Teller is one of the few people in the US whose passport bears a single name. “Teller” is his full identity.
Hungarian born physicist Edward Teller, widely known as “the father of the hydrogen bomb,” was a fervent advocate of the SDI (“Star Wars”) missile defene program.
Edward Teller served as a professor of physics at George Washington University from about 1935 to 1941.
Notable alumni of George Washington University include Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Colin Powel, J. Edgar Hoover, Alec Baldwin and Courtney Cox Arquette.
When Ronald Reagan was shot, he was taken to George Washington University Hospital.
George Washington was nominated by John Adams in 1775 to become commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. He left the room while the nomination was debated, and accepted with great reluctance, warning his fellow members of the Continental Congress that he did not think himself up to the challenge.
(I for one think that was an air he put on, but whatever …)
The student cheering section at George Washington University, whose teams are nicknamed the Colonials, is called “The Colonial Army”.
***Variety ***columnist Army Archerd was the first reporter to reveal that Rock Hudson was suffering from AIDS.
Roy Scherer Jr.'s screen name, Rock Hudson, was taken from the Rock of Gibraltar, and the Hudson River.
The team colors of the New York Mets are the same colors as the flag of the Dutch East India Company, who underwrote Henry Hudson’s voyage to explore the New World.
Henry Clay of Kentucky was a great Whig statesman and an early political role model of both Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. A noted orator, he served in both Houses of Congress (including as Speaker of the House) and as Secretary of State, but never won the Presidency.
In the early part of the 20th Century, a niche market emerged for high-iron content clay. The clay was sold mail order and consumed by people (the urge to eat dirt is called “geophagy”) who were anemic due to a hookworm infection.
In 1894, long before Jann Wenner, Texas humorist William Sidney Porter (better known as O. Henry) founded a magazine called Rolling Stone.
The name “O. Henry” is thought to have come from “Ohio Penitentiary”, where convicted bank embezzler Porter was the “writer in residence”.
Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan surrendered, along with his men, near East Liverpool, Ohio, after a long cavalry raid through Indiana and Ohio. He later broke out of the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, returned to the fighting and was then killed in action.
Liverpool is the third largest port in the UK after London and Bristol (though not in terms of use) and its most famous former residents included the Beatles (the Fab Four as well as Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best) and- by some accounts- Adolf Hitler*.
*Hitler’s brother Alois and his wife and son lived in Liverpool; the son, William Patrick Hitler, later claimed his Uncle Adolf lived with them there in 1913-1914 when W.P. was a baby; biographers are mixed in acceptance of this story.
The nautical vernacular “shipshape and Bristol-fashion”, meaning “everything on board is tied down and securely squared away”, comes from the record tidal range of the bay of Bristol. Ships moored there, even ways off the shore, would often run gently aground at low tide and rest on their sides, so if the cargo happened to be loose it would cause much spillage, not to mention apoplectic fits from its owner.
The Dovells’ 1961 hit “Bristol Stomp” refers to a new dance originating in the Philadelphia suburb of Bristol, PA.
Dave Bristol managed four Major League Baseball teams during his career – the Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves, and San Francisco Giants.
The Cerne-Abbas Giant in Dorset, England is a hill carving 180 ft. high with a 12 ft. erection; though often referred to as ancient its age is only verifiable to the 17th century. Some locals were very upset when a similar sized likeness of Homer Simpson(sans 12 ft erection) was carved next to it as a promotion for the Simpson movie.