Due to a series of marriages and a mother, Emma of Normandy, who was married to two different kings of England (Æthelrede the Unready and Cnut), Edward the Confessor’s predecessors to the throne included a paternal half brother (Edmund), a maternal stepbrother (Harold), and a maternal half-brother (Harthacnut). Edward the Confessor was named for his father’s half-brother and predecessor, called Edward the Martyr, who was killed in a conspiracy probably headed by Queen Aelgifu, Edward the Martyr’s stepmother and Edward the Confessor’s grandmother.
When Edward IV died, his brother Richard III claimed the throne, despite the presence of Edward’s two sons. Richard first claimed that Edward IV himself was illegitimate; in essence calling his own mother (who was still alive) a slut. He later backed off that claim and said that Edward IV had a previous secret marriage before marrying the mother of his sons. No one really believed that, but since Richard had the prices imprisoned in the Tower of London, and things were going fairly peacefully domestically, no one challenged them until Henry Tudor decided to press the issue two years later.
1936 was the “Year of Three Kings” in the United Kingdom. King George V died after a long reign and was succeeded by his eldest son, who took the regnal name Edward VIII; when he abdicated to marry “the woman I love,” American divorcee Wallis Simpson, his younger brother took the throne as George VI. His eldest daughter is the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
(Bessie) Wallis Warfield had three husbands – Earl Winfield Spencer, Jr., a U.S. Navy pilot; Ernest Aldrich Simpson, a shipping executive; and the man who was briefly King Edward VIII.
Hall of Fame outfielder Dave Winfield, who was born the same day as Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard Round the World”, was the MVP of the College World Series for the U. of Minnesota - as a pitcher. He is one of three players ever to be drafted by three professional sports (the others being Mickey McCarty and Dave Logan), and the only athlete drafted by four leagues.
Professional football player Paul Warfield played for the following professional teams: the Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins of the NFL, and the Toronto Northmen and the Memphis Southmen of the WFL. The Northmen team actually never played a game and moved to Memphis. Warfield began and ended his playing career with the Cleveland Browns.
ETA: ninja’d by Elvis again! Tie-in: Warfield’s Miami Dolphins beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl VIII and became the second team besides the Packers to win back-to-back Super Bowls.
Big Brown won the 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
In Kentucky, Christian County is wet while Bourbon County is dry. Barren County has the most fertile land in the state.
The Bourbon Dynasty ended for good in France with the abdication of King Louis XVIII, in favor of “citizen king” Louis-Philippe." However, Spain’s king Juan Carlos is a Bourbon (or, in Spanish, a Borbon).
Nearly 20% of the territory of France lies outside Europe. These regions are known as DOM-TOM (overseas departments and territories), where over 2.5 million French citizens live.
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower rejected French requests for more aggressive military assistance with their colonial war in Vietnam in 1954, up to and including possible nuclear strikes against Viet Minh targets.
Aspiring rock musician Reginald Dwight answered an ad in the New Musical Express (the UK equivalent of Billboard) for a songwriter. Matched up with lyricist Bernie Taupin, he started using the stage name of “Elton John” (taken from British musicians Elton Dean and Long John Baldry) and had some success in the field.
The largest British lake is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland. It covers more than 100 square miles.
The British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, is also technically Duke (not Duchess) of both Normandy and Lancaster.
Burt Lancaster’s first TV role was a guest appearance on Sesame Street in 1969, reciting the alphabet.
Burt Ward is best known as the person Adam West would tell “To the Batmobile!” in the 1960’s TV series “Batman”. The Batmobile in the show was originally the Lincoln Futura, a one-off concept car Ford displayed at 1955 auto shows, then sold to producer George Barris, who merely added a few decorations for the show.
Last Saturday, the Batmobile sold for $4.62 million at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Batman showed the Dynamic Duo buckling their safety belts frequently, which increased safety belt usage in real life.
The namesake dysfunctional family on the long-running Fox animated comedy The Simpsons has, in recent years, typically been shown buckling up its seatbelts.
The first US patent for automobile seat beats was issued to Edward J. Claghorn of New York City on February 10, 1885. Claghorn was granted United States Patent #312,085 for a Safety-Belt for tourists, described in the patent as “designed to be applied to the person, and provided with hooks and other attachments for securing the person to a fixed object.”