Ezra Taft Benson was Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration,
and President of the LDS (Mormon) church 1985-1994.
The Benson & Hedges cigarette brand is now owned by Japan Tobacco, but they are still produced in Lisnafillen, Ballymena, Northern Ireland for the UK and Irish markets. British American Tobacco markets Benson & Hedges throughout Asia and the Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand, but with the exception of Taiwan and the Philippines. They also own branches in Canada, the Middle East and Africa. Philip Morris owns the brand in the US market.
Jim Carrey played a gay con man in the movie I Love You, Philip Morris, with Ewen McGregor playing the title character, Carrey’s true love.
Pitcher Scott McGregor spent his entire 13-year career with the
Baltimore Orioles, compling a regular season record of 138-108,
an AL playoff record of 1-1 and a World Series record of 2-2.
Mr. (John) McGregor was the farmer intent on keeping Peter Rabbit out of his garden in several tales by Beatrix Potter.
The first appointments which President-elect John F. Kennedy announced in late 1961 were his retentions of J. Edgar Hoover as FBI Director and Allen Dulles as Director of Central Intelligence.
The younger brother of John Foster Dulles, who served as Secretary of State under Eisenhower, Allen Dulles was involved in several plots to kill Fidel Castro. The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion greatly undermined Dulles’ credibility, and the CIA in general, leading to his resignation in September 1961.
The modern convertible couch – one that pulled out into a bed – was invented by Bernard Castro, who marketed them under the brand name “Castro Convertibles.”
William Murphy of San Francisco patented the pull-down Murphy Bed in 1900. In You Only Live Twice, James Bond is only apparently trapped in one, and machine-gunned.
William McKinley, Republican of Ohio, was elected to a second term as President of the United States in 1900, with Theodore Roosevelt, Republican of New York, as his running mate. When McKinley was assassinated in Sept. 1901, Marcus Hanna, McKinley’s kingmaker and friend, was reported to have exclaimed in despair, “Now look! That damned cowboy is President!”
Marcus Hanna’s daughter Ruth was married to Joseph Medill McCaormick, a U.S. Senator from Illinois. A few years after his death, she was elected to the House of Representatives. Later, she married Albert Gallatin Simms, who had represented New Mexico during her time in Congress.
Philmont Scout Ranch, the largest outdoor-adventure and nature preserve owned by the Boy Scouts of America, is in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of northern New Mexico.
McCormick was the grandson of Joseph Medill, whose offspring would go on to head two of the most powerful newspapers in the U.S. The McCormick’s would lead the Chicago Tribune, while the Medill’s would found the New York Daily News. McCormick himself would battle depression and alcoholism, eventually getting out of the newspaper business on the advice of his therapist, Carl Jung.
Artist Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude were responsible for various large-scale modern art exhibitions. Their final work completed before Christo died in 2009 was “The Gates,” in Central Park in New York.
Auguste Rodin’s sculpture “The Thinker” was based on a detail of his more involved work “The Gates of Hell”, which depicted Dante in contemplation over the composition of his “Divine Comedy”.
“The Thinker” was prominently featured in the old sitcom Dobie Gillis. which often opened with its star, Dwayne Hickman, striking the same pose while contemplating the misfortunes of his love life.
Darryl Hickman, Dwayne’s brother, was a very successful child actor, appearing in over 100 films by the time he was 21. He was the lead in the TV series The Americans, about two brothers who fought on opposite sides in the Civil War.
The Americans was based on the novel The Valiant Virginians, which was known to many members of the audience who had read its Saturday Evening Post serialization in 1953 and '54. The show debuted in 1961 to coincide with the centennial of the Civil War’s start.
The Civil War began with the Confederate shelling of Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor in April 1861. The fort was commanded by Maj. Robert Anderson, a Kentuckian who remained loyal to the Union. Both U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson Davis were also born in Kentucky.
*Kentucky Woman *was written by Neil Diamond and was a Top 40 hit for him in 1967. A much different version was recorded by Deep Purple in 1968, also becoming a Top 40 hit.