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Category: North & Central America

By The Generalist Posted on February 22, 2022February 22, 2022

The Phony King of England

Disney’s Robin Hood features a song about the “Phony King of England.” That song is based on an old (and very bawdy) English folk ballad about “The Bastard King of England.”

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, Film & television, Music, North & Central America, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on February 21, 2022February 20, 2022

Buried film history

In 1978 a cache of five hundred film reels was discovered under an ice rink in Dawson City, Yukon. These buried reels included the only copy of films that had been lost for decades.

Categories: 20th century history, Film & television, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on February 15, 2022February 14, 2022

Constipation Blues

The blues music genre at its core is about hardship, oppression, and suffering. But it took Screamin’ Jay Hawkins to sing about that real pain down inside.

Categories: 20th century history, Health & medicine, Music, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on February 10, 2022February 9, 2022

The end of the world will be televised

When it launched in 1980, CNN was the first 24-hour news channel in television history. It has been running non-stop since that launch. But what happens if the world ends? Well, CNN plans to go out in style.

Categories: 20th century history, Film & television, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on February 9, 2022February 8, 2022

The generalist

For more than fifty years, Norbert Pearlroth sat in the reading room of the New York Public Library main branch every weekday from noon until 10pm. Unknown to almost everyone, he was researching one of the 20th century’s great sources of facts and trivia.

Categories: 20th century history, Education & philosophy, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on January 25, 2022January 24, 2022

Shakespeare riot

On May 10, 1849, New Yorkers rioted over who was the better Shakespearean actor, the English performer William Macready or the American Edwin Forrest.

Categories: 19th century history, Europe, North & Central America, Politics & law, Theatre
By The Generalist Posted on January 3, 2022December 30, 2021

Beach theft

In 2008, a whole beach in northwestern Jamaica was reported stolen: five hundred truckloads of sand went missing and were never recovered.

Categories: 21st century history, Economics & business, North & Central America, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on December 28, 2021December 27, 2021

Spite triangle

On a sidewalk in New York City is a triangle mosaic about 70cm wide. It is perhaps the smallest parcel of private land in the city, and it exists entirely because of spite.

Categories: 20th century history, Architecture, North & Central America, Politics & law
By The Generalist Posted on December 27, 2021December 26, 2021

Lords of the Windrush

On June 22, 1948, eight hundred and two African-Caribbean migrants arrived in Britain on the HMT Empire Windrush. Amongst this historic first wave of “reverse colonization” were the soon-to-be-famous calypsonian singer Lord Kitchener.

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, Music, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on December 14, 2021December 13, 2021

Sky tubes

A Bangladeshi engineer named Fazlur Rahman Khan revolutionised the design of skyscrapers by modelling them on bamboo tubes.

Categories: 20th century history, Architecture, North & Central America, South Asia, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on December 13, 2021December 12, 2021

Animal actors

From 1951 to the 1980s the PATSY Award celebrated the greatest animal actor in Hollywood; from 2001 to today the Palm Dog Award celebrates the greatest canine actor showing at Cannes.

Categories: 20th century history, 21st century history, Animals, Europe, Film & television, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on December 9, 2021December 8, 2021

Pirate democracy

In the 18th century, a new pirate crew would come together to elect a captain and quartermaster, and agree on a shared code of conduct: what we today call the pirate code.

Categories: Early modern history, North & Central America, Politics & law, The oceans
By The Generalist Posted on December 7, 2021December 6, 2021

The riff repeats

The opening riff of Nirvana’s “Come as You Are” bears a strong resemblance to the 1984 song “Eighties”… which in turn bears a strong resemblance to the 1982 song “Life Goes On.”

Categories: 20th century history, Europe, Music, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on December 3, 2021December 2, 2021

Donald Duck’s voice

Donald Duck’s distinctive speaking style is a type of alaryngeal speech – it is made without using your voice box.

Categories: 20th century history, Film & television, Language, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on December 2, 2021December 1, 2021

Carless highway

M-185 has been part of Michigan’s state highway system since 1933… but no cars drive on it. And it has still managed to have at least one crash.

Categories: 20th century history, North & Central America
By The Generalist Posted on December 1, 2021November 30, 2021

Sentinel chickens

Specially designated “sentinel chickens” allow health officials to track the emergence of infectious diseases like West Nile virus amongst human populations.

Categories: Animals, Health & medicine, North & Central America, Oceania

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