At first a soldier in the German revolution of ’48, Carl Schurz busted out his friend from a prison in Berlin, fled on a boat to Edinburg, emigrated to the US, became a Union General in the Civil War, then US Senator, and later secretary of the interior. Mark Twain wrote his obituary.
politicians
When Japanese prime minister…
When Japanese prime minister Keizō Obuchi was a young man and short on money, he travelled to thirty-eight countries, completely circumnavigating the globe and taking odd jobs as he went. These included being a dishwasher, an assistant aikido instructor and a TV camera crew assistant in Berlin.
According to a 2018 study…
According to a 2018 study, the Washington DC area has a higher proportion of psychopaths than any other state in the USA.
The “Windy City” name has nothing…
The “Windy City” name has nothing to do with Chicago weather. Chicago’s nickname was coined by 19th-century journalists who were referring to the fact that its politicians were “windbags” and “full of hot air.”
The first African-American whose name appeared…
The first African-American whose name appeared on ballots as a candidate for President of the United States was Clennon King in 1960. He was called the Black Don Quixote for his efforts and was committed to an insane asylum in 1958 for applying to the University of Mississippi.
In 1988, a man named Robert W. Faid published a book mathematically…
In 1988, a man named Robert W. Faid published a book mathematically “proving” that the Antichrist was Mikhail Gorbachev, with odds of exactly 710,609,175,188,282,000 to 1. He later won an Ig Nobel prize for it.
Then PM of Australia, Ben Chifley, would…
Then PM of Australia, Ben Chifley, would regularly receive calls on his secret direct line from housewives trying to order meat as the number was similar to the local Butcher’s. Instead of embarrassing the callers, Chifley would take down their orders and pass it onto the Butcher.
There was a 1700s politician named John Strange…
There was a 1700s politician named John Strange, and his epitaph reads, “Here lies an honest lawyer, and that is Strange.”
In 1853 a candidate for governor in California…
In 1853 a candidate for governor in California accidentally campaigned in Oregon so they named the town after him.
Robert Kennedy took up a paper route as a young boy…
Robert F. Kennedy took up a paper route as a young boy. However, he had the family chauffeur driving him, so that he could make his deliveries in a Rolls-Royce.