John Tyler fathered more children than any other president. He had eight children by his first wife, and seven by his second. Early in his presidency, Tyler was attacked by abolitionist publisher Joshua Leavitt, who alleged that Tyler had fathered (and sold) several sons with his slaves, prompting a response from the Tyler administration–linked newspaper The Madisonian.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of Maine, hero of the Battle of Gettysburg, lived long enough to attend the 50th anniversary commemoration ceremonies there, a century ago last month.
U2’s album The Joshua Tree, named after a monocotyledonous desert plant that is actually a yucca despite appearing to be a twisted, windblasted tree, included the hit tracks “Where the Streets Have No Name”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, and “With or Without You”.
Stephen Sills was so impressed with George Harrison’s lyrics to “Within You, Without You” that he had them carved on a stone monument in his yard
After the Revolutionary War, George Washington returned as a tourist to the sites of his victories at Trenton, Princeton, and his winter encampment at Valley Forge, as well as to the battlefields of Lexington, Concord and Saratoga, where he had not been while leading the Continental Army.
Lexington and Concord are two streets that intersect in West Hartford, Connecticut, and are perpendicular to Farmington Avenue. Children and teenagers living in this area in the 1970s were assigned to the public schools of Alfred Plant Junior High School and William H. Hall High School.
The world’s oldest high school is Edinburgh’s Royal High School, in operation since 1505.
Edinburgh Castle has been inhabited since the 9th century BC and is Scotland’s most-visited paid tourist attraction.
The Glenfinnan Monument is a popular tourist attraction on the west coast of Scotland. It marks the spot where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised the royal standard on August 19, 1745, claiming the thrones of Scotland and England on behalf of his father, the Old Pretender.
The monument is a tower, capped with a statue of an unknown Highlander. It has a narrow spiral staircase inside it and can be climbed. .
The New York Yankees were originally named the Highlanders, drawing their name from their home field, Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan, now the site of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
The athletic teams of Virginia’s Radford University, a member of the Big South Conference, are nicknamed Highlanders.
Ohio State University and Capital University both boast law schools in Columbus, Ohio.
Director/screenwriter Chris Columbus’s movies usually feature the theme of children triumphing over adults.
Chris Columbus directed the first two Harry Potter movies, and produced the third.
The explorer Christopher Columbus was a notorious cheapskate. On his famous 1492 voyage, he had promised a reward of gold to whoever saw land first. A sailor named Rodrigo de Triana was the first to see land on October 12, 1492, a small island in the present-day Bahamas that Columbus named San Salvador. But Rodrigo never got the reward. Columbus kept it for himself, telling everyone he had seen a hazy sort of light the night before. He had not spoken up because the light was indistinct. Rodrigo may have gotten hosed, but there is a nice statue of him sighting land in a park in Seville.
The Roman name of the city of Seville is Hispalis. Seville’s inhabitants are called either Sevillanos or Hispalenses.
Enrico Sevillano (Philippines/USA) is a chess grandmaster. So are a thousand other people, but their names are not Sevillano, or even Hispalense.
After the US, the Philippines has the most Boys Scouts.
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) was inspired by and modeled on the Boy Scout Association, established by Robert Baden-Powell in Britain in 1908. The BSA grew rapidly and became the largest youth organization in the United States.
During his military career, Baden-Powell would often pose as a butterfly collector, and hide depictions of military installations in his drawings of the wings of exotic insects he observed.