Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best as drummer of The Beatles in 1962, just before they really hit it big. He generally sang at least one song on each studio album. “Yellow Submarine”, “With a Little Help From My Friends”, “Octopus’s Garden” and “Don’t Pass Me By” are some of the songs he sang lead on.
Dollar for dollar and man for man, the submarine is America’s most economical weapon. Comprising only 1.6% of the Navy’s World War II personnel, the submarine service accounted for 55% of all enemy shipping destroyed.
Years before starring in the comedy Operation Petticoat as a smarmy submarine officer, Tony Curtis served in the U.S. Navy on an actual World War 2 submarine tender ship.
John Wayne starred in 14 World war II films between 1942 and 1966.
Mrs. Miniver, a 1942 film set during the Blitzkrieg in the UK, won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In the eyes of this reviewer, an excellent film that’s surprisingly funny, even though it’s a thinly-veiled propaganda “go out and support our British allies” film.
Mrs. Miniver’s Academy Awards also include Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director.
Katherine Hepburn has never even been nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Nevertheless her four Academy Awards, including one for a film she made in her mid-20’s and another for a film she made in her mid-70’s, are record-setting.
Oscar Wilde’s best known male lover, Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, was the son of the Marquess of Queensberry, who established the rules of modern boxing.
Junkanoo is a street festival celebrated in originally in the Bahamas on Boxing Day, December 26. Participants dress up in colorful costumes made of crepe paper over cardboard and the traditional festival starts after midnight and goes on until dawn (though the hours have changed to accommodate tourists).
In South Africa, Boxing Day was renamed Day of Goodwill in 1994. In Ireland it is recognized as St. Stephen’s Day.
Long ago, it was customary for little Irish boys to kill a wren on St. Stephen’s Day, then take it from door to door, collecting money… supposedly to pay for its funeral.
The Stephens Island (New Zealand) Wren is an extinct species of bird.
In 1894, a Mr. D. Lyall went to the island to be the lighthouse keeper, and he took his cat along for companionship. One day Lyall opened the lighthouse door to find that his intrepid cat had brought home a strange bird, which the lighthouse keeper managed to pry out of the feline’s mouth and pack off to England. Lord Walter Rothschild, a member of the British Ornithological Club, eventually acquired the specimen, established the wren’s classification, and named it Traversia lyalli. During the next few weeks Lyall’s cat delivered about a dozen more birds, and then the supply was exhausted. Lyall dutifully saved each body, and his diligence is responsible for the number of specimens in the world’s museums. This is probably the only case in which a cat was responsible for both the discovery and the extermination of species of bird.
Jimmy Seals of Seals and Crofts had a younger brother, Daniel. This brother took the stage name “England Dan,” because he was a huge fan of the Beatles. After having several soft-rock hits with John Ford Coley, he became a successful country singer as Dan Seals.
Darrell Crofts got the nickname “Dash” because his twin sister was “Dot.”
Little Dot was a Harvey comics character with a fetish for polka dots.
The redoubtable British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was known for wearing polka-dotted ties. Today, you can wear one of your own: http://www.bensilver.com/BJ38-Churchill-Dot-Bow-In-Navy,2899.html
John Lennon’s given middle name was Winston, and he sometimes used the alias “Doctor Winston O’Boogie.” After he married Yoko Ono, he changed his middle name to Ono."
In 1973, Winston Llenas of the California Angels led the American League with 56 at-bats as a pinch-hitter and 16 pinch-hits.
In a popular Sherlock Holmes story, The Red Headed League was established as a ploy to get a gullible pawnbroker out of his shop so his crooked assistant could tunnel into a bank vault from the pawn shop’s cellar.
The character of Sherlock Holmes was at least partially inspired by Dr. Joseph Bell.