The United States has not always had a permanent number of Supreme Court Justicies. Throughout its history, the court has had between 5 and 10 members. Since 1869 it has remained at 9, 1 chief justice and 8 associate justices.
The Cubs lost the 1945 fall classic in seven games to the Detroit Tigers.
In play: The first Roman Catholic appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court was Roger Brooke Taney, whose greatest claim to fame was writing the majority opinion in the Dred Scott case. Although my history teacher some four decades ago pronounced “Taney” to rhyme with “brainy”, Roger himself preferred to rhyme his surname with “brawny”.
The Tenth Circuit Court of 1863 created a tenth US Supreme Court justiceship, making the Court the largest it had ever been since its creation. Still, from 1863-66, the complete group of 10 justices sat together for just one week, in December 1863. War, illness and travel kept attendance below 10 until 1866, when Congress reduced the size of the Court to nine seats.
The Supreme Court of Canada has nine judges: the Chief Justice of Canada and eight puisne justices. By law, three of the judges must come from Quebec. By custom, three come from Ontario, two from the western provinces, and one from the Atlantic provinces. The only province which has never had a judge on the Court is Newfoundland & Labrador.
Two dog breeds known for being good swimmers are the Newfoundland and the Labrador.
Another dog breed known for excellent swimming ability is the Chesapeake Bay Retriever.
Ted Kennedy published a children’s book about his Portugese Water Dog named “Splash.”
The main character in the Disney movie Splash called herself Madison while on land. That is what started the trend of naming girls Madison.
Tom Hanks was a young 28 years old when Splash! was released in 1984. He hadn’t yet married Rita Wilson. He was married to first wife Samantha Lewes at the time. Hanks and Wilson married in 1988.
James Madison was one of the most active members of the Philadelphia Convention, during its daily deliberations. He also took extensive notes during each day’s proceedings, which he then stayed up into the early hours of the morning transcribing. He later said the transcribing nearly killed him, but as a result of his labours, historians have a rich source to determine how the Convention worked.
Madison subsequently succeeded his political ally, Tom Jefferson, as President of the United States. Jefferson had not been a delegate to the Convention.
The Philadelphia Eagles are the only professional American football team to ever win back-to-back championships with shutout victories. In 1948 they beat the Chicago Cardinals 7-0, and in 1949 they beat the Los Angeles Rams 14-0. To date, no Super Bowl game has ever been a shutout. The closest ever was Super Bowl VI when the Dallas Cowboys beat the Miami Dolphins 24-3.
According to songwriter Don Henly, the line “they stab it with their steely knives/but they just can’t kill the beast” in the Eagles’ song “Hotel California” is a playful nod to band Steely Dan, who had included the lyric “Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening” in their song “Everything You Did”.
After the Eagles broke up in 1980, Don Henley stated that the band would get back together “when hell freezes over”. In 1994, they released the album “Hell Freezes Over”, with a new version of “Hotel California” and the semi-hit “Get Over It”.
In the game of Monopoly, landing on the Boardwalk when it has a hotel will cost you $2,000.
Deadpan Boston comedian Steven Wright once joked, “I think it’s wrong that only one company makes Monopoly.”
John D. Rockefeller turned Standard Oil into a monopoly of petroleum products in the US. In addition to making a lot of money, he did this as a way to standardize the quality of oil products, since there were no rules as to how to make it. Different manufacturers had different processes and different grades, which made it difficult to engineer devices that used petroleum, since the same grade would not necessarily be available to all customers.
Top-hatted English rocker and perennial Parliamentary candidate of the Monster Raving Loony Party, Screaming Lord Sutch, often asked rhetorically during his campaigns, “Why is there only one Monopolies Commission?”. He also routinely gave his age as ten years less than it really was, and added “Plus VAT”.
The Republican Party snagged the U.S. Presidency in just its second try, when Abraham Lincoln of Illinois won with a plurality in 1860.
Lincoln’s mother’s maiden name was Hanks.
“Mädchen” is the German equivalent to “maiden.” It is a neuter noun.