Chevrolet

Louis Chevrolet and ousted General Motors founder William C. Durant started the Chevrolet Motor Car Company on November 3, 1911.

By the mid-1910s, Louis Chevrolet had shifted into the racing car industry, partnering with Howard E. Blood of Allegan, Michigan, to create the Cornelian racing car,

Chevrolet died on June 6, 1941 bankrupt working as a mechanic for the company he started.

Durant used the Chevrolet Motor Car Company to acquire a controlling stake in General Motors with a reverse merger occurring on May 2, 1918, which propelled him back to the GM presidency.

The "bowtie" emblem, introduced in 1913.

GMC commercial grade trucks were rebranded as Chevrolet in 1919, and used the same chassis of Chevrolet passenger cars and building light-duty trucks.

The Chevrolet brand to become the volume leader in the General Motors family, selling mainstream vehicles to compete with Henry Ford's Model T in 1919 and overtaking Ford as the best-selling car in the United States by 1929.

The first car commercial on television was for Chevrolet. Airing on June 9, 1946, this innovative approach allowed Chevrolet to showcase their automobiles in a visually compelling manner, captivating viewers with the allure of their vehicles. The ad was the start of the car company's sponsorship of a series of variety shows that aired in four cities on the DuMont network.

The first Corvette rolled off the Chevrolet assembly line in Flint, Michigan. on June 30, 1953. That early 'Vette' sold for $3,250.

The name "Corvette" was picked out of a dictionary by Chevrolet PR exec Myron Scott; the word refers to a fast ship that’s easy to maneuver.

1954 Corvette Convertible

The Chevrolet Camaro was introduced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors on September 29, 1966 as a competitor to the Ford Mustang. The Camaro was initially offered in a range of body styles, including a coupe and a convertible, with various engine options to cater to a wide range of customers. Over the years, it went through several generations, each with its own unique design and performance characteristics.

1968  Chevrolet Camaro 

In 2002, Chevrolet decided to discontinue the Camaro due to declining sales and changes in market preferences. However, after an eight-year hiatus, the Camaro made a comeback as a 2010 model car. The fifth-generation Camaro featured modern styling and a choice of powerful V6 and V8 engines, rekindling the enthusiasm of muscle car enthusiasts.

Camaro is a French slang term for "friend" or "companion."

General Motors was baffled that its Chevy Nova was not selling in Latin America in the 1970s, until somebody pointed out that ‘Nova’ means ‘it doesn't go’ in Spanish.

Chevrolet's use of Bob Seger's "Like a Rock" to sell trucks was planned to last 3 to 6 months. It proved so powerful the campaign ran for 13 years between 1991 and 2004.

Chestnut

The chestnut is the common name for trees of the genus Castanea, of the beech family Fagaceae, They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.

Chestnuts became a staple in the mountainous regions around the Mediterranean Sea thousands of years ago, in part because most cereal grains couldn't grow in these areas.

Pxhere

During ancient times in the mountainous areas of the Mediterranean where cereals do not grow well, if at all, the chestnut was a staple food. Galen, a Roman physician to various emperors, wrote of the flatulence produced by a diet that centered too closely on chestnuts and commented on the nuts’ medicinal properties, which supposedly protected against such health hazards as dysentery, poisons, or the bite of a mad dog.

Chestnut pie dates back to the 15th century in Italy, having been documented in an early cookbook written by Bartolomeo Platina.

The eastern United States was once the home of over 3 billion chestnut trees. In the early 1900's, the trees were devastated by a disease called chestnut blight caused by a fungus, Endothia parasitica.

The disease, probably imported from the Orient, started near New York City about 1904 and spread rapidly. It killed them as saplings, meaning they all but disappeared. 

Because of the blight that wiped out most North American chestnut trees, most domestic chestnut hardwood is salvaged from old support beams or fallen trees and is very rare/expensive.

Roasting the nuts causes them to lose their bitter taste and take on a sweeter one.

