Chaucer’s pilgrims are going to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the shrine of Thomas a Becket, former archbishop of Canterbury. Becket had been assassinated in the cathedral in 1170, following a political disagreement with King Henry II. Pilgrimage to the shrine was a popular journey at the time the Tales were written (c. 1387-1400).
Lana Turner’s teenage daughter, Cheryl Crane, stabbed Turner’s boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato on April 4, 1958.
The “ends of man” are the four basic goals of Hinduism: Dharma. Religious Duty Artha. Earthly Gain Kama. Physical Pleasure Moksha. Spiritual Liberation
Alexander Pope’s expression of charity, “To err is human, to forgive divine” appears in An Essay on Criticism (1711).
Alec Guinness plays all of the eight members of an aristocratic family killed off in the dark comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Bert and Harry, the “Piels Brothers”, were the names of the Piels Beer drinkers whose voices were provided by Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding The Piels Beer ad first appeared in 1955.
Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227) was the grandfather of Kublai Khan (1215-1294).
In Malory’s Mane d’Arthur, the Lady of the Lake is a supernatural figure who lives in a magical lake. She steals the infant Lancelot and raises him in the lake, hence his name, Lancelot du Lac. She also awards King Arthur the sword Excalibur, which he takes from an arm reaching out of the lake. … Read more
According to Pennsylvania Dutch and French tradition, Santa’s brother’s name is Bells Nichols. He visits every home on New Year’s Eve after the children are asleep, and if plates are set out for him, he fills them with cakes and cookies.
According to a study by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, the top ten religious denominations in the United States are (with number of members in millions): Roman Catholic 53.4 Southern Baptist Convention 18.9 United Methodist 11.1 Black Baptist 8.7 Jewish 6.0 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 5.2 Presbyterian 3.6 Church of Jesus … Read more
Steve McQueen in the 1965 movie of the same name was the Cincinnati Kid. John Wayne in Stagecoach (1939) was The Ringo Kid. Gene Wilder in Blazing Saddles (1974) was The Waco Kid.
Sargent Shriver, director of the Peace Corps during John F. Kennedy’s term (1961-63), was Kennedy’s brother-in-law.
It was not Christopher Columbus or Leif Erikson who was the first known European to spot America. It was a Norseman named Biarni Heriulfson who first spotted North America around 985 A.D. Blown off course while sailing from Iceland to Greenland, he probably saw what is now Newfoundland, Canada.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, the year 1987 saw 1,781 prisoners on death row. Between 1930 and 1980, 3,862 persons were executed in the United States.
On October 29, 1929, the date of the worst crash in Wall Street history, over 16 million shares of stock were traded on the New York Stock Exchange. That day, $8-9 billion in paper value was lost.
Pittsburgh was named for William Pitt, even though Pitt never set foot in Pennsylvania. Pitt’s actions as a British war minister during the French and Indian War led to the city’s founding. He committed money and troops to the war; he mapped out a strategy that included the capture of Fort Duquesne, located where the … Read more
Art Deco got its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925. It became the dominant style of architecture and interior design in the 1920s and 1930s.
The earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906 is estimated to have measured 8.3 on the Richter scale. Four square miles of downtown San Francisco were destroyed and over 500 people died in the earthquake and subsequent fire on April 18-19, 1906.
Northrop Frye’s first book was Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (1947). The influential scholar is best known for his Anatomy of Criticism (1957), in which he introduced a critical system based on analysis of literary archetypes.
Peter Jennings was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1938. He anchored the “ABC Evening News” from 1965 to 1968. Jennings became co-anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight” in 1978, and sole anchor in 1983.
Dollar was the English spelling of the German Taler (a silver coin first issued in 1519). American colonists used the word dollar to describe the Spanish peso circulating from South America, and when it came time to devise a system of currency (in 1792), the United States government adopted the dollar as its basic monetary … Read more
The word bedlam, now used to describe a scene of uproar and confusion, was originally a contraction of Bethlehem. It referred to Saint Mary of Bethlehem, a religious house in London that was converted into a hospital for the insane in 1402. The term came to mean a lunatic asylum, one of its inmates, or … Read more
Cecil B. DeMille said, “My mind is not one that grasps the immorality of the bathroom”, defending his right to film bathtub scenes.
