she was courted by Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. They married in 1982 but divorced in 1996; she died just a year later in a Paris car accident, and was honored by Prime Minister Tony Blair as “the people’s princess.”
Lady Gaga’s real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.
Mike Nesmith is the only member of the Monkees to have a solo hit after he left the group with his song “Joanne.”
King John of England (and of Magna Charta fame) was the father of two daughters named Joanne. The elder and illegitimate Joanne married Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynned and for all intents and purposes king of Wales; the younger and legitimate Joanne married Alexander II, King of Scotland, when her initial fiance, Hugh de Lusignan, married her widowed mother Isabella d’Angouleme instead.
Prince Eldarion was the only son of King Elessar and Queen Arwen of Gondor and Arnor, although they had at least two daughters (Prof. Tolkien never specified how many, in The Lord of the Rings’ appendices or elsewhere). Eldarion succeeded Elessar, the former Aragorn, as king when his father decided it was his time to die. Very little is known of Eldarion’s reign.
The Tolkien Ensemble is a group of Danish musicians who are attempting to perform “the world’s first complete musical interpretation of the poems and songs from The Lord of the Rings”. The ensemble has so far released four CD’s, and Queen Margrethe of Denmark has contributed illustrations to the layout.
Tycho Brahe, the Danish astrologer/astronomer whose work greatly aided his protege Johannes Kepler (they respected each other as astronomers but personally they couldn’t stand each other) lost most of his nose in a fight when he was young and thereafter wore a silver and gold nose on formal occasions and a copper nose held on with paste for everyday wear; when his remains were exhumed in the 20th century the nasal area of his skull had green marks.
An insane Hungarian named Laszlo Toth broke Mary’s nose and several other pieces off Michelangelo’s sculpture Pietà in St. Peter’s Basilica in 1972, while claiming to be the risen Jesus Christ himself.
Before he became famous a Fr. Guido Sarducci on Saturday Night Life, comedian Don Novello wrote a series of letters to corporations using the name “Lazlo Toth.” The letters were usually bizarre joking rants which got serious replies (which,of course, is what the corporation’s PR department was supposed to do – no matter how crazy a customer seems, you act like his concerns are legitimate). The letters and replies were reprinted in the book The Lazlo Letters.
Guy Fawkes, of the Gunpowder Plot, used the name Guido Fawkes while fighting for Catholic Spain in its colony the Netherlands against Protestant reformers, in the Eighty Years’ War.
The Eighty Years’ War lives up to its name – it lasted from 1568 to 1648, and ended with the Peace of Munster, which recognized the Netherlands’ independence.
The Thirty Years’ War is another, 1618-48. Started with the Second Defenestration of Prague and ended with the Peace of Westphalia.
Tom Stoppard’s play Rock ‘n’ Roll is partially set against the background of the 1968 Prague Spring, the brief period of liberalization in what was then the Soviet satellite of Czechoslovakia.
Mozart’s Don Giovanni premiered in Prague on October 29, 1787.
The first Czech postage stamps were designed by Alfons Mucha (known for his advertising art) and depicted Hrdcany Castle in Prague.