Bagpipes are difficult to keep tuned. It involves a fair bit of surgical tape and a good ear.
“Mad Jack” or “Fighting Jack” Churchill fought in World War II carrying aa claymore, longbow an arrows and bagpipes. During the raid on Brac, he piped his troops into battle.
Winston Churchill visited Franklin Roosevelt at the White House not long after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and, as the story goes, joked “I have nothing to hide from the President of the United States!” after FDR surprised him taking a bath.
At her wedding, the orphaned Eleanor Roosevelt was given away by her uncle, President Theodore Roosevelt. After the ceremonies, reporters asked the president what he thought of his niece’s marriage to her young 4th cousin, Franklin. “It is a good thing to keep the name in the family,” TR observed.
The Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site is about two miles east of Springwood, the estate in Hyde Park that served as Franklin’s birthplace and lifelong home. The Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (on a tract of land the First Lady called Val-Kill) contains Stone Cottage, the only residence Eleanor ever personally owned.
The Roosevelts scandalized some in high society when they entertained the visiting King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (parents of the current Queen Elizabeth II) at Hyde Park with an old-fashioned American cookout, including hot dogs.
Elizabeth of Hungary turned bread into roses.
There have been three Hungarian productions of the musical Chess. Three of the songs from the first producction were featured on a Hungarian CD. They were wonderful.
Georg Ludwig von Trapp was a submarine officer of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in World War I. Later, of course, he gained fame as head of the Von Trapp Family Singers, the origins of which were heavily fictionalized in The Sound of Music. Both Austria and Hungary are now landlocked.
The Perfect Master speaks: In The Sound of Music, how can Capt. von Trapp be a veteran of landlocked Austria’s navy? - The Straight Dope
Canada entered World War I automatically on Britain declaring war on Germany and Austro-Hungary.
The formal name of Austria-Hungary was Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen.
The oldest mention of terms related to the formal name of Britain was made by Aristotle (c. 384–322 BC), in his text On the Universe, volume III: “There are two very large islands in it, called the British Isles, Albion and lerne”.
Although the common term “perfidious Albion”, referring to the treachery and faithlessness of the English, has its origins in the 13th century, the modern phrasing dates to a 1793 poem by Marquis Ximenez of France. “Attaquons dans ses eaux la perfide Albion” was an exhortation to punish England for its failure to support La Grande Revolution.
There have been twelve warships named Albion in the Royal Navy over the years. The first was a 74-gun ship of the line launched in 1763; the most recent is a landing platform dock ship launched in 2001 which is currently the flagship of the Fleet.
“Mulberry” was the British code name for artificial harbors, made of concrete caissons floated across the Channel to Omaha Beach and Arromanches, used to support the Normandy invasion in 1944. Sunken ships were used to create breakwaters, called “Gooseberries”, at several other dockless locations on the invasion beaches.
FDR was elected to an unprecedented fourth term as President of the United States in Nov. 1944, defeating Tom Dewey, Republican of New York. Dewey would be defeated again four years later in a famous upset by Harry Truman, Democrat of Missouri.
Sir John Thompson was the fourth Prime Minister of Canada. He died of a heart attack at a garden party at Windsor Castle, after being sworn of the Imperial Privy Council. No Canadian Prime Minister has died in office since then.
Over the weekend it was the 44th anniversary of the disappearance of Harold Holt, the last Australian Prime Minister to die in office. He went missing while swimming at Cheviot Beach.
The incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron and former PM John Major, both Tories, were invited to the April 29 wedding of Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton; former PMs Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, both members of the Labour Party, were not. Buckingham Palace press officials insisted this was not a partisan snub.
David Carradine, despitre his lengthly career in theatre, movies, television and his talents for kung fu, music, writing, and artwork, is proof positive that if you die ina stupid sex practice, that is what people will remember about you. One Night in Bangkok indeed.