In 1998 Richard Borcherds was one of four mathematicians awarded the the Fields Medal, sometimes described as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics.
W. C. Fields reputedly so deeply resented intrusions on his privacy by curious tourists walking up the driveway to his Los Angeles home that he would hide in the shrubs by his house and fire BB pellets at the trespassers’ legs.
B.B. King , considered one of the best guitarists of all time and a 1987 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, was born Riley B. King.
St. Michael’s Cave located inside the Rock of Gibraltar was prepared for use as a military hospital during World War II. It was never used.
For airplanes to land at Gibraltar International Airport, Winston Churchill Avenue, the access road from the mainland, must be closed in both directions with crossing gates, since it crosses the runway.
The 1982 World’s Fair, formally known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition featured the Sunsphere as its signature building. The Sunsphere is now home to a restaurant and bar, not a wig store warehouse as portrayed in The Simpsons.
The Belgian pavilion of the 1964-64 New York (unofficial) World’s Fair was not completed until the final day of the 1964 season.
U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, Republican of Arizona, was badly defeated by incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, Democrat of Texas, in the election of 1964.
Years after scandals shut down the game show "Twenty One, " Jack Barry and Dan Enright made a big comeback with the daytime quiz show “Joker’s Wild.”
The Joker and the Thief are the two persons sharing a conversation in Bob Dylan’s song “All Along the Watchtower”, which figured prominently in the reboot of “Battlestar Galactica”.
The name of the Joker card probably comes from Jucker, the original German spelling of Euchre. The card was originally introduced in about 1860 for games of that family to be used as the highest trump. Catherine Perry Hargrave documents jokers from 1862-65 in her book A History of Playing Cards. The 1862 card has a tiger on it and the label “Highest Trump”, while the one from 1865 is inscribed “This card takes either Bower” and “Imperial Bower” or “Highest Trump Card”. An alternate theory is the Joker was originally developed for poker as a wild card, but this has been largely discredited in favor of the Euchre theory. Confusion on this issue may stem from the fact that both games spread simultaneously northward on the Mississippi. The Joker came to be represented as a clown or court jester by the 1880s due to its assumed name and also probably borrowing from the Fool in tarot cards.
Jim Perry and his brother Gaylord both won the American League Cy Young award.
Tim Lincecum is the first pitcher in history to win the Cy Young award in each of his first two full MLB seasons.
Harry Vanda and George Young were former members of the Easybeats who formed the studio group “Flash and the Pan,” which put out a couple of albums in the 80s. Young is the older brother of Angus Young of AC/DC.
Baseball manager Charles D. Stengel was nicknamed “Casey” because he came from KC (Kansas City).
Conversely, singer/songwriter Harry W. Casey was nicknamed “KC”- he scored a number of disco hits as leader of the Sunshine Band.
In 1969 Anita Bryant became a spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Commission, and nationally televised commercials featured her singing “Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree” and stating the commercials’ tagline: “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
In the 1960s, Pillsbury began selling Funny Face fruit drink mixes, to compete with Kool-Aid. Their original flavors were Goofy Grape, Injun Orange, Freckle-Face Strawberry, Chinese Cherry, Loudmouth Lime and Rootin’ Tootin’ Raspberry. However, complaints about racial stereotyping led to the renaming of two flavors, which became Jolly Ollie Orange and Choo Choo Cherry.
The Ford Maverick, which was introduced for the 1970 auto year, was available in paint colors including Anti-Establish Mint, Hulla Blue, Original Cinnamon, Freudian Gilt, Thanks Vermillion — along with more pedestrian names, including Black Jade, Champagne Gold, Gulfstream Aqua, Meadowlark Yellow, Brittany Blue, Lime Gold, Dresden Blue, Raven Black, Wimbledon White, and Candyapple Red.
In Shakespeare’s play, ''King John", he orders Hubert to execute his nephew, Arthur Duke of Brittany, who has become a focal point for rebellions and for a French challenge to John’s rule. Hubert doesn’t have the heart to kill the young boy, but Arthur dies anyway, falling from a wall.
In reality, it is not known how Arthur died, while in captivity.
Beatrice Arthur played Yenta the matchmaker in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof. Future game show host Bert Convy played Perchik, the radical student.