In Alexandre Dumas’s The Vicomte of Bragelonne, the finale of the Three Musketeers series, Porthos is killed trying to escape Belle Isle; Athos dies of grief at the news of his son Raoul’s death, and D’Artagnan dies in battle, leaving only Aramis living at the end of the novel.
The Memphis Belle B-17 was one of the first B-17 United States Army Air Corps heavy bombers to complete 25 combat missions with her crew intact. The aircraft is undergoing extensive restoration at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio.
Picky, picky, picky II !
In play:
The Canadian Corps was widely considered one of the most effective armies by the end of WWI.
Ghana and Tanzania were the first two countries to receive Peace Corps Volunteers, in 1961.
Tanzania was formed by the union of two countries, Tanganyika and Zanzibar. Both of those names are way cooler than Tanzania.
Zanzibar is the name of a soul food restaurant on Shaker Square, an outdoor shopping and dining plaza, on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio.
Zanzibar is the name of an overpriced Italian restaurant on Sukhumvit Soi 11 in Bangkok.
The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 is the shortest declared war in history, lasting 40 minutes.
Lt-General Thomas Jackson of Civil War fame was nicknamed “Stonewall,” as is popularly known. But his cousin, Major-General William Jackson also had a nickname – “Mudwall.”
William, Duke of Normandy, was given a special banner by the Pope to symbolize the Vatican’s approval of his 1066 invasion of England.
William’s ancestor Rollo, a Viking, was given Normandy by King Charles the Simple in exchange for not raiding the rest of France. Per legend, he was required to kiss the king’s foot during a fealty ceremony; he did so by picking the royal foot off the ground with his hands and bringing it to his lips, forcing King Charles to fall on the ground.
King Charles II of England enjoyed strolling through London’s parks during his reign. Supposedly, this habit concerned his brother James, who considered it unsafe. It’s said that Charles II told his brother not to worry, that he was perfectly safe. “No one will assassinate me, for that would mean you became king.”
Later, James did in fact ascend to the throne, and was eventually deposed by William and Mary (his daughter and son-in-law.)
Prince Charles is the first member of the British Royal Family ever to graduate from university.
NE University Way in Seattle (next to UW) is nicknamed “The Ave.”
Oslo has a tradition of sending a Christmas tree every year to the cities of Washington, New York, London, Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Reykjavík.
After repeated warnings, President George Washington fired Pierre L’Enfant, the architect of the early Federal capital, when the touchy designer was insubordinate to the three commissioners the President had appointed to oversee his work.
Pierre Trudeau is one of the four Prime Ministers of Canada who served separated terms of office.
Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau is distantly related to Pierre Trudeau through a common ancestor exiled from France a few centuries ago. He made a reference to his distant cousin in his October 16, 1974 cartoon strip (the week’s theme was President Gerald Ford’s pardon for draft dodgers in Canada).
Casey Stengel managed three of the four New York City baseball teams that were in existence during his lifetime – the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets – and played for the fourth – the Giants (as well as the Dodgers.
Casey, in the baseball poem “Casey at the Bat,” played for the Mudville Nine.