Trivia People

Rob Pilatus, left, and Fabrice Morvan of Milli Vanilli (Promotional photo)

On this date in 1990, Milli Vanilli was stripped of its Grammy Award after it was revealed that the duo did not sing on the album it won the award for.

Here are some things you may not have known about the group and the charade.

Milli Vanilli was created by West German music producer Frank Farian in 1988. Following the recording of the act’s first single, “Girl You Know It’s True,” Farian hired Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus as the faces of the act.

As a group made for MTV, ironically it was the cable channel that eventually contributed to its downfall. An early interview with MTV showed the duo’s poor grasp of the English language compared to their album. In 1989, while performing at an MTV event, the recording of “Girl You Know It’s True” jammed and kept repeating the words “Girl, You Know It’s …” over and over. Later that year, Charles Shaw, who performed the rap parts of the duo’s hits, admitted his part in the fraud. Morvan, Pilatus and Farian continued to insist that the men in the videos performed the recorded versions of the songs.

Despite this, the group’s American debut album, also called “Girl You Know It’s True,” produced four hit singles and earned the duo a Grammy Award as best new artist in February 1990. On November 12, 1990, Farian admitted that that duo was a fraud. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences withdrew their Grammy Award four days later. It was not re-awarded. The other nominees for Best New Artist that year were Neneh Cherry, Indigo Girls, Soul II Soul and Tone Loc.

Milli Vanilli’s second album had been recorded before the controversy struck. Just before its release, the album artwork was replaced to show the actual singers. The name of the album was changed from “Keep on Running” to “The Moment of Truth” by The Real Milli Vanilli. In the United States, the group was renamed Try ’N’ B.

Pilatus and Morvan recorded an album under the name Rob & Fab. It was released only in the U.S. It sold around 2,000 copies.

The duo reunited with Farian in 1998 to produce a new legitimate album as Milli Vanilli. Pilatus, however ran into problems with drugs and other legal issues, and was sentenced to three months in jail. Just before a promotional tour for the new album, Pilatus was found dead of a drug overdose in a hotel in Frankfurt, Germany. He was 32. Morvan continues to work in the music business and as a public speaker.

Our question, Which of the following acts did not win the Grammy for best new artist: Bob Newhart, The Beatles, Elton John, Starland Vocal Band or Tom Jones?

Today is International Men’s Day, Women’s Entrepreneurship Day and World Toilet Day. In the United States it’s the Great American Smokeout, a day designed to encourage people to quit smoking. It’s the birthday of Charles I of England, U.S. president James Buchanan, and Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi.

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“Steamboat Willie” was the first Disney cartoon with synchronized sound and the first cartoon with a fully post-produced soundtrack. All of the voices in the film were performed by Walt Disney.

It was actually the third cartoon produced by Disney featuring Mickey Mouse. The first two, “Plane Crazy” and “The Gallopin’ Gaucho” were reworked and released after “Steamboat Willie.”

The short premiered at the Colony Theater in New York, playing ahead of a film called “Gang War,” which has since been lost. An early review of “Steamboat Willie” in Variety magazine called it the first cartoon with sound to attract favorable attention. It also said that the combination brought “laughs galore.”

Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks created Mickey Mouse after the pair worked on a series of cartoons starring a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, who the Disney studio created for film producer Charles Mintz. Mintz cut Disney’s budget, forcing Disney and Iwerks to abandon the character and create their own. After that point, Disney owned all rights to each of the characters produced by his company. Contrary to rumor, Mickey Mouse was not named after Mickey Rooney.

Walt Disney himself voiced Mickey Mouse from 1928 through 1946, when other duties involved in running the studio (and possibly his smoking habit) prevented him from continuing full-time. He did however voice Mickey for “The Mickey Mouse Club” TV series.

Mickey has appeared in more than 130 films, second-most among Disney characters to Donald Duck.

Our question, what was the first full-length film to feature Mickey Mouse?

Today is Independence Day in Latvia and Morocco and National Day in Oman. In the United States it’s unofficially National Vichyssoise Day and National Educational Support Professionals Day. It’s the birthday of songwriter Johnny Mercer, astronaut Alan Shepard and actor Dennis Haskins, better known as Mr. Belding on “Saved by the Bell.”