Lily Tomlin was a regular on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” from 1970-73.
Geronimo (1829-1909), leader of the Chiricahua Apaches, born in what is now Arizona, repeatedly defied the U.S. Army’s attempts to restrict his movements to the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona. He finally surrendered to General Nelson Miles in Skeleton County, Arizona, on September 4,1886. He spent the rest of his life in captivity.
Susan Lucci has played villainous Erica Kane on “All My Children” (ABC, 1970) since the the TV show’s debut in 1970.
John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1819) contains the line “Beauty is truth, truth beauty”.
In The Iliad (ninth century B.C.), Venus is Aeneas’s mother?
Marion Crane, played by Janet Leigh the female character murdered by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) in Psycho (1960). Her boyfriend is Sam Loomis (John Gavin) and her sister is Lila Crane (Vera Miles).
The man, John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) who set up the Standard Oil Trust also founded the University of Chicago. What university did John D. Rockefeller, Jr., found? The son (1874-1960) of John D. Rockefeller founded Rockefeller University in New York.
Mr. T’s real name on the TV series “The A-Team” was Lawrence Tero. He was born in Chicago in 1952 and appeared as Sgt. Bosco “B.A.” Baracus on “The A-Team” from 1983 to 1987.
The first U.S. military advisors were sent to South Vietnam under Dwight D. Eisenhower (served 1953-61).
Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem” (1951) refers to a “raisin in the sun”. Hughes asks: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”
Calvin Coolidge’s announcement was: “I do not choose to run for president in 1928.”
His Family by Ernest Poole won the first Pulitzer Prize in 1918.
Alfred Carl Fuller came to the United States from Norway in 1903, and after working at a variety of jobs, he began selling brushes door-to-door in 1905. By 1910, he had a staff of 25 salesmen. Over the years, Fuller adapted by expanding his line to include a variety of household cleaning products. When he … Read more
The phrase best man is of Scottish origin and recalls the days when a bridegroom simply kidnapped the woman he wanted as his bride. To help him in that task, the groom enlisted a cadre of friends. The toughest and bravest of these groomsmen was the best man. Had women kidnapped men, they might have … Read more
ABC telecast the match between Billie Jean King play Bobby Riggs at 8:00 P.M. on September 20, 1973. It was played in the Astrodome in Houston. The prize was $100,000. King won the five-set match.
Fatty Arbuckle was accused of killing Virginia Rappe. Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was accused of killing her in a drunken stupor after a Labor Day party in San Francisco in 1921, but he was acquitted of criminal charges.
As a colonel in the Libyan army, Qaddafi deposed King Idris I in a military coup in September 1969. In the following years, he expropriated Libya’s Jewish and Italian communities and nationalized foreign-owned petroleum assets.
Shirley Booth played Dolly Levi in the 1958 film version of the play The Matchmaker which was later played by Barbra Streisand. Booth won an Oscar for her performance in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952) and went on to become TV’s “Hazel” (NBC, CBS, 1961-66).
Best Foreign Language Film was introduced as a regular category in the Academy Awards in 1956. The first winner was La Strada (Italian, 1954), directed by Federico Fellini.
New Yorker Willis Carrier became interested in ventilation systems while he was still an engineering student at Cornell at the turn of the century. Shortly after his graduation, he developed his first air-cooling system for a Brooklyn printer and lithographer. The first air-conditioned movie house opened in Chicago in 1919. By the end of the … Read more
The first federal prison in America opened in Auburn, New York in 1821. To regulate prisoner activity, Auburn employed what came to be known as the Auburn system. In the hopes of instilling discipline and effecting rehabilitation, the Auburn system required inmates to work silently in groups. When not working, inmates were confined in silence … Read more
The Seven Hills of Rome are the hills on or about which Rome was built. The original city was built on the Palatine Hill. The other six hills are: the Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caefian, and Aventine.
No, the Gerber baby is not a painting of the young Humphrey Bogart. The now famous portrait was of a baby girl named Ann Turner and was sketched by artist Dorothy Hope Smith in 1928.
David Leisure was the pathological liar in the 1980s Isuzu car commercials. He has also appeared on the TV sitcom “Empty Nest” (NBC, 1988).
