Suddenly, I think of Baghbad Betty.... who made "Bart Simpson is making love to your wife" quote. I do not know if it was an urban legend or real.
The Wilson Desk was used by both President Nixon and president Ford. Nixon chose the desk for the Oval Office because he believed that President Woodrow Wilson once used it. In 1969, President Nixon even mentioned the desk in his famous "Silent majority speech" while mentioning Woodrow Wilson. Later, he was corrected by his speech write William Safire that the desk was actually used by Henry Wilson, the vice president under U.S Grant. However, according to Wikipedia, the desk was not ordered until 22 years after Henry Wilson's death.
I always wanted to know where George Lincoln Rockwell got his middle name. I googled it and it was not his mother's maiden name.
Alessandro de' Medici was the last member of the "senior" branch of the Medici to rule Florence and the first to be a hereditary duke. On paper, he was recognized as the only son of Lorenzo II de' Medici, but most scholars believed that he was the illegitimate son of Pope Clement VII and a Black servant girl. Yes, I was thinking of Thomas Jefferson when I first saw it.
I am reading Doug Wead's book, "All the Presidents' Children". It got a lot of useless, stories about US Presidents and their children. i have not finished it yet. Here are some: -- William Henry Harrison and his wife had 10 children. Nine of them survived until adulthood. However, all except one died young. Harrison was elected in late, 1840, but he lost three adult children between 1838 and 1840. Basically, he was running the entire campaign while morning the death of his children. He also lost a daughter in 1826 and a son in 1830. Both were also adults. His wife Anna Harrison never went to Washington because she was still mourning the death of their last children. Of course, President Harrison died on his 32nd day in office(this is well-known). Three more would die between 1842 and 1846. He would have lost more adult children while in office. By 1846, only one son survived. John Scott Harrison's son was Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the US.
John Tyler became the President after Harrison died in office. His wife Letitia Christian Tyler died in 1842 and his daughter Letitia Tyler Semple became the "acting" First Lady. Shortly afterward, Julia Gardiner, a socialite from New York, arrived in Washington. She caused a sensation in Washington. Many of the most eligible bachelors tried to ask for her hands. One of John Tyler's sons was pursuing her. To cut the story short, President Tyler met and married Julia Gardiner in a secret wedding in 1844. She was 30 years younger than Tyler. None of Tyler's daughters accepted the new stepmother. Letitia Tyler Semple was especailly unhappy that she had lost her duty as the "White House" hostess. In time, all of Tyler's children accepted Julia, but Letitia Semple never did. During the Civil War, Julia Gardiner started to form a relationship with Letita's husband, James Semple, during the Civil War. The relationship continued until after the War..... Semple was very active in the Southern cause after the War. He was hiding with Julia Gardiner. It was belived to be a romantic relationship.
After the French Revolution, card games used the ace or 1 as the highest card, symbolizing the lowest in society rising above the King.— know (@Know) March 31, 2013
http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?p=1725872 The problem in ascertaining a claim like this one is that: a) What constituted a deck of playing cards varied from region to region hundreds of years ago; there wasn't one universally accepted standard. b) Playing cards are used for many different games and therefore don't have any inherent ranking relative to each other; the ranking depends on the rules of whatever game you happen to be playing.
The reason why I tend to believe it is I'm from West-Flanders and we were heavily influenced culturally and linguistically by France. In all our local card games, the ace is the highest card.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vaul...17_tip_sheet_for_dancers.html?wpisrc=obinsite A "tip sheet for dancers" from 1817. The article suggests the last illustration provides pointers for someone who had too much to drink. Which makes me think that "fainting" should perhaps be "passing out"
This was from Canada. The team was the Windsor Swastikas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Swastikas
I wonder if Windsor was mainly a place for young U.S. teenagers to go get drunk and frequent titty bars back then too.
Apparently, that's Windsor, Nova Scotia. It is funny how, for me anyway, my mind just assumes those guys are basically Eichmann and Goebbels on skates, and I have to remind myself that the swastika didn't have the same connotations then. When I used to work at a college library, each year a student worker would be shockrd upon coming across the complete works of Rudyard Kipling...
It was well-known that Jefferson, Adams and Madison all died on July 4th. So three of our first five US Presidents died on Independence Day. Zachary Taylor did not die on July 4th, but on July 9th. It was reported that he ate a lot of cold milk, iced water, and cherries while attending a July 4th party in Washington, DC. When he returned home, he had stomach cramps and never recovered. He died on July 9th. So that is four out of the first 10 US Presidents who died on July 4th related situations. Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln's vice-president between 1861 and 1865, also died on July 4th. He almost became a US President. Lincoln died about a month after the beginning of his second term or about a month after Hamlin stepped down as Vice-President. He almost became the President. Also, the Battle of Gettysburg ended on July 4th.
Helen Keller to Book Burning Nazis: Bite Me In mid-May 1933, Americans learned that students in German universities planned to burn a long list of books deemed “un-German.” Helen Keller, whose How I Became a Socialist was on this list, wrote this open letter to the students a day before the burning took place. Keller, who’s now remembered as a gentle, uncomplicated symbol of persistence in the face of lifelong deafness and blindness, was a radical thinker and activist in her time. While Keller was born into an influential and wealthy Southern family, her activism on behalf of blind people, many of whom lived in poverty, caused her to turn to the writings of H.G. Wells and Karl Marx. She eventually became a socialist, a women’s rights activist, an early supporter of the NAACP and the ACLU, and an advocate for free availability of birth control.
The British Royal Family is rumored to be descended from Genghis Khan. However, the line went through Genghis Khan's first son, Juchi. Genghis Khan's wife was kidnapped by rival tribesmen before the birth of Juchi. The Juchi line was ruled out of succession because his bloodline was questioned and contested by the other sons. The British Royal Family is also rumored to be descended from Prophet Muhammad. Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile had a wife named Zaida whom some claimed to be from the Moorish Royal house on Sevilla and a descendant of: Prophet Muhammad. They were linked to the British Family. I googled the topic for a long time and it seemed the identity of Zaida is still unknown. No one seemed to know if Alfonson had any kid witj Zaida. The British Royal Famiy is also rumored to be descended from the Tang Dynasty of China. Apparently, one of the Tang emperiors married his daughter to the Uighurs. The Tang bloodline went through Central America, Armenia, Cyrus, Savoy and finally France. Then, James V who was the grandfather of James VI(I) married Mary of Bourbon who was from that bloodline. She brought the bloodline to UK. After that, I am lost. The Tang bloodline continued through Ernst Augustus's wife and then, George I. I do not believe any of the story above, but still very interesting.
As inbred as many of the European royal families are, they would have been well served having some outside blood. Unfortunately for their sakes I doubt any of this is true.