Warren G. Harding was a newspaper publisher before he entered politics, and is the only one ever elected President of the United States.
Harding suffered from heart trouble, but his doctor – Charles Sawyer, a homeopath – failed to diagnose the issue despite the many symptoms. On a trip to Alaska, Harding fell ill, but his doctor traced it all to food poisoning from eating bad crab. When he reached San Francisco, he was seriously ill and died. His doctor insisted that the cause of death be listed as a cerebral hemorrhage, though most experts agree that it was heart failure, and Sawyer came up with the other diagnosis to deflect criticism from himself for not noticing the symptoms earlier.
Glen David Gold wrote a novel, Carter Beats the Devil, in which President Harding appears.
Glenn Gould was one of the most renowned interpreters of Bach’s keyboard music. Of Scottish ancestry, his family name was originally “Gold”, but his parents changed their name to “Gould” to avoid being mistaken for Jews amid the anti-Semite atmosphere of Toronto prior to WWII.
“The Simpsons” episode “22 Short Films About Springfield” and the Animaniacs short titled “Ten Short Films About Wakko Warner” are send-ups of the film “Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould”, a biographical feature structured as a set of isolated fragments.
Questions about Springfield, Illinois have come up 25 times on Jeopardy since 1984. Of those 25, six did not mention Abraham Lincoln. Of those six, only two asked about something other than the fact that Springfield is the capital of Illinois:
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The founding of this organization in 1909 was spurred by a Springfield, Illinois race riot the previous year. (The NAACP)
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This politician died on June 3, 1861, 39 days after giving a speech in Springfield, Illinois supporting the Union. (Stephen Douglas)
Stephen Douglas of Illinois and John Glenn of Ohio were both Democrats who ran for the Presidency and lost - Douglas in 1860, Glenn in 1984.
John Glenn joined the US Navy in 1942, but while in training in 1943 he was transferred to the US Marine Corps. Glenn flew the F4U Corsair in WWII.
Glenn Miller’s “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” earned him the very first gold record.
Comedian Dennis Miller was born in, and grew up in, the Pittsburgh PA area.
In 1979 Miller won $500 as a runner-up in Playboy magazine’s first annual humor competition with the following joke:
The only difference between group sex and group therapy is that in group therapy you hear about everyone’s problems, and in group sex you see them.
—Dennis Miller,Playboy Magazine, June 1979
October 22, 1844 was labeled “The Great Disappointment”, as the Messiah failed to return despite the certainty of William Miller and his followers, the Millerite movement. It was based in the “Burned-Over District” of western New York, which was a hotbed of evangelism and new religions in the 19th century.
Prior to 10/22/44, Millerites gave their property to their neighbors. After 10/22/44, some of the neighbors returned the property, and some did not.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church originated as a group of Millerites who “kept the faith” even after the Great Disappointment.
St. Paul’s Second Epistle to Timothy, meant to encourage him in the face of adversity, included a recognition and acceptance of his own death: " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
St. Paul is commonly thought to have been martyred by being executed by sword, as was his right as a Roman citizen. He was not crucified or stoned to death. Swords often appear in heraldry evoking St. Paul.
Paul McCartney is the only Beatle to graduate from Britain’s equivalent of high school.
The myths of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox include the creation of the Great Lakes, because Paul Bunyan needed a watering hole for Babe to drink from. Also, the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota were created by their footsteps when Paul Bunyan and Babe wandered around in a snow blizzard.
Much of the Paul Bunyan tales – especially his being a giant and being partnered with Babe the Blue Ox – were created as part of an advertising campaign for the Red River Lumber Company. The stories created by James MacGillivray. Though the character name had some early folklore attached to it, the “legend” as most people know it today was straight fiction, used for advertising pamphlets.
The highest-grossing IMAX film in history is *Everest *(1998) by MacGillivray Freeman Films. The film expedition was on Mt. Everest during the storm of May 1996 which claimed the lives of, among others, expedition leaders Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. Author Jon Krakauer was on Hall’s expedition, and he wrote about the tragedy in his book, Into Thin Air. Krakauer summited Everest that season.
Fawn Hall, Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North’s secretary, testified before a Congressional committee that she smuggled National Security Council documents out of the White House in her underwear as the Iran-Contra Scandal blew up.