Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts, with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, based on Edna Ferber's best-selling novel of the same name. The musical follows the lives of the performers and dock workers on the Cotton Blossom, a Mississippi River show boat, over 40 years from 1887 to 1927, its themes include tragic, enduring love. The musical contributed such classic songs as "Ol' Man River", "Make Believe", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"; the musical was first produced in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfeld. The premiere of Show Boat on Broadway was an important event in the history of American musical theatre, it "was a radical departure in musical storytelling, marrying spectacle with seriousness", compared with the trivial and unrealistic operettas, light musical comedies and "Follies"-type musical revues that defined Broadway in the 1890s and early 20th century. According to The Complete Book of Light Opera: Here we come to a new genre – the musical play as distinguished from musical comedy.
Now … the play was the thing, everything else was subservient to that play. Now … came complete integration of song and production numbers into a single and inextricable artistic entity; the quality of Show Boat was recognized by critics, it is revived. Awards did not exist for Broadway shows in 1927, when the show premiered, or in 1932 when its first revival was staged. Late 20th-century revivals of Show Boat have won both the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival. In doing research for her proposed novel Show Boat, writer Edna Ferber spent five days on the James Adams Floating Palace Theatre in Bath, North Carolina, gathering material about a disappearing American entertainment venue, the river showboat. In a few weeks, she gained what she called a "treasure trove of show-boat material, touching, true". Ferber researched these American showboats for months prior to her stay on the Floating Palace Theatre. Jerome Kern was impressed by the novel and, hoping to adapt it as a musical, asked the critic Alexander Woollcott to introduce him to Ferber in October 1926.
Woollcott introduced them that evening during the intermission of Kern's latest musical, Criss Cross. Ferber was at first shocked. After being assured by Kern that he did not want to adapt it as the typical frivolous "girlie" show of the 1920s, she granted him and his collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II the rights to set her novel to music. After composing most of the first-act songs and Hammerstein auditioned their material for producer Florenz Ziegfeld, thinking that he was the person to create the elaborate production they felt necessary for Ferber's sprawling work. Ziegfeld was impressed with the show and agreed to produce it, writing the next day, "This is the best musical comedy I have been fortunate to get a hold of. Though Ziegfeld anticipated opening his new theatre on Sixth Avenue with Show Boat, the epic nature of the work required an unusually long gestation period and extensive changes during out-of-town tryouts. Impatient with Kern and Hammerstein and worried about the serious tone of the musical, Ziegfeld decided to open his theatre in February 1927 with Rio Rita, a musical by Kern's collaborator Guy Bolton.
When Rio Rita proved to be a success, Show Boat's Broadway opening was delayed until Rita could be moved to another theatre. Note: Although the basic plot of Show Boat has always remained the same, over the years revisions and alterations were made by the creators, over time by subsequent producers and directors; some of these revisions were for length and some for convenience, as when a different actor played a certain role and was unable to perform a specialty piece written for the role's creator. Some have been made to reflect contemporary sensitivities toward race and other social issues. Act IIn 1887, the show boat Cotton Blossom arrives at the river dock in Mississippi; the Reconstruction era had ended a decade earlier, white-dominated Southern legislatures have imposed racial segregation and Jim Crow rules. The boat's owner, Cap'n Andy Hawks, introduces his actors to the crowd on the levee. A fistfight breaks out between Steve Baker, the leading man of the troupe, Pete, a rough engineer, making passes at Steve's wife, the leading lady Julie La Verne.
Steve knocks Pete down, Pete swears revenge, suggesting he knows a dark secret about Julie. Cap'n Andy pretends to the shocked crowd that the fight was a preview of one of the melodramas to be performed; the troupe exits with the showboat band, the crowd follows. A handsome riverboat gambler, Gaylord Ravenal, appears on the levee and is taken with eighteen-year-old Magnolia Hawks, an aspiring performer and the daughter of Cap'n Andy and his wife Parthenia Ann. Magnolia is smitten with Ravenal, she seeks advice from Joe, a black dock worker aboard the boat, who has returned from buying flour for his wife Queenie, the ship's cook. He replies that there are "lots like on the river." As Magnolia goes inside the boat to tell her friend Julie about the handsome stranger, Joe mutters that she ought to ask the river for advice. He and the other dock workers reflect on the wisdom and indifference of "Ol' Man River", who doesn't seem to care what the world's troubles are, but "jes' keeps rollin' along".
