From the files of the Black Baron: Casefile #101225 - Lesser Barons

Since search engines tend to bring folks here looking for other items sharing my title, so I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to post links to a few others that share my title... if not my infamy.

Michael Wittmann, German tank commander during World War 2.

Robert Munro, 18th Baron of Foulis in Scotland.

18th Aviation Brigade of the United States Army. (inactive)

The Birmingham Black Barons, professional Negro League baseball team from 1920 to 1960.

Brabus E V12 Black Baron, modified 2010 E-Class Mercedes Benz.

Red Army March - White Army, Black Baron performed by the Red Army Choir.

All right you primitive screwheads, listen up!

This is a heads-up from your beloved Baron!

On Sunday November 7 at 8:00 pm ET, Turner Classic Movies will be showing the recently refound and restored version of Metropolis, having restored to the film much of what had been lost earlier in the 20th century due to ham-handed executive meddling.

So, if you're a fan of the great grand-daddy of modern science fiction you'll be there on November 7th with popcorn in hand.

Metropolis

Metropolis - The Restoration

Metropolis Refound

Be there, or else.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #33

In California it is against the law for any vehicle without a driver to exceed 60 miles per hour.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #32

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that 1 mile in every 5 must be straight.

These straight sections are usable as airstrips in emergency situations.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #31

Dolphins and Humans are the only mammals that have sex for pleasure.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #30

During World War II, the Soviet military assembled a unit of, so-called, "anti-tank dogs", who were trained to be used to destroy tanks, basically they had explosives strapped to them and they were made to dive under the enemy tanks setting off the explosives...

This plan, however, was doomed to failure because Russian tanks had been used for the training which caused the dogs to attack them instead of the German Panzers or the dogs would become frightened and head back to their handlers, triggering the explosives when they dove back into the Soviet trenches..

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #29

The world's first website, created in May of 1990, is still active at http://info.cern.ch/.

The historic NeXT computer used by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990,

on display in the Microcosm exhibition at CERN.

It was the first web server, hypermedia browser and web editor.

So yes, my little chitterlings, there was a world before the internet.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #28

Modern paleontology, the science of studying dinosaur fossils, began in 1858 with the discovery of the first nearly complete skeleton of a dinosaur in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

The Hadrosaurus is the official New Jersey state dinosaur.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #27

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #26

On April 24, 1898, Spain declared war on the U.S., thus starting the Spanish-American War. The U.S. declared war the very next day but, not wanting to be outdone, had the date on the declaration changed from April 25 to April 21.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #25

Duracell, the battery maker, built parts of its international headquarters using materials from its own waste.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #24

Americans, on average, spend 18% of their income on transportation as compared to only 12% spent on food and only 7% of that is for food at home.

The Black Baron's Random Fact(s) of the Unspecified Time Period - #23

In Connecticut you can be stopped by the police for biking over 65 miles per hour.

Also, you are not allowed to walk across a street on your hands.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #22

Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #21

On September 10th, 1945 a Colorado farmer attempting to dispatch a chicken for dinner ended up with one of the biggest non-hoaxes of the era and a place in the Guinness World Book of Records for the headless chicken who survived the longest.

Lloyd Olsen had been sent out to the yard to sacrifice a plump young rooster of about six months.

And guess who was coming to dinner to eat it... His mother-in-law.

Knowing how she favored the neck, Olsen went about his task with the idea of keeping on the mother in law's good side, by keeping most of the neck on the chicken.

He succeeded in a way he'd never have expected in his wildest dreams.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #20

Kansas state law requires pedestrians crossing the highways at night to wear tail lights.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #19

The IRS employees tax manual has instructions for collecting taxes after a nuclear war.

In 1989, revisions to IRS law laid down the exact procedure for the department to follow in the event of nuclear war.

Immediately after an attack the IRS was to prioritize itself and collect those taxes which yield the most income.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #18

Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence…

Five were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr. noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #17

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War 2 killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

The Black Baron's Random Fact of the Unspecified Time Period - #16

Each of the suits on a deck of cards represents the four major pillars of the economy in the middle ages: heart represented the Church, spades represented the military, clubs represented agriculture, and diamonds represented the merchant class.