The Babylonian Exile took place in the sixth century B.C., after the Babylonians conquered the kingdom of Judah. Not all Jews were deported to Babylonia; in fact, there were several deportations, each one occurring after an uprising. The date of the first deportation was probably 597 or 586 B.C. The exile ended in 538 B.C., … Read more
The Armory Show of 1913, officially known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, is credited with introducing modern art to the U.S.. Held in New York City at the 69th Regiment Armory, the gigantic exhibition of about 1,600 works presented much that Americans found new, controversial, and ultimately influential. Contemporary artists represented in the … Read more
The rest of the nursery rhyme from which Ken Kesey took the title for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is: Wire, briar, limber, lock, Three geese in a flock, One flew East, one flew West, One flew over the cuckoo’s nest.
Evergreen trees and wreaths have been used as symbols of eternal life since the ancient times of the Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. After the coming of Christianity, evergreens were still used in Scandinavia, to scare away the devil. In the Middle Ages, the Christmas tree, decorated with candles and wafers (symbols of Christ and the … Read more
Only Good Deeds goes with Everyman to face Judgment. In the 1495 morality play, Everyman is deserted by Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five Wits.
In the mid-1890s, Mr. and Mrs. Pearl B. Wait of LeRoy, New York, adapted a gelatin dessert that had been patented by inventor Peter Cooper and named it Jell-O. In 1899, the Waits sold the business to Francis Woodward, founder of the Genessee Pure Food Company. By 1906, Woodward had sold $1 million worth of … Read more
According to the Book of Genesis, Ishmael is the son of Abraham and Hagar.
In 1960, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was founded to unify the members’ petroleum policies and regulate prices. The founding members were: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Since then, the following nations have also become members: Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Indonesia, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 apostles, was the first bishop of the Christian church in Rome, the office now referred to as the papacy. After Peter’s execution by the Romans in A.D. 67, Linus became bishop of Rome. Anacletus (also known as Cletus) succeeded him in about A.D. 76.
The term “mechanic” in 18th and early 19th-century America referred to a craftsman, such as a potter, blacksmith, or housewright.
Soft-shoe was one of two distinct styles of tap dancing developed in the late nineteenth century. Easy going and smooth, it required soft-soled shoes. In contrast, the fast, energetic buck-and-wing employed wooden soled shoes. The two styles merged by 1925, with metal taps added to the toes and heels.
Founded in 1780 by Zadoc Benedict, the first beaver-hat factory in America was located in Danbury, Connecticut. As late as the early 20th century, two thirds of the mills in this town were engaged in hat making.
Kosher pareve means food that is neutral. That is, fruits, vegetables, and eggs, and can be eaten with either meat or dairy products. The two other main categories of kosher food are mikhig (dairy) and fleishig (meat).
From its founding in 1979 until 1990, the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theatre and Institute for Theatre Training was located in Jupiter, Florida. Since then, the Burt Reynolds Institute for Theatre Training has moved to Tequesta, Florida, while the dinner theatre (under new ownership) has become the Jupiter Dinner Theatre.
The phrase “meatless Mondays” originated in World War I. Herbert Hoover, director of the Food Administration, urged Americans to observe “meatless Mondays” and “wheat-less Wednesdays” to conserve food for the war.
Dr. Faustus, the scholar who sells his soul to Satan is torn apart by devils at the end of Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus.
Catherine Coulson played the Log Lady on the TV series “Twin Peaks” (ABC, 1990-91).
The acrobatic dancers the Nicholas brothers, who appeared in films like Down Argentine Way (1941), Stormy Weather (1943), and The Pirate (1948), were named Fayard and Harold Nicholas.
The Motion Picture Association of America started the Code and Rating Administration Board in 1968.
The two largest U.S. labor unions, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, became the AFL-CIO on December 5, 1955. The merger created a combined membership estimated at 15 million.
The Last House on the Left (1972), was advertised with the line, “To avoid fainting, keep repeating: “It’s only a movie, It’s only a movie”.