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USS America in the Suez Canal in 1981. (Photo by W.M. Welch via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1869, the Suez Canal opened.

Here are some things you may not have known about it.

The Suez Canal links the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, and cuts 4,300 miles off the shipping distance from Europe to South Asia. It’s a sea level canal, so unlike the Panama Canal there are no locks and the water flows freely.

The northern end of the canal is located at Port Said, Egypt. The southern end is 100 miles south at the city of Suez.

Work started on the canal in 1859 under a French company and continued for 10 years using forced laborers, thousands of whom died during the construction. Great Britain opposed the construction of the canal. As the dominant naval force at the time, the British benefited from the status quo.

Construction was completed in 1869. The entire project cost more than double the original estimate. The first ship scheduled to transit the canal was the French Imperial Yacht L’Aigle. However the British HMS Newport snuck through the waiting ships and moved to the front of the line, horrifying the French. The captain of the Newport was officially reprimanded, and unofficially praised by the British Admiralty.

Because of its strategic location, the Suez Canal has figured prominently in military engagements, including the Suez Crisis and the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973.

The canal underwent an expansion in 2014, allowing approximately 76 ships to use the canal each day.

Our question, which is longer, the Panama Canal or the Suez Canal?

Today is International Students’ Day. In the United States, it’s also National Baklava Day and National Take a Hike Day. It’s the birthday of actor Peter Cook, television producer Lorne Michaels and actor Danny DeVito.

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Police mugshot of George Metesky, also known as “The Mad Bomber.” (Image via seanmunger.com)

Today is the 75th anniversary of the first in a string of bomb-related incidents that terrorized New York City for 16 years.

Here are some things you may not have known about “The Mad Bomber.”

The first bomb was found on a window sill of a Consolidated Edison power plant before it went off. Inside a box with the bomb was a note saying “Con Edison crooks — This is for you.”

Almost a year later, a similar device was found lying in the street near the headquarters of Consolidated Edison.

After the United States entered World War II, the bomber promised to stop until the war was over. A promise he kept.

Between 1951 and 1956, the bomber began targeting public spaces, planting more than 30 bombs, 22 of which exploded, injuring 15 people.

Following the bombing of the Paramount Theater in Brooklyn, the police commissioner, Stephen P. Kennedy, began what he called the “greatest manhunt in the history of the police department.”

As a part of this, police captain John Cronin began working with his friend, Dr. James Brussel, who was psychiatrist and criminologist. They put together what they called a portrait of the suspect, what would now be known as a profile.

They determined that the suspect was a male suffering from paranoia, related to perceived wrongdoing by Consolidated Edison. He was likely single, introverted and socially awkward. He was probably a skilled mechanical worker, who resented criticism and feels superior to critics.

Additionally, Brussel predicted that the bomber would be wearing a buttoned, double-breasted suit when he was caught.

The New York Journal American newspaper published several letters from the bomber, including one in which he states the date he was injured on the job at Consolidated Edison. This allowed a Con Edison clerk to cross check with company records and determine that the likely suspect was a former employee named George Metesky.

Four New York police officers arrived at Metesky’s home just before midnight on January 21, 1957. He provided a handwriting sample and showed the officers his workshop, which included many items that could be used to make the type of bombs used in the attacks. After being told he would be arrested, Metesky was allowed to get dressed. When he came back, he was wearing a buttoned double-breasted suit.

Metesky told officers that he had been injured in a gas explosion while working for Consolidated Edison. As a result he developed tuberculosis and was left permanently disabled. His claim for worker’s compensation was rejected because he had failed to file in time. Three appeals of the rejection also had been denied.

He was charged on 47 counts, including attempted murder, damaging a building by explosion, malicious endangerment and carrying a concealed weapon. Before he could stand trial, Metesky was declared legally insane and was committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he remained until his release in 1973. He died in 1994 at the age of 90.

Our question, what percentage of the world’s population is believed to be infected with tuberculosis?

