Browsing: Lists

A Brief History On December 6, 1884, the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. was completed.  A spectacular structure, the tall white obelisk was the tallest man-made structure in the world when complete, over 554 feet tall, losing that title to the Eiffel Tower in 1889, although it still is the world’s tallest monumental column. Digging Deeper Some other magnificent American monuments include: Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, carved into bare rock to depict the likenesses of four of our greatest presidents.  Completed in 1941, each head is about 60 feet tall with eyes 11 feet wide! Crazy Horse Memorial, South Dakota,…

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A Brief History On October 30, 1961, former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin suffered the indignity of having his body removed from a place of honor in Lenin’s Tomb and parked in a regular grave with a plain granite marker.  Stalin’s body suffered only a minor indignity compared to some other former national leaders, and here we discuss a few of those. Digging Deeper Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of Britain, was dug up in 1661, three years after his death to be tried and “executed,” including beheading. Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, died in exile in 1821, and someone removed…

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A Brief History On October 15, 1989, Ukrainian-Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky passed Gordie Howe to become the all-time leading scorer in the NHL.  Not only does Gretzky have more goals and assists than any other player, his 2,857 regular season points remains the NHL record. Digging Deeper Some of the other all-time leading scorers include: Baseball: Rickey Henderson’s 2,295 runs scored edge Ty Cobb’s 2,245 for the MLB record. Basketball: LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 2023 to become the NBA scoring champ with 38,652 points. College Basketball: Pistol Pete Maravich narrowly remains the all-time scorer, with 3,667 points,…

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A Brief History On October 8, 1982, actor Fernando Lamas died, probably best remembered for the Billy Crystal impression saying the phrase, “You look marvelous!”  Many other actors and celebrities have been attributed quotations they did not really say, and today we look at a few of those. Digging Deeper PT Barnum, showman and huckster, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Julius Caesar, Roman dictator, “Et tu, Brute?” Albert Einstein, physicist and genius, “If the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live.” Greta Garbo, actress, “I vant to be alone…”…

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A Brief History On August 22, 2006, Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman was awarded the Fields Medal for creating the proof of the “Poincaré conjecture,” but then he refused the award, explaining, “I’m not interested in money or fame; I don’t want to be on display like an animal in a zoo.” Digging Deeper Some other people that have refused awards include: Three people have refused their Oscar statuettes, including Dudley Nichols in 1936, George Scott in 1970, and Marlon Brando in 1973. Jean-Paul Sartre turned down the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964, as he previously refused France’s Legion of…

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