Source Food For Thought by Ed Pearce

Chess

HISTORY

Chess had evolved in India by the 6th century AD as a game of war: to illustrate and rehearse army movements.

The Persians adopted the game of chess from India, and when the Arabs conquered Iran, they made chess part of their life and carried it wherever they went. That is how, with the spread of Islam, chess also extended as far West as Spain, as far North as Turkistan, as far East as the Malayan Islands, and as far South as Zanzibar.

The word "checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah-Mat," which means the king is dead.

Vikings enjoyed board games such as chess where there are two sets of pieces attackers aiming to capture the King and defenders aiming to get him safely to the edge of the board. Game boards have been found scratched into floors and rocks. Pieces could be stones, shells, carved of wood or ivory, clay figures or anything like that.

In the early days of chess, the Queen could only move diagonally, one step at a time. As real-life  powerful queens — see Eleanor of Aquitaine in the 12th century and Isabella I of Castile in the 15th —  made their mark, so did the piece.

In medieval games of chess, pawns that had been promoted to queen would be given the title of an "advisor," so as to not imply that the king had more than one queen or was unfaithful.

In 1561, a Spanish priest named Ruy López de Segura published his celebrated chess strategy book, Libro de la Invencion liberal y Arte del juego del Axedrez. The tome recommends playing with your back to the sun to blind your opponent. If playing at night by a fire, it advises you to cast a shadow over the board with your hand, so your opponent "will not be able to see where to play his pieces."

Shakespeare’s only reference to chess is in Act 5, scene 1 of The Tempest, where Prospero finds Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess".

Benjamin Franklin and his friend used chess as a means to learn Italian; the winner of each game would assign a task, such as parts of the Italian grammar to be learned by heart, to be performed by the loser before their next meeting.

In 1783 the best chess player of his age, Frenchman François-André Danican played and won three chess games simultaneously while blindfolded. Witnesses signed affidavits since they doubted future generations would believe such a feat was possible.

The Mechanical Turk was a fake chess-playing machine invented by Wolfgang von Kempelen in the late 18th century. It was designed to impress and mystify audiences by playing chess against human opponents and winning. The machine was operated by a hidden human who controlled its moves from inside.

The Mechanical Turk made its public debut in Vienna, where it was exhibited to great acclaim. It then began a tour of Europe on April 17, 1783, challenging and defeating notable figures in the fields of science, politics, and the arts.

Despite the fact that many people suspected that the machine was a hoax, its inventor and operator managed to maintain the illusion of its mechanical capabilities for several decades. It wasn't until the 1820s that the truth behind the Mechanical Turk was finally revealed. 

The first international chess tournament opened in London on May 26, 1851. The tournament was conceived and organised by English player Howard Staunton, and marked the first time that the best chess players in Europe would meet in a single event. German chess master Adolf Anderssen won the sixteen-player tournament, earning him the status of the best player in Europe.

Adolf Anderssen

The only game in World Chess Championship history to end in an actual on-board checkmate took place in 1929, during Game 8 of the title match between Alexander Alekhine and Efim Bogoljubov. At grandmaster level, allowing a game to reach checkmate is considered poor etiquette — a losing player is expected to resign once a forced mate becomes inevitable. As a result, the 1929 Alekhine–Bogoljubov match stands as both the first and last time a World Chess Championship game has ever been decided by a literal checkmate on the board.

The International Chess Day is celebrated annually on July 20, the day the International Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded, in 1924. The day has been celebrated by many of the 605 million regular chess players around the world since 1966 after it was established by FIDE.

Before the Internet, Chess players used to play each other all over the world by taking turns mailing a postcard to each other describing the move they had made.

Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti ruled in 2016 that chess is forbidden in Islam, claiming that the game encourages gambling.

FAMOUS CHESS PLAYERS

German chess prodigy Emanuel Lasker dethroned the reigning champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, on May 26, 1894. launching a record-breaking 27-year reign (1894-1921). A brilliant strategist with an unconventional style, Lasker defended his title five times. He transcended chess, excelling in mathematics and philosophy. This well-roundedness, coupled with his chess genius, secured his place as one of the greatest players ever.