Today is Icelandic Language Day and International Day for Tolerance. It’s National Button Day and National Fast Food Day, as if we need a special day to celebrate it. It’s the birthday of Roman Emperor Tiberius, actor Burgess Meredith and musician Diana Krall.

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Edwin Booth by John Singer Sargent, 1890; Oil on canvas; (Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas/Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Today is the birthday of the man, considered by some to be the greatest American actor of the 19th century, Edwin Booth.

Here are some things you may not have known about him.

Edwin Booth was born in Bel Air, Maryland in 1833. He was the illegitimate son of Junius Brutus Booth, who was also among the most well-known actors of his day. Booth was also the older brother of John Wilkes Booth, another noted actor, who went on to assassinate Abraham Lincoln.

Edwin Booth made his debut as Tressel in a production of Shakespeare’s “Richard III” in Boston in 1849. He made his New York debut a year later. In 1851, he took over for his father in the role of Richard III. In 1864, the Booth Brothers, Edwin, John Wilkes and Junius Junior, appeared onstage together in a production of “Julius Caesar.” The proceeds from the production were used to place a statue of Shakespeare in New York’s Central Park, where it stands to this day. Afterward, Edwin became known as the “Hundred Nights Hamlet,” for playing the role for a record 100 performances.

Late in 1864 or early in 1865, Edwin Booth saved the life of Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln. The younger Lincoln, at the age of 22 or so, had fallen between a train platform and a departing car. Edwin Booth, reached down and grabbed Lincoln by his collar and pulled him to safety. Lincoln, who recognized the famous actor, thanked him by name. Booth didn’t know who he had saved until months later.

Later in 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot the elder Lincoln during a performance at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.. After the assassination, Edwin, a staunch unionist, disowned John Wilkes and refused to have his brother’s name spoken in his home. He would return to the stage a year later. Edwin Booth also was said to have derived some comfort after the assassination from the fact that he had saved the life of the president’s son.

In 1869, Edwin was granted possession of his brother’s remains, which he had buried in an unmarked grave in the family’s plot in Baltimore.

Later in his life, Booth founded the Players’ Club, a social club for actors and other artists at his home on Gramercy Park in Manhattan. He died there in 1893. The club remains active to this day in the same building.

Our question, Edwin Booth is mentioned in a song called “The Ballad of Booth” from what musical and by what songwriter?

Today is World Kindness Day. It’s the birthday of author Robert Louis Stevenson, U.S. Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, and actor/comedian Whoopi Goldberg.

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The Prince and Princess of Monaco arrive at the White House for a luncheon in 1961. (Photo by Robert Leroy Knudsen via Wikimedia Commons)

Today would have been the 86th birthday of actress Grace Kelly, later Princess Grace of Monaco.

Here are some things you may not have known about Kelly and the Principality of Monaco.

Grace Kelly was born to a wealthy family in Philadelphia. Her father won three Olympic gold medals in rowing and was a Philadelphia city councilman. Her mother was a beauty queen and model, who later became the women’s track and field coach at the University of Pennsylvania.

Kelly began acting at the age of 12. Her high school yearbook predicted she would be “a famous star of stage and screen.” She pursued acting professionally despite her father’s disapproval. He viewed the profession as “a slim cut above streetwalker.”

In 1951, she made her film debut in “Fourteen Hours,” and a year later appeared in “High Noon” with Gary Cooper. In 1954, Kelly co-starred in five movies, including Alfred Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder” and “Rear Window,” along with “The Country Girl” for which she earned a best actress Academy Award. A year later, she worked for Hitchcock again with Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief.” That year, she met Prince Rainier of Monaco, who was touring the United States.

The couple married in a civil ceremony on April 18, 1956, and a Catholic ceremony the next day. More than 700 guests attended, including Cary Grant, David Niven, Gloria Swanson, Ava Gardner, Conrad Hilton and Aristotle Onassis. Frank Sinatra was invited, but did not attend. The Prince and Princess took a seven-week honeymoon cruise on the Mediterranean.

As Princess, Kelly was forced to give up her acting career. Her final role was in “High Society,” released in 1956.