Big Ben in London is not a clock. It is a 13.5-ton bell in the clock tower of England’s Houses of Parliament. Cast in 1858, the bell’s installation was directed by the rotund Sir Benjamin Hall, commissioner of works. The bell was originally to be called Saint Stephen’s, but the British newspapers renamed it Big … Read more
Growth hormones called auxins makes houseplants turn toward the light. When light falls on one side of a plant, the auxins tend to concentrate on the shaded side, causing the cells on that side to grow longer. As a result, the plant gradually leans toward the light. This bending movement in response to an outside … Read more
According to Aristotle, intuition and harmony leads a writer to create. In the Poetics (335-322 B.c.), he writes: “[T]he instinct of intuition is implanted in man from childhood . . . and through intuition he learns his earliest lessons. . . . Next there is the instinct for ‘harmony’ and rhythm, meters being manifestly sections … Read more
Neal Hefti composed the eminently hummable theme for TV’s “Batman” (ABC, 1966-68). Danny Elfman wrote the score for the 1989 movie.
The name A&P is an abbreviation for the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. One of the nation’s top grocery chains, it was founded in New York in 1859 by George Huntington Harford and George P. Gilman as the Great American Tea Company. It was renamed in 1869 to take advantage of national interest in … Read more
The studio was fined $25,000 if a movie did not meet with the requirements of the Hays Code. It might also be condemned by the Legion of Decency or boycotted. The Motion Picture Production Code (nicknamed the Hays Code for the first director of the Motion Picture Association of America [MPAA], Will H. Hays) was … Read more
Nine people were in the lifeboat in the movie Lifeboat (1943). The actors playing them were Heather Angel, Mary Anderson, Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, Hume Cronyn, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Canada Lee, and Walter Slezak.
Imprisoned for nearly two years after a questionable 1914 murder conviction in Utah, Hill was executed on November 14, 1915. The night before the execution, he cabled friend and IWW cofounder “Big Bill” Haywood, “Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organize.”
No, the word shyster did not come from Shakespeare’s Shy-lock. It came from a Mr. Scheuster, an unscrupulous American criminal lawyer in the 1840s.
Making their debut in Soup to Nuts (1930), the Three Stooges were Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and a string of actors in the third role: Shemp Howard, Jerry “Curly” Howard, Joe Besser, and Joe De Rita.
The rebels of “Pontiac’s Rebellion” were an alliance of American Indian tribes of the Great lakes region, including the Chippewa, Potawatomi, Huron, Shawnee, Delaware, and Seneca. In 1763, they made war against the British, who had just taken over the territory from the French. The rebellion was mostly defeated by 1764. However, Pontiac, an Ottawa … Read more
Union deaths from battle or disease totalled 364, 511 in the Civil War. Authoritative figures for the Confederacy are not available, but most estimates range around 260,000. The total of 620,000 deaths makes this conflict the bloodiest in the nation’s history, not excluding World War II, in which 405,399 Americans died.
It took the New York World’s Fair and imminent war in Europe to bring British royalty across the Atlantic. On June 7, 1939, King George VI and the future Queen Elizabeth II crossed the border from Canada to Niagara Falls, then traveled to Washington, D.C., for lunch with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Later they went … Read more
Yes. Within the span of a few days in April 1861, Lee was offered command of both the Union and Confederate forces. Although he opposed slavery and secession and believed the South could not win, his loyalty to his home state of Virginia led him to accept the Confederate command.
Charles Laughton played Captain Kidd twice, in Captain Kidd (1945) and in Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952).
“The Naked City” was New York City, where the ABC police drama was set and shot from 1958 to 1963.
No. Batman has no superpowers. He is, however, the master of every known martial art and an accomplished scientist and detective.
The unofficial group of advisors to President Andrew Jackson, active mainly during his first term (1829-1833), included: Amos Kennedy, newspaper editor from Kentucky Andrew J. Donelson, Jackson’s personal secretary William B. Lewis, an old military comrade Martin Van Buren, secretary of state John H. Eaton, secretary of war Duff Green, newspaper editor; replaced in midterm … Read more
President Lyndon Johnson’s first lady was born Claudia Alta Taylor.
The twelve jurors in the 12 Angry Men were played by: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley, E. G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Joseph Sweeney, George Voskovec, and Robert Webber.
The granite-laden mountain called Mount Rushmore is said to be named for 19th-century New York attorney Charles E. Rushmore. Legend holds that while Rushmore was visiting the Black Hills on business related to his mining clients, he asked the name of a nearby mountain. One member of his group joked, “Why, that is Mount Rushmore,” … Read more
