The Wampanoag people occupied what is now Connecticut, Rhode Island, southern Massachusetts and eastern Long Island during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Wampanoag are part of the Algonquian people.
The name Massachusetts comes from the Massachuset Indians, speakers of an Algonquian dialect, whose name translates as “The people who live near the great hill”. That refers to Great Blue Hill just south of Boston, now the site of the transmitter for PBS TV station WGBH, whose call letters refer to it.
The Whooping Crane is North America’s tallest native bird and is endangered. To try to increase the breed’s chance of survival, wildlife services have started transferring whooping crane eggs to Sand Hill crane nests, to start a new colony of whooping cranes.
26 states (52%) were named after Native American words. The list and their meaning
Alabama - Thicket Clearers
Alaska - Great Land
Arizona - Silver Slabs
Arkansas - Down Stream People
Connecticut - Upon The Long River
Dakota - Related People
Idaho - Sunrise, It Is Morning
Illinois - Men Or Great Men
Indiana - Land Of The Indians
Iowa - Drowsy People
Kansas - People Of The South Wind
Kentucky - Hunting Ground
Massachusetts - Great Hill
Michigan - Great Water
Minnesota - Sky Tinted Water
Mississippi - Father Of Water
Missouri - Long Canoe People
Nebraska - Flat Water
New Mexico - Aztec God Mexitili
Ohio - Beautiful Valley
Oklahoma - Land Of The Red Man
Oregon - Beautiful Water
Tennessee - From Chief Tannassie
Texas - Tejas Or Allies
Utah Those - Who Dwell High Up
Wisconsin - Where Waters Gather
Wyoming - Great Plain
Native Dancer, a thoroughbred race horse known as the Grey Ghost, won 21 of 22 races he competed in. The one race he lost was the 1953 Kentucky Derby- but he rallied to win the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
The Great White Fleet battleships USS Kentucky and USS Kearsarge were sister ships, and so similar in appearance that when both were in the same port, sailors from one would sometimes mistakenly try to board the other.
Great White’s biggest hit, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” was written by Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople. So was Barry Manilow’s mellow pop hit “Ships.”
Ian Hunter’s solo effort, **All of the Good Ones are Taken **(1983), had a music video that referenced the movie Arthur.
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Early Mad Magazine had a running gag of the appearance of an avocado plant named “Arthur.”
Paul Lynde. A noted character actor with a distinctively campy and snarky persona that often poked fun at his barely in the closet homosexuality, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry MacAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie – both the stage musical and the film-version. He was also the regular “center square” guest on the game show Hollywood Squares from 1968 to 1981.
Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara played the parents of Paul’s son-in-law on The Paul Lynde Show which ran from 1972 to '73 on ABC. Paul Lynde’s character in the sitcom was named Paul Simms.
Phil Simms played his entire professional career with the New York Giants and was named Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXI, after he led the Giants to a 39–20 victory over the Denver Broncos and set the record for highest completion percentage in a super bowl, going 22 for 25.
Doug Flutie led the Toronto Argonauts to a 47-23 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the 1997 Grey Cup game. Flutie completed 30 of 38 passes for the highest Grey Cup completion percentage ever. Flutie was named MVP and, when awarded a Dodge Dakota pickup truck in a televised ceremony after the game, he turned and gave the keys to teammate Doug Masotti - noting that he already had one. He had won the MVP award (and a truck) previous year.
The National Lampoon, probably the most influential American humor magazine from the time it was founded,* was founded by three Harvard graduates, Doug Kenney, Henry Beard and Robert Hoffman, and modeled on the Harvard Lampoon.
*Mad had lost its preeminence by that time.
Henry VI: A Very Small King
The next King, Henry VI, was only one year old and was thus rather a Weak King; indeed the Barons declared that he was quite numb and vague. When he grew up, however, he was such a Good Man that he was considered a Saint, or alternatively (especially by the Barons) an imbecile.
Pepin the Younger (c. 714 – 24 September 768), also known as Pepin the Short, was the King of the Franks from 752 until his death. He was the first of the Carolingians to become King. His son, Charlemagne, was much taller and more famous.
Pepin the Short was grandson of Pepin the Fat who was grandson of Pepin the Old. All three Pepins, along with Pepin the Old’s son Grimoald, were Mayors of the Palace in Austrasia – a post that had become as powerful as the Archdukes of Austrasia or even the Kings of Neustria, but lacked a royal title (until Pepin the Short appointed himself King of All the Franks). Grimoald, to get his son named King, arranged for the Archduke Dagobert II to be tonsured and exiled into monkhood. What then became of Dagobert is a mystery.
Grimoald’s fate is not a mystery. He was seized by Clovis II, King of Neustria and Dagobert’s uncle, tortured, and executed.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and was assassinated in 1914. His children did not inherit any right to the throne; Franz Ferdinand had had to renounce it in order to marry Sophie Chotek, who wasn’t considered royal enough. His nephew, Charles, replaced him as heir presumptive and became the last Emperor before the empire was abolished.
Sophie died in the assassination, too. While driving from City Hall to the hospital an assassin (Gavrilo Princip) shot Franz Ferdinand in the neck and Sophie in the abdomen. She died less than an hour later from internal bleeding. Even after death, Sophie’s social troubles followed her. Stiff protocol would not permit her coffin to lie in state in the same chapel as a Hapsburg. Only the personal intervention of Emperor Franz Joseph allowed her coffin to lie beside her husband’s. Protocol would not be completely denied, however. Her coffin was set lower and with far less decoration, lest anyone forget her lesser station. She was not permitted to be buried in plots reserved for Hapsburg royalty, so both she and her husband were buried in crypts beneath the chapel of Franz Ferdinand’s castle.