The royal couple had three children, Princess Caroline, born in 1957; Prince Albert, born in 1958; and Princess Stephanie, born in 1965.

On September 13, 1982, Princess Grace suffered a stroke while driving back from the family’s summer home. She drove off the road and plunged 120 feet down the mountainside. The following night, Rainier took her off of life support and she died at the age of 52.

Prince Rainier reigned until his death in 2005. Prince Albert is the current monarch of Monaco.

Monaco is the second smallest country by area in the world at about .78 square miles, roughly the size of 90 city blocks. It is also the most densely populated with almost 49,000 people per square mile. The United States has about 85 people per square mile. Monaco is located on the Mediterranean Sea and is bordered by France on three sides. It is a principality, meaning that the ruler’s title is prince, not king.

The country is widely known for its gambling industry and reputation as a tax shelter. In 2014, it was estimated that 30 percent of the population was made up of millionaires. It’s also the home of one of the world’s most recognizable sporting events, the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix.

Our question, What are the other two principalities in Europe besides Monaco?

Today is World Pneumonia Day. It’s also Constitution Day in Azerbaijan. It’s the birthday of women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, sculptor Auguste Rodin and musician Neil Young.

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A Historic Route 66 sign in New Mexico. (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1926, the United States Numbered Highway System was established.

Here are some things you may not know about highways in the United States, including the legendary Route 66.

The U.S. Highway system was the main network of roads across the country before the Interstate Highway System. The numbering system is fairly simple. Odd numbered highways run north to south, starting with the smallest numbers on the East Coast, the location of Highway 1, to the West Coast, which is where U.S. 101 is located. Even numbered roads run east and west with the smallest numbered road (U.S. 2) across the north of the country to U.S. 98, which runs along the Gulf Coast between Mississippi and Florida.

Despite the name, the highways are maintained by state governments.

Route 66 was one of the original U.S. Routes running from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. It was a major route for people migrating west. It became well-known for its roadside attractions, including reptile farms, teepee-shaped hotels and some of the first fast food restaurants, including the first McDonald’s in San Bernardino, Calif.

In 1956, the beginning of the Interstate Highway system marked the beginning of the end of Route 66. Gradually, Interstates 55, 44 and 40 bypassed Route 66. It was decommissioned in 1985.

Our question, in the song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66,” what Arizona town is the listener told not to forget?

We’ll have the answer right after this break.

Today is Veterans Day in the United States, It’s also Armistice Day and Remembrance Day in honor of the end of World War I in 1918. It’s unofficially National Ice Cream Sundae Day. It’s the birthday of General George Patton, writer Kurt Vonnegut and comedian Jonathan Winters.

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The SS Edmund Fitzgerald in 1971. (Photo by Greenmars via Wikimedia Commons) 

Today is the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the Great Lakes freighter the Edmund Fitzgerald, which was immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot.

Here are some things you may not have known about the ship, its sinking and the song.

When it was launched, the Edmund Fitzgerald was the largest ship on the Great Lakes. It was built to the maximum size for the St. Lawrence Seaway: 729 feet long, with a beam of 75 feet and draft of 25 feet.

The ship’s usual route was between iron mines near Duluth, Minnesota and steel mills in Toledo, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan. It’s estimated that, in its lifetime, the ship had made 748 round trips, covering a distance roughly equivalent to 44 times around the world.

On November 9, 1975, the Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin, carrying more than 29,000 tons of taconite ore pellets, destined for a steel mill near Detroit. At the time of departure, the weather forecast called for a storm to pass south of Lake Superior early the next morning. At 7 p.m., the forecast was changed to issue gale warnings for the entire lake. At 2 a.m., the forecast was upgraded again to a storm warning, with winds up to 58 miles per hour. The next afternoon, snow began to fall, further reducing visibility.  At 3:30 p.m., Captain Ernest McSorley radioed to a nearby ship that the Fitzgerald was taking on water and had developed a list. Forty minutes later, the radar failed on the Fitzgerald, leaving the ship effectively blind. The nearby ship, the Arthur Anderson, attempted to help guide the Fitzgerald to Whitefish Bay. Just before 5 p.m., the Anderson recorded sustained winds of 67 miles per hour with 25-foot seas and 35-foot rogue waves.

