Nov 15-Uranus, The Drifters, Petula Clark, ABBA, Ellen Griswold, Nickelback, Wendy's, $450.3 Million Painting

0:19 Hi everyone, I'm Jeff. Welcome to History and Factoids About Today. Today is November the 15th. Cleaning out the fridge, just cleaning out the fridge. For this kind. Of housework, well he's the best there is. He called his buddies in to help, and all they did was help themselves. Safe at home, just cleaning out the fridge. Today is National Clean Your Refrigerator Day. Stop! No one likes that job. Technically, you should be cleaning your refrigerator every three to four months. Well, since hardly anybody ever does it, they recommend one day of really thorough cleaning, at least once a year. That means unplugging it, cleaning underneath it, behind it, and then you can go to town on the inside. I mean, sure, it looks better, but it also runs more efficiently, and it keeps the germs and smells from actually getting into food. Now, at the holidays, that's a pretty good time of year to do that. So suck it up and clean out that fridge today. Okay, I'm sure you're all wondering what happened in entertainment on November the 15th. Well, let's go back to 1956. Number one album was Calypso by Harry Belafonte.

1:26 Elvis Presley had the number one song with Love Me Tender. Love me tender Love me sweet Never let me go You have made my life complete And I love you so. Marty Robbins had the number one country song with Singin' the Blues. Well, I never felt more like singin' the blues. Cause I never thought that I'd ever lose your love here.

2:08 Why'd you do me this way? Well, I never felt more like crying all night. Because everything's wrong and nothing ain't right. The number one selling book was Don't Go Near the Water by William Brinkley. The top movie was Love Me Tender. It's at the end of World War, the Civil War. Now the Confederate soldiers, they rob a Union payroll train. Then the war ends. So the soldiers think they're off scot-free. Uh-uh. Turns out the Union, they're coming looking for that cash. Stars Elvis, Richard Engen, Deborah Padgett. Now Elvis, he thought Debra Padgett was the most beautiful girl in the world, but her mom would not let him date her. All right, what happened on November the 15th? 1763, Pennsylvania and Maryland, they were not getting along. No, I mean, they weren't getting along at all. They could not agree on the border between the two states. It was even coming to blows where they were shooting at each other and everything.

3:02 So the authorities stepped in and they got Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. They said, why don't you guys survey this and tell us where that line is? So they ended up creating the Mason-Dixon line. It took them four years, though. Then after they did that, symbolically, the Mason-Dixon line, it basically was a border for free states up north and the slavery states down south. 1777, the Continental Congress passed the Articles of Confederation. That was the first United States Constitution. Yeah, it got sent out to the states today. It came back, ratified in 1781. Now, the Constitution we use today, it replaced it in 1789. 1791, the first Catholic college in the United States opened up. Georgetown, Washington, D.C. It was not named after George Washington. It was named after the two guys who donated the land. Both their names were George. 1806, Zebulon Pike. He first saw Pike's Peak. Yeah, from a distance.

3:54 And then it took him a whole week in order to get to the base of the mountain. Now, him and his men, they did try and climb it. They didn't get very far, though. They were all kind of disheartened for it. So he declared that no man would ever climb this mountain. Well, now you can drive up it, take a train up it, take a tram up it. You know, you can even do the Pikes Peak Marathon. They do that to see who can run up it the fastest. Now, if you don't know Colorado, it's just west of Colorado Springs. 1969, Dave Thomas, he opened up the first Wendy's restaurant. It was in Columbus, Ohio. Now he named it after his fourth daughter, Wendy. Yeah, it's her likeness of that freckled-faced little girl that's on the logo. Why didn't he name it after his first three daughters? Well, here were his options. Could have been Pam's, Lois's, or Molly's.

