Fascinating History

[Libby]

Hope you're all having a nice weekend! If you are, you can thank Sir Ian McKellen's ancestor!

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/15/sir-ian-mckellensgreat-great-grandfather-helped-invent-weekend/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

[cloudbusting.heights]

Neat-o! I love little tidbits of history like this! Thanks for sharing

[Joe]

Cool info!  I would have thought that someone like Henry Ford might've implemented the two-day weekend.  But now we know who! 

[Libby]

Well, this isn't about a weekend, but since it was also about interesting historical tidbits, I had the idea to maybe make this into a thread with this sort of thing. I know we have members who would like that sort of thing.

The first mirror selfie?!

Richard, I elect you to come up with a thread title!

[Richard]

How about Fascinating History?

Richard

[Libby]

That's great! Thanks, Richard.

[Richard]

Here's a fascinating little piece of musical history about Paul McCartney's song "Penny Lane", written in 1966 and released as a single in February 1967:





I never noticed that, fifty years ago!

Richard

[Libby]

Here's an interesting article on the Queen (thanks to Paige for sharing ):

www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-queen-elizabeth-ii

Here's a tidbit I found particularly interesting:

She once woke up to find a stalker in her bedroom.

On July 9, 1982, a 31-year-old psychiatric patient named Michael Fagan scaled a Buckingham Palace drainpipe and sauntered into Elizabeth’s chambers. The sleeping monarch awoke to find a strange man perched on the edge of her bed, dripping blood from where he had cut his hand while wandering the palace’s dark corridors. Initially unable to reach the police, Elizabeth engaged Fagan in conversation for at least 10 minutes, listening to him chat about his personal problems and relationship with his four children. Finally, a footman roused from his slumber seized the loquacious intruder. It turned out that Fagan, who was ordered to spend six months in a mental hospital, had also crept into the royal residence weeks earlier, making off with a bottle of Prince Charles’ white wine.

[Richard]

Monday 6 February 2017 was the Queen's Sapphire Jubilee (65 years on the throne). I'd never heard the expression before, because she's the first British monarch ever to reach that milestone. Many congratulations, Your Majesty!

Richard

[Libby]

Since Hayley sang this song in concert... over 8 months ago!... actually, almost 9!... and it's kind of a funny tidbit, I decided it was worth posting here. No article or anything for proof, but I assume it's true?

[Richard]

Hello Libby!

The evidence is on Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here,_There_and_Everywhere

Background and inspiration

When discussing his song "Here, There and Everywhere", Paul McCartney has frequently cited Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows" as his main source of inspiration. The latter track appeared on the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds, which in turn had been influenced by the Beatles' Rubber Soul, issued in December 1965. On 17 May 1966, the day after the new Beach Boys album had been released in America, McCartney and John Lennon attended a private listening party for Pet Sounds held at London's Waldorf Hotel.

Deeply impressed by Wilson's songs, McCartney wrote "Here, There and Everywhere" two weeks later at Lennon's house in Weybridge, while waiting for Lennon to wake up. McCartney recalled: "I sat out by the pool on one of the sun chairs with my guitar and started strumming in E. And soon (I) had a few chords, and I think by the time he'd woken up, I had pretty much written the song, so we took it indoors and finished it up."

Richard

[Libby]

Why have we never heard of this lady? Clearly this was a significant achievement in history, and in that era, for a woman to have made it possible, how is this not more widely-known or celebrated? Also, how could she possibly be 33 in this photo? LOL probably the same way I could be 32 in my photos! Other pics of her on wikipedia reveal she looked young all her life. She is currently 81, and I doubt even still she looks very old.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton_(scientist)

[Richard]

I hadn't heard of her either. Here's a recent video:



Richard

[martindn]

Oh yes, those were the days. I can remember writing software myself, and those huge listings we used. Back then anything that had to operate in real time had to be written in assembler language, anything else was too slow. Writing in assembler code I once heard described as like building a shed out of matchsticks, so as to minimise the amount of wood you wasted.

Martin D