Myrtle Jones (born April 18, 1897) is a supercentenarian and, at age 110, the second-oldest living person in Australia. She is also one of the 70 oldest living persons in the world.
Born in Melbourne, Myrtle had three sons and a daughter, and now boasts 44 grand-children and great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. She celebrated her 100th birthday fulfilling a lifelong ambition with a ride on a fire truck. Jones said her secret for healthy living and a long life is "an onion a day to keep a cold away, an apple a day to keep the doctor away and to refrain from drinking alcohol".
Born in Melbourne, Myrtle had three sons and a daughter, and now boasts 44 grand-children and great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. She celebrated her 100th birthday fulfilling a lifelong ambition with a ride on a fire truck. Jones said her secret for healthy living and a long life is "an onion a day to keep a cold away, an apple a day to keep the doctor away and to refrain from drinking alcohol".
Spain established its colony of Santa Fe de Nuevo Méjico (New Mexico) on 1598-07-12. Spain claimed a huge, but unspecified, region within about one hundred leagues (approximately 345 miles or 556 kilometers) of the upper Rio Grande as part of this colony. This claim encompassed all of the present U.S. states of New Mexico and Colorado and adjacent areas.
A century later, France established its colony of la Louisiane on 1699-02-13. France claimed the entire drainage basin of the Mississippi River, although France had no idea that the basin was the Earth's second longest river system.
Spain assumed administration of la Louisiane as a result of the Treaty of Paris signed on 1763-02-10. Spain renamed the colony la Louisiana, but the colony retained its essential French character.
Thirteen British colonies declared their independence from the United Kingdom as the United States of America on 1776-07-04.
France reacquired la Louisiane as a result of the Treaty of San Ildefonso signed in secrecy on 1800-10-01, but France was ill equipped to resume control of its colony.
The United States acquired a claim to the entire Mississippi River drainage basin with its Louisiana Purchase from France on 1803-12-20. This claim conflicted with claim to the southern Rocky Mountain region.
In 1806 and 1807, a U.S. Army surveillance party under the command of Captain Zebulon Pike reconnoitered the disputed region between the Louisiana Purchase and the Spanish Province of New Mexico to assess military strength and intentions in the region.
México declared its independence on 1810-09-16, but Spain continued to assert its control. The United States ceded the region south and west of the Arkansas River to Spain (in exchange for Florida) with the Adams-Onís Treaty on 1821-02-22.
Six months later on 1821-08-24, Spain recognized the independence of México.
The Republic of Texas declared its independence from México on 1836-03-02. By virtue of the Treaties of Velasco signed on 1836-05-14, the Republic of Texas claimed all land between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas River, including a strip from the headwaters of the two rivers extending north to the 42nd parallel north, but Texas made no attempt to occupy this western region. México staunchly refuted this claim and insisted that the Rio Nueces was the legitimate border between the two nations.
The United States admitted Texas to the Union on 1845-12-29, and assumed the disputed territorial claims of the Republic of Texas. U.S. President James K. Polk sent U.S. troops to secure the disputed region between the Rio Nueces and the Rio Grande. The Mexican-American War ensued.
The United States secured the disputed Texas claims and acquired the remaining northern territory of Mexico at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on 1848-05-30.
The Compromise of 1850 set the northern and western boundaries of the State of Texas and organized the Territory of New Mexico and the Territory of Utah on 1850-09-09. On 1851-04-09, Hispanic settlers from Taos, New Mexico, settled San Luis, then in the new Territory of New Mexico, but now the oldest town in Colorado.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act organized the Territory of Kansas and the Territory of Nebraska on 1854-05-30.
Substantial quantities of gold were discovered along the South Platte River in western Kansas Territory in 1858, precipitating the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
The de facto but extralegal Territory of Jefferson governed the region from 1859-10-24, until 1861.
The anti-slavery Republican Party took control of the U.S. Congress following the U.S. election of 1860. Six slave states seceded from the United States as civil war loomed. The eastern portion of the Territory of Kansas was admitted to the Union as the free State of Kansas on 1861-01-29. This left the western portion of the former Kansas Territory unorganized.
Ten days later on 1861-02-08, the six slave states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana formed the Confederate States of America.