Magnolia finds Julie inside and a
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows south for 2,320 miles to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U. S. two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is within the United States; the Mississippi ranks as the fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana. Native Americans have lived along its tributaries for thousands of years. Most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies; the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the native way of life as first explorers settlers, ventured into the basin in increasing numbers.
The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, the early United States, as a vital transportation artery and communications link. In the 19th century, during the height of the ideology of manifest destiny, the Mississippi and several western tributaries, most notably the Missouri, formed pathways for the western expansion of the United States. Formed from thick layers of the river's silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile regions of the United States. During the American Civil War, the Mississippi's capture by Union forces marked a turning point towards victory, due to the river's strategic importance to the Confederate war effort; because of substantial growth of cities and the larger ships and barges that replaced steamboats, the first decades of the 20th century saw the construction of massive engineering works such as levees and dams built in combination. A major focus of this work has been to prevent the lower Mississippi from shifting into the channel of the Atchafalaya River and bypassing New Orleans.
Since the 20th century, the Mississippi River has experienced major pollution and environmental problems – most notably elevated nutrient and chemical levels from agricultural runoff, the primary contributor to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone. The word Mississippi itself comes from Misi zipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, Misi-ziibi. In the 18th century, the river was the primary western boundary of the young United States, since the country's expansion westward, the Mississippi River has been considered a convenient if approximate dividing line between the Eastern and Midwestern United States, the Western United States; this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase "Trans-Mississippi" as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, it is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, such as "the highest peak east of the Mississippi" or "the oldest city west of the Mississippi". The FCC uses it as the dividing line for broadcast call-signs, which begin with W to the east and K to the west, mixing together in media markets along the river.
The Mississippi River can be divided into three sections: the Upper Mississippi, the river from its headwaters to the confluence with the Missouri River. The Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri, it is divided into two sections: The headwaters, 493 miles from the source to Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca, 1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, Minnesota; the name "Itasca" was chosen to designate the "true head" of the Mississippi River as a combination of the last four letters of the Latin word for truth and the first two letters of the Latin word for head. However, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, the waterway's flow is moderated by 43 dams. Fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation.
The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all contain locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river. Taken as a whole, these 43 dams shape the geography and influence the ecology of the upper river. Beginning just below Saint Paul and continuing throughout the upper and lower river, the Mississippi is further controlled by thousands of wing dikes that moderate the river's flow in order to maintain an open navigation channel and prevent the river from eroding its banks; the head of navigation on the Mississippi is the Coon Rapids Dam in Minnesota. Before it was built in 1913, steamboats could go upstream as far as Saint Cloud, depending on river conditions; the uppermost lock and dam on the Upper Mississippi River is the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock an
Goldenrod (showboat)
The showboat Goldenrod was designated U. S. National Historic Landmark on 24 December 1967, she was placed on the'Threatened Historical Landmarks' list in 2001. One of two remaining examples of the modern era of showboats that ended in the 1920s, Goldenrod is the largest and most elaborately decorated of the showboats, she provided entertainment in the form of minstrel shows and serious drama. The boat is designed in the manner of a 19th-century showboat rather than a late 20th century one, in other words, not like a paddlewheeler steamboat. A devastating fire sealed the fate of this historical showboat in October 2017. Goldenrod was built in 1909 by Pope Dock Company of Parkersburg, West Virginia for W. R. Markle at a cost $75,000. At 200 feet long and 45 feet wide, she had an auditorium 162 feet long with twenty-one red velour upholstered boxes and a seating capacity of 1,400. In 1910, twenty-one plied the Mississippi, visiting 15 mid-western states. By 1928, this number had dwindled to eleven, by 1938, only five remained in operation.
Between the Great Depression and increased mobility, the days of the showboat were all but over. Goldenrod was the last showboat to work the Mississippi. Under the ownership of Capt. Bill Menke, she was moored at the St. Louis riverfront in 1937. By 1950, she had been sunk and salvaged twice. Shows were still being staged, for 75 cents a head, St. Louis playgoers could board the boat and "sass the actors" on stage. On 1 June 1962, a disastrous fire, caused by an electrical short, all but destroyed the superstructure of the auditorium, caused severe damage to the entire structure; the Goldenrod was purchased by a group of St. Louis businessmen headed by Frank C. Pierson and Don Franz, restored to her original glory, beyond. Plush carpeting was laid in the auditorium, with cabaret seating, under a huge crystal chandelier. Many antique appointments were salvaged from old St. Louis mansions being torn down. Brass fixtures and rails were replaced, as was the tin ceiling and elaborate woodwork. A cocktail lounge was added, with a small bandstand where the St. Louis Ragtimers band played traditional ragtime for many years.