At 7:10 p.m., the Anderson asked how the Fitzgerald was faring. McSorley responded, “We are holding our own.” The ship sank minutes later with no distress signal.

A three-day search for survivors and wreckage ensued. The entire 29-man crew was lost.

A U.S. Coast Guard investigation determined that the sinking was caused by faulty hatch closures, which allowed the cargo hold to fill with water. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the Fitzgerald hit an uncharted reef and sank unexpectedly. Another theory is that the Fitzgerald was structurally unsound and broke apart in the waves.

In 1976, a story in Newsweek magazine inspired Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to write and record the ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” While Lightfoot took some artistic liberties with the lyrics, the song made the sinking one of the most well-known shipwrecks on the Great Lakes.

Our question, what is the Chippewa name for Lake Superior?

Today is the 240th anniversary of the founding of the United States Marine Corps. It’s unofficially National Vanilla Cupcake Day and National Forget-Me-Not Day. it’s the birthday of theologian Martin Luther, and actors Claude Rains and Richard Burton.

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Theodore Roosevelt sitting at the controls of a steam shovel while inspecting the construction of the Panama Canal in 1906. (New York Times photo via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt became the first American president to travel outside the United States while in office.

Here are some facts you may not have known about presidential travel.

Roosevelt visited Panama to inspect the construction of the Panama Canal. Of the 17 days spent out of the country, 14 of them were in transit to and from Panama, only three days were spent inspecting the Canal.

Roosevelt’s successor, William Howard Taft, made only one trip while president. Taft met with the president of Mexico in the border town of Juarez.

Woodrow Wilson was the first president to travel to Europe, which he did in 1918 and 1919 to participate in the Paris Peace Conference. He spent nearly seven months in Europe, interrupted only by a nine-day trip home.

Warren G. Harding’s only official trip as president was the first to Canada in 1923.

Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to travel to Africa for the Casablanca Conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1943. That was also the first airplane trip for a sitting president.

Dwight Eisenhower visited Western and Southern Asia in 1959 and Southeast Asia in 1960.

Lyndon Johnson was the first to go to Australia in 1966.

The title of most-traveled president is a tie between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who visited 74 countries while in office, although Bush made seven more trips.

Our question, what continent has never been visited by a sitting president of the United States?

Today is Independence Day in Cambodia and Flag Day in Azerbaijan. In the United States, it’s unofficially National Scrapple Day. Scrapple, for those of us who do not live in the Philadelphia area, is a sort of meatloaf made of pork scraps and trimmings. Today’s the birthday of King Edward VII of Great Britain, actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr and astronomer Carl Sagan.

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An unknown football team from around the turn of the 20th century. (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

On this date in 1869, the first college football game was played between what is now Princeton and Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Here are some things you may not have known about the early history of football.

In addition to being considered the first American football game, some see it as the first college soccer game because of the rules the game was played under.

The rules matched two teams of 25 players, who attempted to kick the ball into the other team’s goal. The ball could be advanced by kicking or hitting it with the feet, hands, head or sides. Rutgers won the first game by a score of 6-4.

By 1880, Walter Camp, the captain of the Yale team had changed the rules to reduce the number of players to 11-a-side and instituted the line of scrimmage instead of the rugby-style scrum.

In 1882, the concept of limiting a team to three downs to advance the ball five yards was introduced — marking the separation point of American football from rugby.

In 1905, 19 players were killed due to injuries suffered in football games, which led President Theodore Roosevelt to threaten to ban the game. This led to the creation of what is now the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA, and the forward pass.

By 1918, the game had developed into roughly the game we know today.

The National Football League was founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association

In a poll in 2014, 46 percent of Americans chose some form of American football as their favorite sport. Professional football passed baseball as America’s most popular sport in 1985.

Our question, which team won the first NFL game that went to overtime?

Today is Constitution Day in the Dominican Republic and Tajikistan.

It’s unofficially National Nachos Day and Saxophone Day.

It’s the birthday of composer John Philip Sousa, basketball inventor James Naismith and football player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman.

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