The discovery of a 17-pound gold nugget near Charlotte, North Carolina in 1799 drew many immigrants to the area in what became the nation’s first gold rush. However, the boom was short-lived.
John Adams was President of the United States in 1799. He would lose his bid for reelection the next year to his Vice President (and ardent political foe), Thomas Jefferson.
Playing off Joe Namath’s nickname of “Broadway Joe”, quarterback Joe Gilliam was dubbed “Jefferson Street Joe” in honor of a street on the campus of Tennessee State University. Gilliam played for Tennessee State before joining the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL.
In November, 1963, Saskatchewan quarterback Ron Lancaster won “The Little Miracle of Taylor Field.”
Back then, the western conference semi-final was a two-game affair, with the team with the most points advancing to the western finals.
The first game was played in Calgary, with the Stamps smoking the Riders, 35-9. With a 24 point advantage, the Stamps were favoured to go on to the conference finals, after the formality of playing the second game, two days later in Regina.
In the second game at Taylor Field, Lancaster threw for 492 yards and five touchdowns, with a final score of Riders 39, Stamps 12.
Two day totals: Riders 48, Stamps 47. By exactly one point, Lancaster led the Riders off to the Western Finals.
(Sadly, they lost 2-1 to B.C. in the three game Finals, played over eight days - a punishing play-off format unheard of today.)
The Avro Lancaster was a British heavy bomber during World War II. It dropped 681,645 short tons of bombs on European targets during the war. The American Boeing B-17 dropped 640,036 short tons on European targets during the war.
Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry IV and grandson of John of Gaunt, was the last Duke of Lancaster. Unlike the contemporaneous title “Duke of York,” it has never since been used as a royal title.
Jazz musician Duke Ellington’s given birth name was Edward Kennedy Ellington. He got his nickname during his elementary school years when his friends recognized “his casual, offhand manner, his easy grace, and his dapper dress gave him the bearing of a young nobleman” and they started calling him Duke.
Edward, the Black Prince, was the first English Duke, being named Duke of Cornwall by his father, Edward III.
The title Duke of Cornwall has ever since been the title of the eldest son of the monarch. It is currently held by Charles, Prince of Wales.
The only Rose Bowl played outside of California was played at Duke University in 1942.
Rose Marie (Sally on* The Dick Van Dyke Show*) was born out of wedlock in New York, and her parents never married. Her father, a shadowy character with gangland connections, had a second wife, kids, and house, and commuted between his two families.
Dick Van Dyke was born in West Plains, MO and grew up in Danville, IL. In World War II he was a radio announcer in the US Army Air Corps.
The facial hair style combining a mustache and a chin-only beard in a single, connected shape, commonly known as a goatee, is actually a Van Dyke (spellings vary). It is named for named after 17th century Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck, whose subjects often wore them. A goatee is the chin beard only, without the mustache.
Four songs from Galt McDermott’s musical ***Hair *** reached the Billboard Top Ten: the Cowsills’ version of the title tune, the 5th Dimension’s version of “Aquarius,” Three Dog Night’s version of “Easy to Be Hard,” and Oliver’s version of “Good Morning Starshine.”
The Fifth Dimension included not one but two former winners of the talent portion of the Miss Bronze California pageant - lead singer Marilyn McCoo and backup Florence LaRue.
Florence Henderson filed lawsuits against two companies because of the unauthorized use of her photo – Serial Killer Inc had been using her face on a T-shirt with the tag “Porn Queen” underneath,while a Cotati, California gift shop also used her picture in an ad.
Florence Ballard was fired from the Supremes, whom she’d been with since high school, by Motown’s Berry Gordy due to her drug addiction, and was replaced by Cyndi Birdsong. Ballard was eventually found dead in a crack house. The incident was fictionalized in the Broadway musical Dreamgirls.
The first Justice to be fully vested as a member of the US Supreme Court was James Wilson, who took his oaths on October 5, 1789.
The first superhero team in comic book history was the Justice Society of America, using back-up heroes from DC and All American Publications (both owned by the same people). It was made up of heroes from the two companies who didn’t have their own books and, for awhile, any member who was given their own book was to leave. The only early exception to this was Wonder Woman, who was named the group’s secretary and often didn’t take part in the adventures.
When Marvel Comics began its boom in the 1960’s they had a problem: their producer (not Stan Lee) had managed to alienate all the major printers in New York City except one: National Comics, which was the competitor. So for the first few years Marvel’s comics were printed by DC, which insisted that Marvel keep their superhero titles to a limited number (I don’t recall if this was 6 or 8), which is why Marvel had two-in-one titles featuring a story of Captain America AND one with Iron Man; Dr. Strange and Nick Fury; the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner.
Submariners traditionally call their vessels boats, not ships, because ships are targets.