The upstairs staterooms were converted into a buffet dining room. When this $300,000 renovation was completed, Goldenrod had her Grand Re-Opening in May, 1965. In 1967, she was registered as a National Historic Landmark. Mr. Pierson owned the Becky Thatcher, a former packet boat, traveling no more but moored beside Goldenrod, featuring a restaurant and gift shop. Beginning in the early 1960s to about 1985, the National Ragtime Festival at St. Louis was held in June aboard Goldenrod. Many vintage jazz and ragtime bands were featured, including The Salty Dogs. From 1975 to 1984, Goldenrod was operated as a sister theater to the Heritage Square Opera House in Golden, presenting a unique style of melodrama plus vaudeville olio, in a high energy format created by G. William Oakley of Denver, Colorado. During this same period, the National Ragtime Festivals, produced by Oakley, became an annual phenomenon on the St. Louis riverfront. In 1989, Goldenrod was purchased by the city of St. Charles for $300,000 and moved to the historic Missouri River town.
She was renovated, costing the city about 3.5 million dollars over the next 12 years. The dinner theater continued to operate as a popular attraction. In 2001, she was run aground. Goldenrod was closed due to Coast Guard structural repair requirements; the repair estimates were much higher than expected, the City Council decided to sell her in 2002. When no one offered to buy her, the council decided to give her away. Four groups submitted proposals, the council chose Lewis and Clark Landing, a firm headed by John Schwarz. Goldenrod was moved to storage near the Poplar Street Bridge in downtown St. Louis, she was moved to Kampsville, where she is moored on the Illinois River. Schwarz' original intention was to place her in a protective basin to be constructed near her mooring location, but the plan never happened. Goldenrod was, towed to a mooring spot next to the tugboat America, owned by Shelia Prokuski and Randy Newingham. In 2006, a civil suit was filed against Schwarz in an attempt to collect $24,000 in mooring fees owed to Prokuski.
The case was supposed to have been settled, with Schwarz retaining ownership of Goldenrod while he found new mooring for the boat. Schwarz did not move the boat, she was sold at a sheriff's auction in October 2007. Since there were no other bids on her, Prokuski bought her for $5,000; as of 15 January 2008, the showboat's future was still uncertain. She remains moored in Calhoun County and mired in court as questions remain about the legality of the sale; the judge, Richard Greenleaf, said the proper paperwork had not been filed for the auction, so he has not signed off on the sale. The couple have to wait until the title clears. Though it has been reported they will sell the historic boat for scrap, Newingham has denied this. Since 2010, Goldenrod has been under the care of Steve Debellis, Jacob Medford and the Historic Riverboat Preservation Association. In 2015 the hull buckled when the vessel ended up on uneven land after river levels dropped while it was being moved to the riverbank. With insufficient funds to save the ship, the Historic Riverboat Preservation Association decided to save the pilothouse and as much of the interior furnishings as possible for incorporation into museum displays.
Work on removing interior furnishings proceeded on Saturdays and Sundays f
Sugar Ray Leonard
Ray Charles Leonard, best known as "Sugar" Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, occasional actor. Regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed from 1977 to 1997, winning world titles in five weight divisions. Leonard was part of "The Fabulous Four", a group of boxers who all fought each other throughout the 1980s, consisting of himself, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler. "The Fabulous Four" created a wave of popularity in the lower weight classes that kept boxing relevant in the post-Muhammad Ali era, during which Leonard defeated future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Hearns, Durán, Wilfred Benítez. Leonard was the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, was named "Boxer of the Decade" in the 1980s; the Ring magazine named him Fighter of the Year in 1979 and 1981, while the Boxing Writers Association of America named him Fighter of the Year in 1976, 1979, 1981. In 2002, Leonard was voted by The Ring as the ninth greatest fighter of the last 80 years.
