The Harley-Davidson dealership in San Francisco, CA is called Dudley Perkins Harley-Davidson and is named after motorcyclist Dudley Perkins. At the time of his death, Dudley Perkins “was considered the grandest of the grand old men of motorcycling.” He was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998.
Born to a Joseph Dudley Perkins (not sure if there’s any relation) in March, 1905 was a boy named Marlin Perkins, who as an adult would host Wild Kingdom (also known as Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom).
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One of my favorite TV shows as a kid.
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Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, Republican of New York, became President upon the death of William McKinley of Ohio in 1901. He was elected President in his own right and took office for his only full term on March 4, 1905.
Theodore Herzl was the founder of modern Zionism, with his pamphlet, “The Jewish State” mapping out the course to an independent Jewish state in Palestine.
George Raymond Wagner (1915 – 1963) was an American professional wrestler best known by his ring name Gorgeous George. In the United States, during the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the 1940s-1950s.
Robert Wagner has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – for Motion Pictures at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard and for Recording at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard.
African American scientist/surveyor/almanac publisher/Thomas Jefferson correspondent Benjamin Banneker designed an early form of a reverse mortgage in the late 18th century when, being strapped for cash but not wanting to sell his farm, he deeded it to affluent friends in exchange for their allowing him to continue living there and paying him a small income from them for the rest of his life; today reverse mortgages are becoming much more popular, with Robert Wagner among the celebrity spokespersons for companies offering them.
Thomas Jefferson modeled his handwriting on the neat penmanship of his legal mentor, George Wythe. Like Wythe, Jefferson did not use any capital letters.
ETA: Source, Robert Bernstein, Thomas Jefferson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), just 'cause it seems more than a bit odd to think of thomas jefferson in the same camp as e. e. cummings.
“The Jeffersons” was a spin-off of “All In The Family”, where George and Weezy were new neighbors of the Bunkers. Other spin-offs from the show included “Maude”, “Gloria”, “Archie Bunker’s Place”, and “704 Hauser”. There were also spin-offs of the spin-offs, including “Good Times” and “Checking In”.
In George Wythe’s will he requested that Thomas Jefferson oversee the education of his ward, Michael Brown, a free biracial youth who lived in Wythe’s house and who some historians have speculated may have been his natural son. Unfortunately the child was murdered by poison along with Wythe by Wythe’s grandnephew, who was witnessed placing the poison on their food by Wythe’s free servant Lydia Broadnax, who was legally unable to testify against the murderer, thus he was acquitted.
Lydia Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound, mass-marketed to women in the late 19th century as a remedy for “female complaints” (menstrual cramps), was effective in no small part due to its high alcohol content (sales boomed during Prohibition). Pinkham herself was a high-volume letter-writer in response to her customers, and is still credited today as a pioneer in the field of women’s health on the basis of her frankness and public education about female physiology. Her home and factory in Lynn, Massachusetts are on the National Register of Historic Places.
“Lily the Pink” is a modernisation of an older folk song titled “The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham”. The lyrics celebrate the “medicinal compound” invented by Lily the Pink, and, in each verse, chronicle some extraordinary cure which it has effected.
The song was a hit for the UK comedy group The Scaffold in December 1968, becoming the #1 single in the UK singles chart for the four weeks encompassing the Christmas holidays that year. Another version of the song, released a few months later by The Irish Rovers became a minor hit for North American audiences in early 1969.
The Irish Rovers, for some strange reason, are now based in Canada.
After resigning his commission in Annapolis, Md. as commanding general of the Continental Army, George Washington rode hard to get back home to his Mount Vernon estate in time for Christmas 1783.
Mary Higgins Clark’s first published novel, Aspire to the Heavens, was the story of George & Martha Washington’s marriage. It was “remaindered as it came off the press” but it did give Clark the confidence that she could write a book and get published.
In 2002 the book was republished under the title “Mount Vernon Love Story,” and was a best seller.