The film director Stanley Kubrick financed his early movies by playing illegal chess for money in New York parks.

On October 17, 1956, 13-year-old Bobby Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) played a brilliant chess game against leading American chess master Donald Byrne in the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament at the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. Fischer won the game, and it was later dubbed "The Game of the Century" by chess grandmaster Hans Kmoch.

The game is widely considered to be one of the greatest chess games ever played, and it is studied by chess players of all levels. Fischer's play in the game is particularly impressive, as he sacrifices his queen in order to gain a material advantage and eventually win the game.

Bobby Fischer in 1960 

Bobby Fischer won the 1972 World Chess Championship against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland. The match lasted for 21 games, and Fischer won by a score of 12.5-8.5. The last game of the match was played on August 31-September 1, 1972. Fischer won the game by resignation, and thus became the 11th World Chess Champion.

The match was a major upset, as Spassky was the defending champion and was considered to be the favorite. Fischer's win was a major victory for the United States, as it ended 24 years of Soviet domination of the World Chess Championship. The match was also seen as a Cold War battle, as Fischer was seen as a symbol of American individualism and Spassky was seen as a symbol of Soviet collectivism.

In 1992, the U.S. authorities issued an arrest warrant after Fischer beat Spassky in an unofficial rematch in Yugoslavia, when that country was under UN sanctions. They were seeking income tax on his winnings.

22-year-old Garry Kasparov, of the Soviet Union became the youngest World Chess Champion on November 9, 1985 by beating Anatoly Karpov, also of the Soviet Union.

In 1999, Garry Kasparov faced the rest of the world in a game of chess. Moves were decided through a plurality vote involving 50,000 people from over 75 countries. Kasparov won the game.

Kasparov is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months.

Garry Kasparov Owen Williams, The Kasparov Agency. - Wikipedia Commons

In 1996 Garry Kasparov beat IBM supercomputer 'Deep Blue,' to win a six-game match 4-2 in Philadelphia.

Deep Blue won the first game on February 10, 1996. It was the first game to be won by a chess-playing computer against a reigning world champion under normal chess tournament conditions. During the game Deep Blue made a move that puzzled Kasparov so much, it made him believe the machine had superior intelligence. It threw the grandmaster off his game, and ultimately cost him the match. The move was the result of a bug in Deep Blue's code.

Deep Blue was heavily upgraded, and played Kasparov again in May 1997. The computer won the six-game rematch 3½–2½  becoming the first computer system to defeat a reigning world champion in a match under standard chess tournament time controls.

Deep Blue IBM chess computer. By James the photographer

Claude Bloodgood, a man serving life in prison in the USA for the murder of his mother became a successful chess player by obtaining USCF membership for other inmates and playing tournaments against them. By 1997, Bloodgood was the second highest rated player in the nation, behind only Gata Kamsky.

A critic of President Vladimir Putin, Kasparov retired from chess in 2005 to campaign for democracy in Russia and moved to New York in 2013 to avoid arrest.

Judit Polgár (born July 23, 1976)  is widely considered the best female player of all time. She and her two sisters were intentionally raised to be chess masters by their father, László Polgár, to prove his theory that "Geniuses are made, not born."  Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by Bobby Fischer.

Judit Polgár, 2008 By Stefan64 - Self-photographed

Czech chess Grand Master Vlastimil Hort once played 201 games simultaneously in 30 hours and losy only ten.

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and former chess prodigy whose peak rating of 2861 achieved in January 2013, surpassed Garry Kasparov's 2851 rating record (set July 1999).

The late actor Heath Ledger was an avid chess player, winning Western Australia's junior chess championship at the age of 10.

Latvian politician Dana Reizniece-Ozola whose roles include being the country's Minister of Finance is also a chess player. She holds the title of Woman Grandmaster (2001), the second highest-ranking chess title that exists for females.