Twenty days later on 1861-02-28, outgoing U.S. President James Buchanan signed the Organic Act for the free Territory of Colorado. (No substantive changes have been made to the boundaries of Colorado since this act.) Abraham Lincoln assumed the U.S. Presidency four days later on 1861-03-04, and American Civil War soon commenced. The Territory of Jefferson dissolved shortly after Governor William Gilpin of the new Colorado Territory arrived.
On 1876-08-01, 28 days after the Centennial of the United States, U.S. President Ulysses Grant issued a Presidential Proclamation declaring that the Territory of Colorado had met the criteria set by the U.S. Congress and was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado, the 38th U.S. State.
The State of Colorado and the United States of America today.
A century later, France established its colony of la Louisiane on 1699-02-13. France claimed the entire drainage basin of the Mississippi River, although France had no idea that the basin was the Earth's second longest river system.
Spain assumed administration of la Louisiane as a result of the Treaty of Paris signed on 1763-02-10. Spain renamed the colony la Louisiana, but the colony retained its essential French character.
Thirteen British colonies declared their independence from the United Kingdom as the United States of America on 1776-07-04.
France reacquired la Louisiane as a result of the Treaty of San Ildefonso signed in secrecy on 1800-10-01, but France was ill equipped to resume control of its colony.
The United States acquired a claim to the entire Mississippi River drainage basin with its Louisiana Purchase from France on 1803-12-20. This claim conflicted with claim to the southern Rocky Mountain region.
In 1806 and 1807, a U.S. Army surveillance party under the command of Captain Zebulon Pike reconnoitered the disputed region between the Louisiana Purchase and the Spanish Province of New Mexico to assess military strength and intentions in the region.
México declared its independence on 1810-09-16, but Spain continued to assert its control. The United States ceded the region south and west of the Arkansas River to Spain (in exchange for Florida) with the Adams-Onís Treaty on 1821-02-22.
Six months later on 1821-08-24, Spain recognized the independence of México.
The Republic of Texas declared its independence from México on 1836-03-02. By virtue of the Treaties of Velasco signed on 1836-05-14, the Republic of Texas claimed all land between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas River, including a strip from the headwaters of the two rivers extending north to the 42nd parallel north, but Texas made no attempt to occupy this western region. México staunchly refuted this claim and insisted that the Rio Nueces was the legitimate border between the two nations.
The United States admitted Texas to the Union on 1845-12-29, and assumed the disputed territorial claims of the Republic of Texas. U.S. President James K. Polk sent U.S. troops to secure the disputed region between the Rio Nueces and the Rio Grande. The Mexican-American War ensued.
The United States secured the disputed Texas claims and acquired the remaining northern territory of Mexico at the conclusion of the Mexican-American War with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on 1848-05-30.
The Compromise of 1850 set the northern and western boundaries of the State of Texas and organized the Territory of New Mexico and the Territory of Utah on 1850-09-09. On 1851-04-09, Hispanic settlers from Taos, New Mexico, settled San Luis, then in the new Territory of New Mexico, but now the oldest town in Colorado.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act organized the Territory of Kansas and the Territory of Nebraska on 1854-05-30.
Substantial quantities of gold were discovered along the South Platte River in western Kansas Territory in 1858, precipitating the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
The de facto but extralegal Territory of Jefferson governed the region from 1859-10-24, until 1861.
The anti-slavery Republican Party took control of the U.S. Congress following the U.S. election of 1860. Six slave states seceded from the United States as civil war loomed. The eastern portion of the Territory of Kansas was admitted to the Union as the free State of Kansas on 1861-01-29. This left the western portion of the former Kansas Territory unorganized.
Ten days later on 1861-02-08, the six slave states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana formed the Confederate States of America.
Twenty days later on 1861-02-28, outgoing U.S. President James Buchanan signed the Organic Act for the free Territory of Colorado. (No substantive changes have been made to the boundaries of Colorado since this act.) Abraham Lincoln assumed the U.S. Presidency four days later on 1861-03-04, and American Civil War soon commenced. The Territory of Jefferson dissolved shortly after Governor William Gilpin of the new Colorado Territory arrived.
On 1876-08-01, 28 days after the Centennial of the United States, U.S. President Ulysses Grant issued a Presidential Proclamation declaring that the Territory of Colorado had met the criteria set by the U.S. Congress and was admitted to the Union as the State of Colorado, the 38th U.S. State.
The State of Colorado and the United States of America today.
The British panel game QI has had a cultural impact, mainly in Britain. It is the most popular programme of any kind on BBC Four, and has had several DVDs and books released. The most successful of these is The Book of General Ignorance, which reached Number 1 on best-seller list.
