The explosion of the battleship USS Maine in Havana was the casus belli for the Spanish-American War.
The USS Missouri, on which the Japanese surrender was signed, was the last battleship in the world to be decommssioned on March 31, 1992.
In the game of Battleship, it takes 5 hits to sink an aircraft carrier, but only 2 hits to sink a PT boat.
Chrysler released the PT Cruiser for the 2000 model year.
Lee Iacocca led Chrysler through the late 1970s and early 1980s, appearing in many of its ads, and was widely mentioned as a possible candidate for President.
Manchurian Candidate, starring Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury, was about a Presidential candidate.
The Manchurian Candidate was remade in 2004 and starred Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Liev Schrieber.
Denzel Washington played an escaped slave in the 1989 Edward Zwick-directed drama Glory, winning an Oscar in what is considered by many to be the finest Civil War movie ever made.
During the Japanese occupation, Manchuria was named “Manchukuo”.
In the book Random Harvest by James Hilton, the woman with whom Conway falls in love is a Manchurian. In the film, she is played by Jane Wyatt.
Jane Wyatt played Amanda, the mother of Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy. She also appeared on Father Knows Best. She died in 2006.
… upon realizing a timestamp problem …
The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (which should be named the 54th Regiment Memorial), featured in the closing scene of “Glory”, is on Boston Common, directly across from the State House. Shaw was buried in a trench with his men near Fort Wagner, SC, unlike most Union officers who were given what the Confederate general called “honorable burials”.
Robert Lowell’s poem “To the Union Dead” referred to the memorial:
"Two months after marching through Boston,
half of the regiment was dead;
at the dedication,
William James could almost hear the bronze Negroes breathe.
Their monument sticks like a fishbone
in the city’s throat."
ETA: Disregard 
Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Spock, got the “Vulcan salute” (pinky with ring, index with middle, spread in a V with the thumb out) from watching the rabbi(?) as a boy make the initial letter of Yahweh during his blessing (the congregation isn’t supposed to look during that, but little boys in church/synagogue can’t keep their eyes closed and pay attention)
Comedian Jackie Mason is a rabbi, as were his father and brothers.
Jackie Mason provided the voice of Rabbi Hyman Krustovski, father of Krusty the Klown (Herschel Krustovski), on “The Simpsons”.
Yes, back to that. 
Krusty the clown has a superfluous thrid nipple, as does singer Lily Allen.
Krusty’s illegitimate half brother is Luke Perry, star of Beverly Hills 90210.
Perry is a family pet platyus/secret agent on the children’s program Phineas & Ferb on the Disney Channel. His superior often calls him “Agent P.”
Cartoonist and entrepreneur Walt Disney was not, contrary to persistent rumor, cryogenically frozen and placed in a capsule beneath Disney World after his death.
“Friends of P” was a song released by The Rentals, fronted by Weezer bassist Matt Sharp, in 1995