Solidarity leader Lech Walesa became, in 1990, the first democratically-elected President of Poland. He served until 1995.
The labor song “Solidarity Forever (The Union Makes Us Strong)” was written in 1915 by Ralph Chaplin for the Industrial Workers of the World - the IWW, or “Wobblies”. It borrows the tune of “John Brown’s Body”.
Ralph W. Emerson, H.D. Thoreau, and Herman Melville are among those who eulogized John Brown’s martyrdom.
Emerson is a small town in south-western Manitoba; Melville is a small city in eastern Saskatchewan.
Emerson Lake and Palmer was a 70s supergroup made up of Keith Emerson (of the Nice), Greg Lake (King Crimson) and Carl Palmer (Atomic Rooster).
Threats to Democratic Party presidential candidate David Palmer on the eve of the California primary election were key to the first season of the Fox thriller 24.
Veteran actress and game-show panelist Betsy Palmer took her role in the original Friday the 13th film because she needed money to buy a car. Her initial reaction to the eventual horror classic was “What a piece of shit! Nobody is ever going to see this thing.”
The Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa was the world’s first chiropractic school, and is still the largest and best known. It is named for Daniel David Palmer, the founder of chiropractic. It has branch campuses in San Jose, California and Port Orange, Florida.
The Palmer Method was a standard form of penmanship introduced by Austin Palmer in the 19th century, and is the most common cursive form of handwriting in use today.
Clifford Smith is the real name of Method Man, one of the early (though not founding) members of Wu-Tang Clan. He was also the first of its members to release his own solo album, and was the only guest rapper to perform on Notorious B.I.G.'s debut album Ready to Die.
Notorious, a movie about a woman who spied on a group of Nazis, starred Cary Grant and ingrid Bergman, and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
The painting of the “Piper to the Laird of Grant” (c. 1714) is one of the earliest detailed images of the Great Highland Bagpipes.
Ulysses S. Grant’s wife Julia couldn’t stand Mary Todd Lincoln. Her antipathy towards the then-First Lady was a key reason why Grant declined the President’s invitation to attend a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in April 1865.
The term “First Lady” was first used in public by President Zachary Taylor in 1849, when giving a eulogy for Dolley Madison at her funeral.
The original Broadway production of The Odd Couple starred Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison and Art Carney as Felix Ungar.
Walter “Fritz” Mondale, Democrat of Minnesota, wrote a memo to his running mate, President-elect Jimmy Carter, in late 1976 clarifying his expectations for his role as Vice President in the new administration. The memo has since provided guidance and served as a template for other VPs, including Joe Biden.
Jimmy Carter’s famous “killer rabbit incident” was parodied in the Tom Paxton song I Don’t Want A Bunny Wunny
Although his name is often associated with the gospel music he focused on following his conversion to Christianity, Gary S. Paxton was involved with the recording of such novelty hits as “Alley Oop” (Paxton was one of the Hollywood Argyles) and “Monster Mash” (which he produced for Bobby “Boris” Pickett).
Boris Karloff was actually a Brit-cum-Canadian named William Henry Pratt. He was also the real-life great-nephew of Anna Leonowens, whose bogus story eventually became The King and I.
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm was a leader of the French forces during the French and Indian War, though his reputation was tarnished after the massacre at Fort William Henry, with his Indian allies ignored his commands and attacked wounded British soldiers who had surrendered.