Learning a New Thing A Day – June 2020

A little late but I am back to learning a new thing a day, making a list and posting it on my blog with the day I learned it. You may notice I spent a lot of June watching military history documentaries.

1^St Jeff Johns based his super hero  Star Girl on his sister Courtney who died in the crash to TA 800.

2^nd There is a scene in Wizard of Oz that the Scarecrow has a revolver. It is only seen  once and never explained

3^rd When he was a child Stooge Curly Howard accidently shot himself, and his brother Moe had to take him to the hospital. That is why he walked with a limp when on stage.

4^th Christopher Lee is the only member of the cast and crew of The Lord of the Rings movies to have meet JRR Tolkien.

5^th Freddie Prenz Jr wrote the script for professional wrestling for several years.

6^th Michael Rostand an extra in the movie Rosemary’s baby started his own cult after he was in the movie. Made up mainly of out of work actors.

7^th During the 1950’s CIA agents would kill Filipino communist insurgents with neck wounds so they would be blamed on Vampires. They also played recordings of ghost like moaning on Vietnamese battlefields in attempt to scare the Viet Cong.

8^th Gun and Roses’ front man Axel  Rose was warned by a psychic to avoid cities that start with the letter “M” during a tour. During the next tour their was a riot in Montreal,

9^th French beekeepers reported green and blue honey. They soon discovered that was because the hives were net to an M&M factory.

10^th The sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff while evacuating German civilians during WWII by a Soviet navy submarine lead to the death of 9000 people the largest maritime lost of life.

11^th When Osama ben Loudin was killed, Whitey Bolger rose to the top of the FBI’s Ten Most wanted list.

12^th The Sea Master was the only sea-plane to successfully go faster than the speed of sound.

13^th During World War II, Germany fired cannon from France into Dover England. England responded by adding two guns that could reach France, one called Winnie (After Winston Churchill) and another called Pooh.

14^th Edward Everett was the main speaker when the Gettysburg cemetery dedication. Lincoln who gave the Gettysburg address was the secondary speaker.

15^th Legendary bad producer Ed Wood claimed, as a 12-year-old child to have filmed the zeppelin Hindenburg before it crashed.

16^Th Directors thought that Bela Lugosi as to old and forging to play Dracula, and only accepted him when he agreed to work for $500.00 a week.

17^th After the arrest of Mussolini, in 1943, the Italians fought the Japanese in three Chinese cities during World War Two.

18^th The GAP Band’s song You Drop a Bomb on Me. Was inspired by the Tulsa massacre of African Americans.

19^th it is legal for women to go around topless in Utah.

2oth The highest decorated US solider during World war One was William Donavan, the founder of the OSS precursor of the CIA.

21^st Billionaire J Paul Getty installed a pay phone in his home so guest could use and he would not have to pay for their phone calls.

22^nd The largest airplane to land on an aircraft carrier was a C-130 Hercules on the USS Forrestal in 1963.

23^rd Chuck Norris began to study martial arts because he was an Air Force MP and wanted a way to take down drunks without using weapons.

24^th David Prowse who played the body of Darth Vader, in the original Star Wars Trilogy, was denied royalties for Return of the Empire because the studio claimed it didn’t make a profit.

25^th  Apple will not allow bad guys in movies to use iPhone.

26^th The American aircraft carrier USS Robin, was actually the British HMS Victorious. It served in the Pacific during WWII with a British Naval Crew and America pilots.

.27^th French Somaliland was France’s last African Colony. It changed it name to Djibouti after it gained independence.

28^th The word Coffee was the most common words in surviving Union Civil war letters and diaries.

29^th Collin Powell changed the name of the invasion of Panama, from Operation: Blue Spoon to Operation Just cause. Because then even the mission’s enemies would have to call it a just Cause.

30^th The most common bird in the world is the African Red-Billed Quelea.

Learning a New Thing A Day – June 2020