Sugar Ray Leonard is ranked #2 greatest welterweight boxer of all time and #11 greatest boxer of all time by Boxing Action Magazine. Leonard, the fifth of seven children of Cicero and Getha Leonard, was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, he was named after his mother's favorite singer. The family moved to Washington, D. C. when he was three, they settled permanently in Palmer Park, Maryland when he was ten. His father worked as his mother was a nurse, he attended Parkdale High School, Leonard was a shy child, aside from the time he nearly drowned in a creek during a flood in Seat Pleasant, his childhood was uneventful. He stayed home a lot, playing with his dog, his mother said: "He never did talk too much. We never could tell, but I never had any problems with him. I never had to go to school once because of him." Leonard started boxing at the Palmer Park Recreation Center in 1969. His older brother, started boxing first. Roger helped urging the center's director, Ollie Dunlap, to form a team. Dave Jacobs, a former boxer, Janks Morton volunteered as boxing coaches.
Roger won some showed them off in front of Ray, goading him to start boxing. In 1972, Leonard boxed in the featherweight quarterfinals of the National AAU Tournament, losing by decision to Jerome Artis, it was his first defeat. That year, he boxed in the Eastern Olympic Trials; the rules stated that a boxer had to be seventeen to box in international competition, so Leonard, only sixteen, lied about his age. He made it to the lightweight semifinals, losing a disputed decision to Greg Whaley, who took such a beating that he wasn't allowed to continue in the trials and never boxed again. Sarge Johnson, assistant coach of the US Olympic Boxing Team, said to Dave Jacobs, "That kid you got is sweet as sugar"; the nickname stuck. However, given his style and first name, it was only a matter of time before people started calling him Sugar Ray, after the man many consider to be the best boxer of all time, Sugar Ray Robinson. In 1973, Leonard won the National Golden Gloves Lightweight Championship, but lost to Randy Shields in the lightweight final of the National AAU Tournament.
The following year, Leonard won the National Golden Gloves and National AAU Lightweight Championships. Leonard suffered his last two losses as an amateur in 1974, he lost a disputed decision to Anatoli Kamnev in Moscow, after which, Kamnev gave the winner's trophy to Leonard. In Poland, Kazimierz Szczerba was given a decision victory over Leonard though he was dominated in the first two rounds and dropped three times in the third. Leonard won the National Golden Gloves and National AAU Light Welterweight Championships in 1974; the following year, he again won the National AAU Light Welterweight Championship, as well as the Light Welterweight Championship at the Pan American Games. In 1976, Leonard made the U. S. Olympic Team as the light welterweight representative; the team included Leon and Michael Spinks, Howard Davis, Jr. Leo Randolph, Charles Mooney, John Tate. Many consider the 1976 U. S. team to be the greatest boxing team in the history of the Olympics. Leonard won his first four Olympic bouts by 5–0 decisions.
He faced Kazimierz Szczerba in the semifinals and won by a 5–0 decision, avenging his last amateur loss. In the final, Leonard boxed the great Cuban knockout artist Andrés Aldama, who scored five straight knockouts to reach the final. Leonard landed several good left hooks in the first round. In the second, he dropped Aldama with a left to the chin. Late in the final round, he again hurt Aldama, which brought a standing eight count from the referee. With only a few seconds left in the fight, a Leonard combination forced another standing eight count. Leonard was awarded a 5 -- the Olympic Gold Medal. Afterward, Leonard announced, "I'm finished... I've fought my last fight. My journey has ended, my dream is fulfilled. Now I want to go to school." He was given a scholarship to the University of Maryland, a gift from the citizens of Glenarden, Maryland. He planned to study communications, he finished his amateur career with a record of 145–5 and 75 KOs. 1973 National Golden Gloves Lightweight Champion, defeating Hilmer Kenty 1973 National AAU Light Welterweight Championship runner-up, losing to Randy Shields 1974 National Golden Gloves Light Welterweight Champion, defeating Jeff Lemeir 1974 National AAU Light Welterweight Champion, defeating
Pusher (boat)
A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats; these vessels are characterized by a square bow, a shallow draft, have knees, which are large plates mounted to the bow for pushing barges of various heights. These boats operate on rivers and inland waterways. Multiple barges lashed together, or a boat and any barges lashed to it, are referred to as a "tow" and can have dozens of barges. Many of these vessels the long distances, or long haul boats, include living quarters for the crew. Towboats engine output range from less than 600 horsepower up to 11,100 horsepower. Most towboats are from 35 to 200 feet long, 21 to 56 feet wide. Smaller boats are used in harbors, fleeting areas and around locks while larger boats operate in "line-haul" operations over long distances and between major ports. In the United States, south of the Chain of Rocks Lock across from St. Louis on the Mississippi River, the river is open with no locks or impediments other than channel size and depth.