4:35 So yeah, I think you'd rather eat at Wendy's, right? But he didn't forget about the other three girls. In 1978, he opened up the Sister's Chicken and Biscuit restaurants. Yeah, that was there. Dave, he always regretted calling it Wendy's. He said that was too much pressure to put on that girl. He should have just called it Dave's. 1987, the Continental Airplane crashed here in Denver. Killed 28 of the 82 people on board. You know, I was actually in a local hospital at that time. Yeah, double pneumonia. So they brought some of those injured into the ICU. Where was that? Well, I was being quarantined, but I don't remember much. But yeah, I was pretty drugged up. But obviously, I survived. Now, I wonder how they pulled this stunt off. In 1993, certain Cuban refugees landed in an airplane in Florida. That was after they stole the crop-dusting plane in Cuba. 2001, the first Xbox game console went on sale here in the United States. 2017, at an auction, Leonardo da Vinci, his painting, The Salvatore Monday, sold for $ 450. 3 million. What it is, it's Christ as the Savior of the World. It was bought by a group from the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Culture. Seems either odd.

5:38 Still the most expensive piece of art ever sold, that $ 450 million. That painting, though, it had gone on sale at auction before. Back in 1958, it sold for $ 125. Okay, it was born on November the 14th. astronomer William Herschel. He was born in Germany in 1738. Pretty much lived his whole life in England. 1774, he created the first really big telescope. Now he used it in 1781. He was able to find the planet past Saturn. See, with your naked eye, you can't see past Saturn. So he tried to name that new planet he discovered after England's King George III. The whole rest of the world said, oh, hell no. Everyone just called the planet Herschel. Now, I don't know if Herschel was an astronaut, but they ended up naming that planet Uranus. Herschel, he was married and they had one child. Herschel, he got a long illness and ended up dying from it in 1822 at 83 years old. Before Judge Judy and the rest of all those courtroom shows, there was the People's Court that's presided over by Judge Wapner. Joseph Wapner, he was born in Los Angeles in 1919. He was a judge in Los Angeles for 20 years and he retired in 1979. 1981, they hit him up asking him to be on a new real-life TV show that would take place in a courthouse.

7:04 He would be the judge of the People's Court. Wapner, he did People's Court for 12 years when he retired in 1993. He was married in 1946, and they had one daughter and two sons. He died in 2017 at 97 years old from respiratory failure. Actor Ed Asner, he was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1929. He first got known on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, which was a comedy. They spun his character off into the Lou Grant Show, which was a drama. Over the years, Ed, he won seven Primetime Emmys. That's the most by any male actor. He played Santa Claus in eight different Santa Claus movies. He worked until he died in 2021. He was 91 years old when he died from natural causes. He had three children from his first wife, and they divorced after 29 years. So Ed must have been happy.

7:46 He went out and had a fling and had another daughter. Then he got married to a second wife for 25 years when they divorced. You know the landlord rang my front door bell. I let him ring for a long, long spell. I went to the. Window and peeped. That was Clyde McFatter singing for the Drifters. Clyde, he was born in Durham, North Carolina in 1932. When he was a 17-year-old, he hit when he was a member of Billy Ward and the Dominoes Band. Well, that inspired Clyde to start his own band. So he started the Drifters in 1953. They had their hits, Money, Honey... Such a night, honey love, what you gonna do then? He left the Drifters in 1955. Yeah, I mean, he was proud of the group he started, but he wanted to be solo. He did okay solo, but he didn't do as good as the Drifter did once he left. Clyde, he was a major, major alcoholic. It got him, 1972, 39 years old. He had one son and one daughter.

8:50 Linger on the sidewalk, well, then the old signs are pretty. How can you lose the light so much brighter? Things will be great when you're downtown. Petula Clark, she's 94. She's born in Ewell, England. Started singing professionally at 8 years old in 1939. Now, she still sings once in a while. I mean, not very often, but still. She's released songs in French, German, Italian, Spanish, British, American. Downtown, I know a place. This is my song, my love. Those are some of her big hits over the years. Now, she's recorded over 1,000 songs in her lifetime. Sold over 70 million records. She was the biggest-selling female singer all time over in Britain. Yeah, Adele passed her up a couple years ago, though. But to her, she got married in 1961, and they had two daughters and one son.