CHESS RECORDS

The longest tournament chess game ever played was between Ivan Nikolic and Goran Arsovic in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1989. The game took 269 moves, lasted 20 hours and 15 minutes — and ended in a draw.

Jewish people make up 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of world chess champions.

Iceland has more chess grandmasters per head of population than any other country.

The most expensive chess set in the word is the Jewel Royale Chess Set which costs $9.8 million.

FUN CHESS FACTS

The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

There are more possible outcomes to a 40-move chess game then there are atoms in the known universe.

Since the official World Chess Championship began in 1886, only one title has ever been won by a checkmate, and it occurred during the 1929 World Chess Championship match between Alexander Alekhine and Efim Bogoljubov.  Alekhine, the defending champion, delivered the checkmate in the 15th game of their match. 

The longest chess game that is theoretically possible has 5,949 moves.

Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen had never played chess in their life until the movie X-Men required them to do so. A chess master was brought in to teach them.

 A 2012 Yougov poll showed that "a surprisingly stable 70% of the adult population has played chess at some point during their lives". This number holds at approximately the same level in countries as diverse as the US, UK, Germany, Russia, and India.

Chess in a mandatory subject in Armenian schools. Children aged 6 and up are taught chess as part of the mandatory curriculum.

Her's a list of songs on Songfacts.com with chess pieces in the title.

Cherry

CHERRIES IN HISTORY

Cherries are part of the Rosaceae family, which includes almonds, apricots, peaches and plums. Black cherry (Prunus serotina) trees are deciduous and native to eastern North America, and the cherries have a tart taste compared to other, sweet varieties.

The Chinese ate cherries around 600 BC but sweet cherries date back only to around 70 BC.

The word ‘cherry’ comes from the Turkish town of Cerasus, which was famed for its cherries.

The earliest known mention of cherries is in the History Of Plants by Theophrastus (372-272 BC). However, cherry pips have been found in Stone Age caves.

In 73 BC the Roman general Lucullus brought sour cherry trees to Rome from Turkey after his victory over Mithridates 6th, King of Pontus in North East Asia Minor. Lucullus named the cherry tree ‘Cerasus’ after a town of that name in what is now Turkey.

The ruby-red color and tangy taste of cherries ensured their popularity amongst the Greeks, Romans and Chinese. Indeed General Lucullus committed suicide in 58 BC when he realized he was running out of cherries.

It is said old Roman roads can be traced by the wild cherry trees that grew from the stones spat out by legions as they marched across the country.

The cherry was brought to Britain by the Romans in the 1st century AD.

The oldest-known cherry recipes were in The Forme of Cury. Written around 1390, The Forme of Cury was the first cookbook written in English. The book advised to pick cherries on June 24th and “do away with the stones.”

The nickname ‘Cherry-pickers’ was given to the 11th Hussars after they were attacked by the French while raiding a cherry orchard in Spain during the Peninsular War in 1811.

The expression “to cherry pick”, meaning to select only the best, dates back only to the 1960s.

Hot cherry stones were once used in bed-warming pans.

Since the 1930s, the UK has lost over 95 per cent of its cherry orchards. Most are now imported.

CHERRY BLOSSOM TREES

Cherry blossom trees are typically ornamental varieties, specifically cultivated for their beautiful flowers. Their primary purpose is aesthetic.  Conversely, other cherry trees are grown for their fruit production. 

While many cherry blossom trees do produce cherries, these are often small and not as palatable as those from fruit-producing varieties. The emphasis in breeding these trees has been on maximizing flower displays, not fruit quality. The fruit that is produced is often enjoyed by birds.

The first cherry blossom trees were planted in Washington D.C. on March 27, 1912.  The gift of the cherry blossom trees was intended to symbolize the friendship between the United States and Japan. The first shipment of 2,000 trees arrived in Washington D.C. in 1910, but unfortunately, they were found to be infested with insects and had to be destroyed. In 1912, a new shipment of 3,020 trees was sent and successfully planted along the Tidal Basin. 

