The flag which Continental Navy Capt. John Paul Jones flew after his 1779 defeat of the British frigate HMS Serapis is perhaps one of the most distinctive early American flags, and replicas are now available commercially.
As of this posting, $17.79 is the equivalent of 13.10 Euros.
In 1779 Spain declares war on England during the American revolution.
When informed of the approach of the Spanish Armada whilst he was lawn bowling at Plymouth, Sir Francis Drake allegedy replied “There is still time to finish the game and then defeat the Spaniards.” Or words to that effect; no cite for it is reliable.
On November 21, 2012, Hostess Brands Inc. went out of business. There has been no further production of Ding Dongs, Twinkies, or any snack products produced under the Drake or Dolley Madison labels.
The Fifth Estate has a hit single in 1967 with their version of “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead.” The song reached #11 and is still the highest charting single of any song from The Wizard of Oz and from composer Harold Arlen.
The dong is the legal currency of Vietnam.
By about 1000 BC, the development of wet-rice cultivation and bronze casting in the Ma River and Red River floodplains of Viet Nam led to the flourishing of the Đông Sơn culture, notable for its elaborate bronze drums.
The Vietnamese written language is not based on the Chinese language, but on the Latin.
One of the Westernizing reforms introduced by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, was to change the alphabet used in the Turkish language from Arabic to Latin, to better tie the country into Europe. Others included separating church from state, and eliminating gender segregation and the public veiling of women.
According to Edward Lear’s most famous poem, the Owl and the Pussycat were married by a turkey who lived on the hill.
According to the Debbie Reynolds / Carleton Carpenter song “Aba Daba Honeymoon”, the monkey and the chimp were married by the big baboon one night in June.
Actress Debbie Reynolds, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, protest singer Phil Ochs and ***Star Trek ***creator Gene Roddenberry were all born in El Paso, Texas.
Doris Day was offered the chance to play Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, but turned it down. Some stories said her manager never passed the offer to her, but she confirms that she didn’t want it.
The ending of The Graduate was spoofed on a recent episode of the FX animated spy comedy Archer, as two androids run away from the “female”'s wedding and end up sitting together at the back of a city bus.
Nearly every general officer of note from either army during the Civil War was a graduate of West Point, and a West Point graduate commanded the forces of one or both sides in every one of the 60 major battles of the war.
The Turning Point and ***The Color Purple ***share the unusual distinction of receiving 11 Oscar nominations apiece, but not winning any Oscars.
Linda Hunt was the first actress to win an Oscar for playing a member of the opposite sex, alongside Mel Gibson in The Year Of Living Dangerously (1983).
[Hilary Swank is often considered the second, in Boys Don’t Cry (1999), but really, her character wa still biologically female, so I’m not sure that counts.]
Helen Hunt was born on June 15, 1963 in southern California. She studied ballet dancing, and she attended UCLA.
Helen Hunt guest starred on The Bionic Woman in an episode called “Sanctuary Earth”.