When is Independence Day in other countries?

Shakespeare used the word in King Lear to describe a devil, and Sir Walter Scott used it in Kenilworth to describe a young rascal. But the meaning Rodgers and Hammerstein intended, a talkative or dizzy person, arose in 1549, in a sermon by Bishop Hugh Latimer for King Edward VI. Latimer spelled the word flybbertgybe.

Born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry in 1902, the black actor Stepin Fetchit got his stage name from a racehorse on which he bet and won a large sum of money. The name has since become a term of derision among blacks for someone subservient to whites. Fetchit died in 1985.

John Wayne (1907-1979) has played the most leading roles. He had a leading role in all but 11 of his 153 movies. His career began with The Drop Kick in 1927 and ended with The Shootist in 1976.

Groundhog Day is observed in February because of latitude. German immigrants to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, brought an older version of Groundhog Day to America, one in which badgers predict the weather. The immigrants discovered that, in the United States, groundhogs are easier to find. At the latitude of Punxsutawney, a groundhog emerges from hibernation in February.

Asia, by far is the most populous continent. Its population in 1989, including the Soviet Union’s, was estimated at 3.35 billion. The next most populous continent, Africa, had only 646 million people. Antarctica, the least populous continent, is virtually uninhabited.

Rocky Lane, a cowboy movie hero whose films included: King of the Mounties, Red Gulch Renegades, and Silver City Kid. On at least one occasion, George Burns also supplied Mr. Ed’s voice.