On November 18, 1938, a group of approximately 150 women, led by Eleanor "Cissy" Patterson, the owner and editor of the Washington Times-Herald, descended upon the construction site of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., to protest the planned removal of cherry trees. Their actions, later dubbed the "Cherry Tree Rebellion," captured national attention and ultimately led to a significant reduction in the number of trees slated for removal.

The United States gave cherry tree cuttings back to Japan in 1952 because the parent stock was struggling from neglect during World War II.

Today, the National Cherry Blossom Festival is held annually in Washington DC to celebrate the beauty of the cherry blossoms and the enduring friendship between the United States and Japan.

Japanese cherry tree

The flowers and leaves of cherry blossom trees are edible and used in many traditional Japanese sweets and tea. The petals can be pickled and used in recipes for things like mochi cakes, candies, and cookies.

Picking blossoms or branches off cherry blossom trees in Washington, D.C. is considered vandalism of federal property, so hold off before foraging around the Tidal basin for your ingredients.

CHERRY FUN FACTS

The world record for spitting a cherry stone is 93 feet 6.5 inches. It  was set by Brian Krause at the Cherry Pit-Spitting Championship at Eau Claire, Michigan, in 2003.

Cherries can lower levels of inflammation in the body sufficently enough to alleviate arthritis symptoms and reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and Diabetes.

There are more than 1,000 varieties of cherry worldwide.

Turkey produces more cherries than any other country. The United States comes second.

Helicopters are used in cherry farming to dry cherries after it rains so they don’t soak in too much water split, and can't be picked and sold.

The cherries from an average cherry tree are enough to make 28 cherry pies.

There is a city in Washington named 'George'. Every year, George, Washington celebrates the 4th of July by baking the world's largest cherry pie.

Serving ice cream on cherry pie was once illegal in Kansas

Sources Daily Mail, Daily Express, Food For Thought by Ed Pearce, Encyclopedia Britannica

Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Pripyat, Ukraine. At that time, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.

The accident occurred when the fourth reactor suffered a huge power increase. This led to the core of the reactor exploding. Due to this explosion, large amounts of radioactive particles were released into the atmosphere

A few weeks before the Chernobyl disaster, US scientists performed a safety test on the EBR-II reactor by disabling cooling pumps and automatic protection systems at full thermal power. The core passively cooled itself as designed without human intervention or damage.

During the meltdown, Chernobyl electrician Oleksander Lelechenko saved his younger colleagues from radiation exposure by walking through radioactive water three times to effect emergency repairs alone. He died in a Kiev hospital less than a fortnight after the disaster

Because there was no containment building to trap the radiation, radioactive fallout drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the UK, and the eastern United States. Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were badly contaminated.

About 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus. 20% of the country was contaminated with radiation, affecting hundreds of thousands of people and mutating thousands of new born. Its far reaching effects mean even today the people of the country having a high rate of cancer and birth defects.

The Chernobyl disaster released approximately 400 times more radioactive fallout than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The first firemen to respond to the Chernobyl meltdown stood above the burning core, which emitted radiation at 30,000 roentgen per hour. When they died a few weeks later, their bodies were so radioactive they were buried in coffins made of lead with the lids welded shut.

Chernobyl firefighter Vladimir Pravik's eyes are believed to have changed from brown to blue due to the radiation exposure.

Nearly 300 construction workers showed up at 8 am to continue building Chernobyl Reactors 5 and 6, unaware of the Chernobyl disaster earlier that day. 

Sweden was the first to find out about the censored Chernobyl accident. It was discovered when one of the workers at the Forsmark power plant set off evacuation alarms when he had walked through grass that had been contaminated from radioactive rain picked up from Chernobyl over 800 miles away.

The Soviet Union announced the disaster a few days later, after Scandinavian countries reported abnormally high radioactivity levels in their skies.

