What, 24 hours without a new post? Sweet Biscuits! This thread cannot die.
In 1889 the state of Wisconsin passed a bill requiring children over the age of five to attend school 60 days a year. Residents of Milwaukee fought against it, because it required all classes be taught in English. At the time, Milwaukee spoke mainly German and Polish with some French thrown in. English was a secondary language. Prior to this bill, all private schools taught in their chosen language, but the bill was requiring even them to teach in English. Teachers and parents alike protested in the streets, and they elected four socialists to the state legislature in a bid to repeal or reword the bill.
French forces led by the Comte de Rochambeau were invaluable in helping George Washington win a great victory against the besieged British army led by Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va. in October 1781.
Among the notable alumni of The George Washington University are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former Secretaries of State Colin Powell and John Foster Dulles, and longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
In the Lone Ranger radio show, the Ranger’s nephew was named Dan Reid. Dan Reid was the father of Britt Reid, who became the Green Hornet. Both shows were created by the same writer.
The Green Hornet’s sidekick, Kato, was originally described on the radio serial as Japanese. Following that nation’s invasion of China, he became “Oriental”. Then, in 1941, Kato became Filipino. He was played by Keye Luke in the movie serials, and by Bruce Lee in the 60’s TV series.
The star witness in the 1994-95 murder trial of O.J. Simpson was his long-term “houseguest”, Kato Kaelin. One joke at the time was that he was the love child of Gilligan and Ginger. Kaelin parlayed his fame into a career as a minor professional celebrity and reality show personality.
Fontaine Fox’s comic panel, Toonerville Folks covered the lives of the denizens of Toonerville, including Mickey “Himself” McGuire, The Terrible Tempered Mr. Bang, Suitcase Simpson (a salesman), the Powerful Katinka, and many others. The best-known creation of the strip was the Toonerville Trolley (which meets all trains), run by the grizzled old Skipper.
Homer Simpson has been a nuclear plant safety worker, an Emmy-winning barbershop quartet singer, an astronaut, a movie action hero and a snowplow driver, among many other jobs.
The Emmy was originally named the “Immy”, a nickname for “image orthicon camera tube”, the main component of an early type of television camera developed by RCA. The Immies are now the name of awards presented by MTV India to support the best talents in the Indian music industry.
Actress Emmy Clarke (whose roles include Julie Teeger on Monk) took her stage name from her first two initials. Her birth name was Mary Elizabeth Clarke.
Queen Elizabeth II speaks fluent French and does not need a translator when dealing with French officials. Her father, George VI, is the subject of the well-reviewed new movie The King’s Speech.
Henry VIII died in 1547, when the future Elizabeth I was 13 years old, and was succeeded by her half brother, Edward VI. Catherine Parr, Henry’s last wife, soon married Thomas Seymour of Sudeley, Edward VI’s uncle and the brother of the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset. The couple took Elizabeth into their household at Chelsea. There Elizabeth experienced an emotional crisis that some historians believe affected her for the rest of her life. Seymour, approaching age 40 but having charm and “a powerful sex appeal,” engaged in romps and horseplay with the 14-year-old Elizabeth. These included entering her bedroom in his nightgown, tickling her and slapping her on the buttocks. Catherine Parr, rather than confront her husband over his innappropriate activities, joined in. Twice she accompanied him in tickling Elizabeth, and once held her while he cut her black gown “into a thousand pieces.” However, after Catherine Parr discovered the pair in an embrace, she ended this state of affairs. In May 1548, Elizabeth was sent away.
Kings named Edward in England usually had bad ends during their reigns.
Edward the Martyr – his name tells the story: he was killed young.
Edward the Confessor – Long reign, but screwed up his succession, leading to the Norman invasion.
Edward II – deposed and probably murdered
Edward III – long and successful reign, but his son Edward the Black Prince, died before him, plunging him into gloom.
Edward IV – deposed, though he regained the throne.
Edward V – deposed and murdered in the Tower
Edward VI – died young
Edward VII – Waited years to take the throne, since his mother, Victoria, reigned longer than anyone else
Edward VIII – abdicated.
Edward I Longshanks seems to have missed the curse until he was shown in Braveheart.
Boer War troops give three cheers for King Edward VII before turning their lights out for the night in the Australian court-martial drama Breaker Morant.
Robert Shaw and Anne Bancroft played Winston Churchill’s unhappily married parents, British Lord Randolph Churchill and American heiress Jennie Jerome Churchill, in the 1972 movie Young Winston, a movie that goes from Winnie’s childhood through the Second Boer War.
Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY, which has hosted the Kentucky Derby since it opened in 1875, was built by Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. (grandson of explorer William Clark), on land leased from the Churchill brothers, John and Henry.
Winston Churchill led Great Britain to victory in World War II but was thrown out of office in the election of 1945, many historians believe because British voters appreciated him as a wartime leader but thought he was not necessarily the man to lead the nation during peacetime. He was offered but declined the title of Duke of London, preferring to remain in the House of Commons.
Sir Richard Whittington was a real person who served four times as Lord Mayor of London, but is best known as Dick Whittington. This character’s story, which prominently features the hero’s cat, is very loosely based on the life of a man who quite likely never owned a feline pet.
Harry Whittington is a Texas attorney who has been a member of a number of Texas state committees and commissions, but he is best known for being only the second person ever to be shot by a sitting US Vice President, and the first not only to have survived the experience but to have apologized for it.