Canada was the first foreign country invaded by United States, with the attempt to capture Quebec.
The Ohio and Mississippi Rivers join near the present-day City of Cairo, at the southernmost corner of Great Britain’s old Province of Quebec. At the juncture, more water arrives from the Ohio than from the upper Mississippi.
Cairo (pronounced “KAY-ro” by the locals), Ill. was a major base of the U.S. Army during the Civil War, and gave its name to an ironclad, the USS Cairo, which was sunk by a Confederate mine on the Yazoo River. The remains of the Cairo are now displayed at Vicksburg, Miss.
The two sides of the English Civil War were the cavaliers, who supported King Charles I, and the roundheads, who supported parliament and were led by Oliver Cromwell. The “roundhead” epithet was given because the parliamentarians kept their hair cropped short, as opposed to the flowing locks of the cavaliers.
The English Civil War and the unhappy reign of King Charles I form the backdrop to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story, “The Musgrave Ritual.”
The Musgrave family pedigree has a royal feature: Richard Musgrave (d. 1491) is shown with mother Alice Plantagenet, who was niece of Edmund Mortimer (legitimate King of England) and aunt of King Richard III.
The problem is: Experts conclude that no such Alice Plantagenet ever existed. :smack:
The name Plantagenet comes from the legend that the founder of the dynasty, Geoffrey V of Anjou, often wore a sprig of broom in his hat. The Latin name for broom is Planta genista. However, there is little evidence that the name was used until adopted by Richard, Duke of York, father of Edward IV and Richard III. It has since been applied retrospectively to the dynasty.
Edward IV’s personal symbol was “the sun in splendor,” chosen after his victory in the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross. Before the battle, his forces noted three suns in the sky – a meteorological phenomenon called a “sun dog,” where ice crystals in the sky create an effect of multiple suns. His troops were fearful of the sign, but Edward told them it was a heavenly sign of their upcoming victory. Shakespeare knew of this, and was making a reference in the line “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York.” (“Sun” is sometimes written as “son,” but the pun and reference is the same).
Although his son died without issue, Edward IV is the ancestor of all subsequent English and United Kingdom monarchs, except for his brother, Richard III, and his distant cousin, Henry VII, who married Edward’s daughter.
While hosting Family Feud, Richard Dawson totally lost it when a woman answered the question “In what month does a pregnant woman start to show?” with September
The single bloodiest day in American military history was the Battle of Antietam, fought near Sharpsburg, Md., on Sept. 17, 1862.
The bloodiest single battle ever fought in the British Isles was probably the “Battle of Watling Street”, ca 61 AD, in which the army of Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, was decisively defeated by a much smaller Roman army led by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus.
Boadicea had killed tens of thousands prior to this Battle, waging war after she and her daughters were humiliated by Roman military commanders. After she destroyed two of the largest cities in Britain, Nero had considered abandoning the Island altogether.
A statue of Boadicea and her daughters stands near the Palace of Westminster (more commonly known as the Houses of Parliament) in London. The statue briefly appears in the 1987 Granada Television adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes story “The Sign of Four,” as Holmes prepares to board a Thames River steam launch.
Camp Granada was the fictional summer camp in Allan Sherman’s hit song, “Hello, Muddah; Hello, Faddah,” sung to the tune of Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours”.
You remember Leonard Skinner
He taught gym to famous never-Grammy winners.
Artists who have won at least two Grammy Awards include Al Franken and Senator Barack Obama.
“Senator” Edward Ford was a vaudeville and radio comedian, best known as the creator of the long-running radio show Can You Top This?, where listeners would send it jokes and a panel would then try to tell funnier jokes (as judged by audience reaction). After the show’s run, he retired to Southold, NY.
Announcer Kenny Delmar played the character Senator Claghorn on Fred Allen’s radio show. Claghorn’s character and accent are thought to be the inspiration for the cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn.
Fred Vinson, Chief Justice of the United States, died not long after the Brown v. Board of Education case arrived at the Supreme Court. He was succeeded by Earl Warren, who was able to persuade a unanimous court to support school desegregation.
Actor James Earl Jones was invited to speak at the Lauderhill, Florida 2002 Martin Luther King Day celebration. To commemerate the occasion, a plaque was ordered. When it arrived, the townspeople were horrified that it was made out to James Earl Ray, King’s assassin.