The containment structure built during the Chernobyl disaster to prevent further release of radioactive material was the largest civil engineering feat in history, involving a quarter of a million construction workers who all reached their official lifetime limits for radiation.

David Bowie wrote the lyrics to his 1987 song "Time Will Crawl" after hearing of the Chernobyl disaster, and later chose the song as one of his favorites from his entire career.

It took until 2000 for the Chernobyl nuclear plant to be taken entirely offline.

Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who oversaw the dismantling of the USSR, has said that the Chernobyl explosion was “perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

About 5,000 people still work in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone—to keep their radiation levels low, they only work there for 15 days at a time.

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reactor number 4. By Matti Paavonen - Wikipedia

Wildlife in the area around Chernobyl has flourished after the disaster, implying that severe radiation is more manageable to animals than humans.

Fungi are growing on the walls of Chernobyl's ruined nuclear reactor. They seem to absorb radiation and convert it into chemical energy for growth.

Oksana Masters was born in Ukraine in 1989 with several birth defects caused by exposure to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, including six toes, webbed fingers, no thumbs, one leg 15cm shorter than the other, and missing some organs. Despite these challenges, she started skiing at the age of seven, and by the age of 13, she was competing in Paralympic competitions. In 2018, she won her first Paralympic gold medal in cross-country skiing.

The residents of Chernobyl had Slavutych, a new city in northern Ukraine, built for them by workers from eight former Soviet republics. The city has a range of different architectural styles such as pink stoned Armenian buildings and wooden Baltic-style houses. City districts are named after a city from each republic. . As of 2014, the city has a population of 25,112 inhabitants.

"Chernobyl" is the Ukrainian word for "wormwood." Many Christian commentators have linked the disaster to a prophecy in the New Testament Book of Revelation 8 v10-11: "The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter."

Chequers

Chequers is an old house in the Chilterns, to the west of London. A building has been on the site since the 12th century but the present house dates back to 1565. It was given neo-Gothic trimmings in the 19th century.

In 1565 Elizabeth I ordered that Lady Mary Grey, sister of Lady Jane Grey, be detained at Chequers for marrying without royal consent.

Chequers was bought in 1909 by Arthur Hamilton Lee (1868–1947, Conservative MP for Fareham 1900–18, later Viscount Lee of Fareham) and his American wife, Ruth as a country home. During World War I the house became a hospital and then a convalescent home for officers.

Following the end of hostilities and the reinstatement of Chequers as a country home the childless Lees formed a plan for the now restored and refurbished house, giving it to the nation as a country retreat for the serving Prime Minister.

The Lees left Chequers on January 8, 1921 after a final dinner at their country home. A political disagreement between the Lees and Lloyd George soured the hand-over, which went ahead nevertheless.

The first prime minister to use Chequers was David Lloyd George.

The estate surrounding the building known as Chequers covers about 1,000 acres.

Cheque (or Check)

Cheques (or checks in American English) were first used in the English Civil War when the wealthy stored cash in goldsmiths' safes.

The first known cheque was written (for £400) on February 16, 1659. It was merely a slip of paper with a payment instruction from merchant Nicholas Vanacker to his scrivener (17th century forerunners of bankers).

On January 1, 1772, The London Credit Exchange Company issued the first documents referred to as "circular credit letters" or "circular notes" which functioned similarly to modern travelers' cheques. These documents were valid in 90 European cities and could be exchanged for local currency. However, unlike later travelers' cheques, they weren't pre-denominated and required endorsement from the company on each transaction.

Cheques became common among the upper classes from the 1820s. The first literary use of the word cheque book was in the 1848 novel Vanity Fair.

Finnish banks stopped issuing checks  back in 1993, The Netherlands abolished the check in 2002, Denmark officially killed it in 2017,

In the US a check does not need to be written on a bank check. It can be written on anything (including clothing) and legally be cashed as long as the required information is included in it.

A rancher in Oregon named Bill Brown would often write checks on any paper available. This often included soup can labels and newspaper margins. As he was rich and known for this, the banks would cash the checks without question.