The rock music genre popularized in the 1960’s was basically a combination of rhythm and blues, and country music. Combining rock with other music has led to more subgenres than any other type of music in history.
On February 1, 1960, four African-American college students made history just by sitting down at a whites-only lunch counter at a Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina. Service never came for the “Greensboro Four,” as they came to be known, and their peaceful demonstration drew national attention and sparked more “sit-ins” in Southern cities.
Peace out, my brothers and sisters.
The Woolworth Building, on Broadway in lower Manhattan, was the world’s tallest building from 1913 to 1930.
Cracker Jack first began putting prizes in the boxes in 1913.
Cracker Jack is considered by some food historians as the first-ever junk food. Cracker Jack’s mascots, a sailor and a dog, are named Sailor Jack and Bingo. They were first introduced in 1918. In 1908 when the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” came out, it gave Cracker Jack a boost with some free promotion because it is in the song. “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is traditionally sung at every MLB game during the seventh-inning stretch. In 1896 when Cracker Jack was first produced, the word “crackerjack” was a colloquialism that meant “of excellent quality.”
Following 9/11, it became customary to sing “God Bless America” instead at the seventh-inning stretch. Dr. Ronan Tynan, of the group the Irish Tenors, was the usual performer at Yankee Stadium, until his firing in a stupid misunderstanding led him to move to Boston. Tynan is a double amputee who was a track multiple medalist in the Paralympics.
Daniel Rodríguez, NYC’s “singing policeman” was the subject of a Cable News Network special when sang at Carnegie Hall in June of 2001. He was driving to work over the Verrazano Bridge in New York City at the time of the September 11 terrorist attack, and was two blocks away from the World Trade Center when it collapsed. He would spend the next several months working at Ground zero, interrupted only by requests to sing at official functions, memorials and media events. Rodriguez performed the national anthem “The Star Spangled Banner” at “Prayer for America” on October 23, 2001 at Yankee Stadium.
Robert Rodriguez produced and directed the film El Mariachi, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993, on a budget of only $7000, raised by borrowing from friends and family and by working as a medical test subject. Rodriguez wrote about the experience in his memoir Rebel Without a Crew.
The first “Sundance” Festival (it was called Utah/US film Festival at the time) in 1978 featured the film Deliverance.
The Chattooga River was the setting for the fictional Cahulawassee River in Deliverance. The Chattooga River serves as part of the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina after it leaves North Carolina.
Billy Redden, the actor who portrayed the banjo-playing boy in Deliverance could not play the banjo. A musician reached around from behind him for the famous “Dueling Banjos” scene.
Eric Weissberg, who played on “Dueling Banjos,” also played on Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks album.
Duelling banjos? Piffle.
What you really need are duelling bagpipes!
The bagpiper for the Boston Irish-punk band the Dropkick Murphys, currently Josh “Scruffy” Wallace and previously Joe Delaney, is nicknamed “Spicy McHaggis” for the band’s professional appearances. The name comes from a comment made on the bus by leader Ken Casey while on a tour of Scotland - he saw a McDonald’s sign for Spicy McChicken and made the inevitable Scotland joke.
The only successful drop kick in the NFL since the 1940s was by Doug Flutie, the backup quarterback of the New England Patriots, against the Miami Dolphins on January 1, 2006, for an extra point after a touchdown. Flutie had estimated “an 80 percent chance” of making the drop kick, which was called to give Flutie, 43 at the time, the opportunity to make a historic kick in his final NFL game; the drop kick was his last play in the NFL.
After the game, New England coach Bill Belichick said, “I think Doug deserves it,” and Flutie said, “I just thanked him for the opportunity.”
Doug Flutie was MVP in the 1997 Grey Cup, played in Edmonton. The Argos beat the Riders, 47-23. The Riders were the Cinderella team that year, having a losing record in the season, but managing to come in third over the hapless BC Lions. The Riders were on the road for all of the post-season, first knocking off the Stampeders in Calgary, then edging the vaunted Eskimos in the last minutes of the Western Final. A dogged contingent of Rider fans in the cheap seats on the 5 yard line went wild. Bobby Jurassin, one of the leaders in the locker room and on the field, came over to the Rider fans, put his helmet on a piece of equipment, displaying his trademark green rising sun bandanna, put his hands together, and bowed to the fans.
No-one was really surprised at the Grey Cup blowout, and really, beating the Esks in their own stadium, to take over their lockers for the Grey Cup the next week, was pretty sweet right there.
Rhodopis, an Egyptian folk tale, is considered by many to be the oldest version of Cinderella.
Walk like an Egyptian was the first song by an all-female group playing (mostly) their own instruments to top the Billboard singles chart
The Temple of Dendur, a gift of the Egyptian government to the United States in 1963, was disassembled, sent to New York City in 661 crates and reassembled at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains to this day.
The Fountain Court in the Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court, was one of Dickens’ favorite spots in London.