Other than these, QI has a successful website, http://www.qi.com, with a very popular talk forum, http://www.qi.com/talk, a club and its own philosophy.
Philosophy
The philosophy of QI states that most people believe that there are three primal drives that humans have. These are food, sex and shelter. QI however claims there is a fourth that ultimately separates humans from animals - curiosity. Another part of QI philosophy is that everything in the world, even the most boring things, is quite interesting, if looked at in the right way. The website states that:
"We live, they say, in The Information Age, yet almost none of the information we think we possess is true. Eskimos do not rub noses. The rickshaw was invented by an American. Joan of Arc was not French. Lenin was not Russian. The world is not solid, it is made of empty space and energy, and neither haggis, whisky, porridge, clan tartans nor kilts are Scottish. So we stand, silent, on a peak in Darien: a vast, rolling, teeming, untrodden territory before us. QI country. Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at in the right way. At one extreme, QI is serious, intensely scientific, deeply mystical; at the other it is hilarious, silly and frothy enough to please the most indolent couch-potato."
The QI Club
The headquarters of QI is the QI club, in 16 Turl Street, Oxford, on the corner of Turl Street and Ship Street. It is a four-storey Georgian building, erected in 1785 by Mr. Priddy to provide accommodation for the scholars of Exeter College. In 1820, it became a coffee house, and between 1945-1998 was the popular Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant (with several other businesses running on different floors, together with 'Staircase 15' of Exeter). When QI took over, they bought the entire building, uniting all floors and restoring its Georgian appearance.
The building itself consists of a bookshop, a café-bar and a vodka bar. It also has a number of rooms devoted to use by the private members club.
QI People
The QI Elves
The Elves devise the questions for QI. The Elves spend their time researching several topics, constantly trying to find things 'quite interesting'. Often, when a subject is brought up in the show, the Elves will contact the show mid-way to provide and even correct information given. The panellists are given the list of questions to be asked an hour or two before recording, but are forbidden to ask the Elves for preparatory materials or other help. It is known that Alan never does any preparation at all.
*Matt Coward
*Piers Fletcher
*Christopher Gray
*James Harkin
*Molly Oldfield
*Justin Pollard
*Vitali Vitaliev
Former Elves are:
Forum Members
The QI website has a large forum that currently has over 3,000 members. The forum contains several sections including the "Quite Interestrings", for general topics, the "Series Talk" section which are dedicated to different series, indicated by a letter of the alphabet, and "The Forum of General Ignorance", dedicated to things that are often misunderstood by most people. Some of the material written in the forums is used in the TV series.
QI News
On 27 June 2007 Warner Music announced that it would be launching a new Internet TV channel called Comedybox. The free-to-view channel will include a feature called QI News that will be based upon QI. John Lloyd, producer and creator of QI, has been employed to secure talent for the new channel. The channel launched on 17 September, 2007.
Products
DVDs
Three DVDs have been published by QI with another one to follow.
On 14 November 2005 an interactive QI DVD game, called QI: A Quite Interesting Game, was released by Warner Home Video. A second game DVD, QI Strictly Come Duncing was released in UK on 26th November 2007.
The BBC's DVD division, 2 entertain released the first TV series on DVD on 6 November 2006. The DVD also contains the pilot, which has never been broadcast, and features to date the only appearance of Eddie Izzard as a panellist. The DVD of series B has been announced although no release date has been indicated.
Books
On 5 October 2006, ' was published in hardback by Faber and Faber, written by John Lloyd and QI's head of research, John Mitchinson. There was also a foreword by Stephen Fry and "Four words by Alan Davies" - "Will this do, Stephen?". It contains a list of 200 popular misconceptions, most of which have appeared in the "General Ignorance" round of QI. On 8 December 2006, the book reached the top of best-seller list. The book is to be released in America (with a different cover) on 7 August 2007.
A second book, The Book of Animal Ignorance was released on 4 October 2007. An annual was published on 1 November 2007.
Other publications
A QI feature has appeared in magazine from its fifth issue and is based on facts and questions in the sphere of General Ignorance. From 10 February 2007 a weekly QI column began in The Telegraph; 52 columns are planned.
Other than these, QI has a successful website, http://www.qi.com, with a very popular talk forum, http://www.qi.com/talk, a club and its own philosophy.