9:45 Her husband, he died in 2024 at 93 years old. After Sam Waterston, he was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1940. 86 today. Been in over 80 movies. Capricorn One, Hannah and Her Sisters, Heaven's Gate. He was nominated for an Oscar for the movie Killing Field. On TV, he was on line order for 405 episodes between 1994 and 2024. He had a son from his first wife, married his second wife in 1976, and they had three kids. You are the dancing queen. You're When you look at the old music video clips of ABBA, the dark-haired girl, she was Annie Friedlingstedt. That was old ABBA. So you knew ABBA, ABBA 2.0. Yeah, she was blonde. Yeah, she's covering up her gray hair.

10:46 Annie's 81 today. She was born in Norway in 1945. Now, her father was a German soldier during World War II, and her mom died shortly after Annie was born, so her grandma took her to Sweden. See, more Norwegians, they were not too nice to kids who were born from German soldiers during the occupation of World War II. In Sweden, Annie, she became very successful as a solo singer. Surprised everybody when she announced she was joining a new group called ABBA. Yeah, good call by Annie. Yeah, they sold over 150 million records. ABBA, it's just the first letter of each of their first names. Annie, she married at 18 and had two daughters. They divorced after six years. She married her third husband in 1992. Now that husband, he was a prince in Switzerland. He died from lymphoma in 1999. But they can't take Annie's title away. Nope, she's still a princess. Will be until she dies. Actress Beverly D'Angelo. She was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1951. She's 75 years old today. Now she was an illustrator at Hanna-Barbera before she went into acting.

11:42 So yeah, she drew cartoons. She was in Any Which Way But Loose, Hair. She played Patsy Cline in Coal Miner's Daughter, best known for playing Ellen Griswold in all those vacation movies. She did a really good job in the movie American History X. She married once for 14 years, and then she had a twin boy and girl from Al Pacino. They broke up after six years. I like you, so sorry I was waiting on a different story This time I'm mistaken Forehead and your heart were. Breaking Chad Kroger, he's the lead singer for Nickelback. He's 52.

12:30 He was born in Hanna, Alberta, Canada. He was a troubled kid. He did spend time in juvenile detention for breaking into his junior high school. Got himself a little straightened out, and then he helped form the band Nickelback in 1995. They sold over 50 million albums. That makes them Canada's all-time best-selling rock band. You know what? It actually makes them the best-selling rock band of this century worldwide. Some of their hits, Someday, Photograph, Rockstar, you remind me. Chad, he married Avril Lavigne for two years. He probably deserves combat pay for that. All righty, our quote of the day. It comes from country singer and the host, longtime host of Hee Haw, Roy Clark. I still get. That honeymoon feeling after all these years.

13:13 My heart goes beating. Every time you touch me, it's still. The living end. I still get that honeymoon feeling. I can still hear those wedding bells ringing. Roy died today in 2018 at 85 years old. He said, I always played that token bumpkin on any show. They would say, get that Clark guy. He's easy to work with. Well, thank you all for listening today. Don't forget to follow us on who you listen to us on. It makes it easy to follow us and find us. And if you plan, check out today's show description. That'll give you links to some of the artists and the websites like countryundergroundradio.com.

13:53 Our Country Underground Radio Artist of the Day comes from Jolie in Virginia. She wants to hear, I'm falling for you in, yeah, could be I'm falling for you. Sorry about that. No, it could be I Fall For You. It has Susanna Colby and Alan Graswell. You guys have an awesome day, and we'll talk tomorrow. You caught me. By chance I was almost leaving only one dance I found.

14:38 Myself believing could be I'm falling for you. Catch me please I feel I'm falling Hold me tight My heart needs warming Something tells me you can't I'm falling for you