1. These two events, the former at a costume ball in Stockholm, the latter in Seattle, happened on the same date, 135 years apart. Not only that, the years have the same exact four digits.
2. She claims she was 55 days younger, but this cannot be verified. The documentation was lost or destroyed during the Nazi occupation.
3. Perhaps the creative urge with sports is genetic. One of his more popular songs was called “Lawn Tennis.”
4. His other film was, of course, one of the top-grossing films of all time. Lee Marvin, on the other hand, had no other films that year.
5. November 29, 1633, in Paris.
6. Vida Blue (twice), Bobby Valentine (twice), and Bob Oliver.
7. The game featured the fifth-to-last career home runs for two different hall-of-famers.
8. Joining Lou Gehrig, Al Kaline, Dave Winfield, and Tom Landry, among others.
9. It was the first overtime game in USFL history.
10. It featured the first female ape in outer space.
1. Love this posting.
1849 and 1984?
2. Nope.
3. You can probably google all of these, except #2, which is related to #1.
4. 1792 and 1927?
5. Yes, those are the years.
6. Bit by bit we go:
Part 1A, March 16, 1792, Jacob Johan Anckarstroem fatally shot Gustav III, King of Sweden, during a masquerade at the Opera in Stockholm. I'm having a hell of a time with the 3/16/1927 event, though.
7. You have to remember that this is from my unwritten autobiography. Every footnote has to tie back to me somehow.
8. 1. The first event took place in 1792 was the assassination of King Gustav III. The second event, I'm guessing, was the birth of a parent or grandparent, depending on your age.
2. No clue.
3. I can only assume you are a decendent of Wilhelm Peterson-Berger?
4. The actor in question is Mark Hamill, the top-grossing film that year was 'The Empire Strikes Back' and the movie he was in with Marvin was 'The Big Red One'.
5. The official "birth" of the Company of the Daughters of Charity?
6. I want to say this has something to do with no-hitters. I know Blue was on the losing end of two no-no's (Palmer and Bibby)--in addition to throwing two of his own--and I know Valentine and Oliver were teammates for one of Ryan's no-hitters. Hmmm...
7. No idea. Guessed Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson off the bat but was wrong.
8. Famous Lutherans, like yourself?
9. Birmingham beat Oakland, 20-14, on March 13, 1983 in the first USFL overtime game. I can only assume you were at that game if it was in Oakland.
10. "It", I'm guess, is the Jupiter missle "AM-18", launched on May 28, 1959. On board was Able, a female rhesus monkey.
How all these trace back to you, I have no idea.
9. Joe:
1. Correct.
2. n/a
3. Close.
4. Right.
5. Yes.
6. Nope.
7. Good guess, but not quite right.
8. Yes.
9. Yes.
10. No.
10. Thanks for the quick feedback. Can't wait to find out the answers and how they relate to you!
11. The winner of the 1985 Bulwer-Lytton award for opening line of the worst possible novel mentioned Desiree, the first female ape to go up in space. Was that your #10?
12. Graciebarn: you are correct.
13. Got the answer to #6:
http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B06190OAK1976.htm
June 19, 1976, Oakland 7, Milwaukee 4, at Oakland. Fifth-to-last homers of Hank Aaron's and Billy Williams' careers.
I presume you were there.
14. Whoops! The above isn't the answer to #6, it's the answer to #7!!
15. Al is correct on #7. He's getting warmer, warmer, warmer on #6, too.
So far we have (event/connection):
1. Yes/almost
2. No/no (follows from #1)
3. Yes/almost
4. Yes/no
5. Yes/no
6. No/no
7. Yes/yes
8. Yes/yes
9. Yes/yes
10. Yes/no
16. I'll assume that the winner of the 1985 prize was your wife or other female relative.
17. Wild-ass guess for #6:
Players from whom you have caught foul balls in the stands.
18. Comments 16 and 17: nope.
19. The Scorebard has previously disclosed that he has not caught a ball in a major league game, but caught one in his first minor league game.
20. OK, time to pull back the curtain.
1. Ankarström assasinated King Gustaf III on March 16, 1792. I am related to Ankarström on my mother's side of the family. My father was born exactly 135 years later.
2. My mom was born 55 days after my dad, in Norway.
3. I am related to the Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger on my father's mother's side of the family. (Not directly descended, however.)
4. The title of the movie "The Big Red One" refers to the patch worn on the uniforms of the First Armored Infantry division of the US Army. My father was stationed in Germany in that division shortly after V-E Day. (The movie takes place before V-E Day).
5. Company of the Daughters of Charity was founded in Paris on the date listed, and eventually went on to found several hospitals in the United States, including the one I was born in.
6. These are the players who committed errors in the first major league baseball game I ever attended. http://tinyurl.com/a7zuf
7. I witnessed Hank Aaron's and Billy Williams' fifth-to-last home runs on June 19, 1976.
8. I was confirmed in a Lutheran church in Sweden. The others names are also Lutherans.
9. I was at the game.
10. The Bulwer-Lytton contest is the claim to fame of the San Jose State English Department, where I studied my first two years of college, before I transfered to Berkeley.
21. Good stuff! So when's the unwritten autobiography going to be written? :-)
22. Clearly, the secret to publishing success is to publish all the footnotes first, then build up interest in the main text.
23. Blogging is probably as close to writing an autobiography as I'll ever get.