Philosophy
The philosophy of QI states that most people believe that there are three primal drives that humans have. These are food, sex and shelter. QI however claims there is a fourth that ultimately separates humans from animals - curiosity. Another part of QI philosophy is that everything in the world, even the most boring things, is quite interesting, if looked at in the right way. The website states that:
"We live, they say, in The Information Age, yet almost none of the information we think we possess is true. Eskimos do not rub noses. The rickshaw was invented by an American. Joan of Arc was not French. Lenin was not Russian. The world is not solid, it is made of empty space and energy, and neither haggis, whisky, porridge, clan tartans nor kilts are Scottish. So we stand, silent, on a peak in Darien: a vast, rolling, teeming, untrodden territory before us. QI country. Whatever is interesting we are interested in. Whatever is not interesting, we are even more interested in. Everything is interesting if looked at in the right way. At one extreme, QI is serious, intensely scientific, deeply mystical; at the other it is hilarious, silly and frothy enough to please the most indolent couch-potato."
The QI Club
The headquarters of QI is the QI club, in 16 Turl Street, Oxford, on the corner of Turl Street and Ship Street. It is a four-storey Georgian building, erected in 1785 by Mr. Priddy to provide accommodation for the scholars of Exeter College. In 1820, it became a coffee house, and between 1945-1998 was the popular Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant (with several other businesses running on different floors, together with 'Staircase 15' of Exeter). When QI took over, they bought the entire building, uniting all floors and restoring its Georgian appearance.
The building itself consists of a bookshop, a café-bar and a vodka bar. It also has a number of rooms devoted to use by the private members club.
QI People
The QI Elves
The Elves devise the questions for QI. The Elves spend their time researching several topics, constantly trying to find things 'quite interesting'. Often, when a subject is brought up in the show, the Elves will contact the show mid-way to provide and even correct information given. The panellists are given the list of questions to be asked an hour or two before recording, but are forbidden to ask the Elves for preparatory materials or other help. It is known that Alan never does any preparation at all.
*Matt Coward
*Piers Fletcher
*Christopher Gray
*James Harkin
*Molly Oldfield
*Justin Pollard
*Vitali Vitaliev
Former Elves are:
Forum Members
The QI website has a large forum that currently has over 3,000 members. The forum contains several sections including the "Quite Interestrings", for general topics, the "Series Talk" section which are dedicated to different series, indicated by a letter of the alphabet, and "The Forum of General Ignorance", dedicated to things that are often misunderstood by most people. Some of the material written in the forums is used in the TV series.
QI News
On 27 June 2007 Warner Music announced that it would be launching a new Internet TV channel called Comedybox. The free-to-view channel will include a feature called QI News that will be based upon QI. John Lloyd, producer and creator of QI, has been employed to secure talent for the new channel. The channel launched on 17 September, 2007.
Products
DVDs
Three DVDs have been published by QI with another one to follow.
On 14 November 2005 an interactive QI DVD game, called QI: A Quite Interesting Game, was released by Warner Home Video. A second game DVD, QI Strictly Come Duncing was released in UK on 26th November 2007.
The BBC's DVD division, 2 entertain released the first TV series on DVD on 6 November 2006. The DVD also contains the pilot, which has never been broadcast, and features to date the only appearance of Eddie Izzard as a panellist. The DVD of series B has been announced although no release date has been indicated.
Books
On 5 October 2006, ' was published in hardback by Faber and Faber, written by John Lloyd and QI's head of research, John Mitchinson. There was also a foreword by Stephen Fry and "Four words by Alan Davies" - "Will this do, Stephen?". It contains a list of 200 popular misconceptions, most of which have appeared in the "General Ignorance" round of QI. On 8 December 2006, the book reached the top of best-seller list. The book is to be released in America (with a different cover) on 7 August 2007.
A second book, The Book of Animal Ignorance was released on 4 October 2007. An annual was published on 1 November 2007.
Other publications
A QI feature has appeared in magazine from its fifth issue and is based on facts and questions in the sphere of General Ignorance. From 10 February 2007 a weekly QI column began in The Telegraph; 52 columns are planned.
Carrie Lazenby (February 9, 1882 - September 14, 1996) was an American supercentenarian. She died at 114 years and 218 days, making her the 32nd oldest person to ever live (tied with Japanese woman Ura Koyama), the fifteenth-oldest American person ever, and the sixth-oldest black person. Lazenby is also still the oldest person ever in Georgia.