The Grand Central Terminal in New York City was originally constructed as the terminal for the New York Central Railroad.
George Washington was first sworn in as President of the United States in New York City, and Theodore Roosevelt was born there.
Life with Father by Clarence Day recounts the adventures of the four Day brothers, growing up with their larger-than-life father in New York City at the end of the 19th century.
The Trouble with Angels, by Jane Trahey, was originally titled Life with Mother Superior.
“The Trouble with Tribbles,” one of the funnier original Star Trek episodes, was written by David Gerrold, who later was, for a time, on the writing staff of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye. The “The Trouble With Tribbles” episode attributed the development of triticale to Canada. In 1953, the University of Manitoba began the first North American triticale breeding program.
Canola was bred naturally from rapeseed at the University of Manitoba by Keith Downey and Baldur R. Stefansson in the early 1970s, and had a very different nutritional profile in addition to much less erucic acid. The name “canola” was chosen by the board of the Rapeseed Association of Canada in 1978. The “Can” part refers to Canada but the “ola” part has no real meaning despite several attempts by others to read a meaning into it.
After the success of National Lampoon’s Animal House, Mad Magazine decided to put their name on a film. The result, originally titled Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy was directed by Robert Downey, Sr., but flopped so badly that Mad paid to have their name removed from the film, and Mad Owner William Gaines wrote letters personally apologizing to anyone who sent a letter to Mad complaining about the film. Mad also did a vicious satire of the film in their own pages. Actor Ron Leibman also had his names removed from the credits.
The motto of Faber College, in National Lampoon’s Animal House, was “Knowledge Is Good.”
At 10pm on the night before finals begin at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, students stick their heads out the window and give a heartfelt (or desperate) primal scream.
The real name of Minnesota Fats, the pool shark who figured prominently in Walter Tevis’ novel ***The ***Hustler, was George Hegerman.
Minnesota Fats was a purely fictional character, but real life pool hustler Rudolf Wanderone adopted the name, used it professionally for decades, and claimed (probably falsely) that Tevis had based the character on him.
The late blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, gospel and jazz singer Etta James had been told by her mother that her father was Minnesota Fats. Wanderone never denied hooking up with the then 14-year-old Los Angeles girl, but told James he simply didn’t remember her.
Harry James had the first big name band to hire Frank Sinatra. He wanted to change Frank’s name to Frankie Satin.
Hollywood star Tallulah Bankhead once kissed President Harry Truman’s hand when they appeared together at a Democratic fundraiser.
In Henry V, Shakespeare gives King Henry several marvellous rousing speeches, including the “Once more unto the breach, dear friends” speech, in which Henry urges his men to make one final push to take Harfleur, even if they have to close up the breach in the wall with English dead.
The speech ends with Henry crying,
"I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’ "
Saint George, whose symbol is a red cross on a white field, legendarily slew a dragon and is the patron saint of England.
Fallout from Operation Upshot-Knothole nuclear testing in Nevada spread over St. George, Utah while the film The Conqueror, starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan, was being filmed there. A high percentage of the cast and crew (91 out of 220), including Wayne, were eventually diagnosed with cancer and 46 died of it.
The film sucked, too.
The Perfect Master speaks: Did John Wayne die of cancer caused by a radioactive movie set? - The Straight Dope
In play:
HMS Conqueror became the only nuclear-powered submarine to ever sink an enemy warship when she torpedoed the Argentine light cruiser General Belgrano in 1982.
The ARA General Belgrano had survived the Pearl Harbor attacks, in her previous identity as USS Phoenix, the sixth ship of the *Brooklyn *class.
General Manuel Belgrano, for whom the ship was named, designed the flag of Argentina.