Larger boats can run this segment of the river with the maximum tow size of 42 barges southbound and 40+ northbound. A typical River tow might be 35 to 42 barges, each about 200 feet long by 35 feet wide, configured in a rectangular shape 6 to 7 barges long and 5 to 6 barges wide, depending on the number of barges in tow; the whole tow, excluding the towboat, can be over 1,200 feet long and 200 feet wide, covering over 6 acres and holding thousands of tons of cargo. In the United States above St. Louis on the Upper Mississippi River and on other rivers such as the Illinois, Arkansas and Cumberland, boats can handle only up to 16 barges including a "hip" barge due the size of lock chambers; these boats tend to be limited to 5,000 horsepower. Towboats in line-haul service operate 24/7 and have the latest in navigational equipment, such as color radar, GPS systems, electronic river charts, specialized radio communications. Boats that traverse the Intracoastal Waterway are referred to as "ditch boats" or "canal boats".
ICW tows consist of 1 to 4 barges ranging in size "strung out" end to end when loaded or "breasted up" side by side when empty. Towboats always push the "tow" of barges, which are lashed together with steel cables 1 to 1.5 in in diameter. The term towboat arises from steamboat days, when steamboat fortunes began to decline and to survive steamboats began to "tow" wooden barges alongside to earn additional revenue; the railroad expansion following the American Civil War ended the steamboat era. During the 19th century, towboats were used to push showboats, which lacked steam engines to free up space for a theater. Binnenvaartmuseum in Dordrecht, South Holland, Netherlands is centered around René Siegfried, a River Rhine pusher boat, built in 1963 and decommissioned in 1989. American Waterways Operators River cruise Riverboat Paddle steamer Sampan Tugboat Lehman, Charles F.. A riverman’s lexicon: in Lehman’s terms. Florissant, Mo.: J. R. Simpson & Associates. ISBN 978-0-9841503-0-4. Nautical terminology specific to towboating and inland waterways.
Casto, James E.. Towboat on the Ohio. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-2970-9. Retrieved 23 July 2017. Coomer, James. Life on the Ohio. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-9108-9. Retrieved 23 July 2017. "Diesel Engines For Towboat", December 1931, Popular Mechanics bottom of page 981
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race, held annually in Louisville, United States, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds at a distance of one and a quarter miles at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings fillies 121 pounds; the race is called "The Run for the Roses" on account of the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is known in the United States as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sports" or "The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports" in reference to its approximate duration, it is the first leg of the American Triple Crown and is followed by the Preakness Stakes the Belmont Stakes. Unlike the Preakness and Belmont Stakes, which took hiatuses in 1891–1893 and 1911–1912 the Kentucky Derby has been run every consecutive year since 1875; the Derby and Belmont all were run every year throughout the Great Depression and both World Wars. A horse must win all three races to win the Triple Crown.
In the 2015 listing of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, the Kentucky Derby tied with the Whitney Handicap as the top Grade 1 race in the United States outside the Breeders' Cup races. The attendance at the Kentucky Derby ranks first in North America and surpasses the attendance of all other stakes races including the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, the Breeders' Cup. In 1872, Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, traveled to England, visiting Epsom in Surrey where The Derby had been running annually since 1780. From there, Clark went on to Paris, where in 1863, a group of racing enthusiasts had formed the French Jockey Club and had organized the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp, which at the time was the greatest race in France. Returning home to Kentucky, Clark organized the Louisville Jockey Club for the purpose of raising money to build quality racing facilities just outside the city; the track would soon become known as Churchill Downs, named for John and Henry Churchill, who provided the land for the racetrack.
The racetrack was incorporated as Churchill Downs in 1937. The Kentucky Derby was first run at 1 1/2 miles the same distance as the Epsom Derby; the distance was changed in 1896 to its current 1 1/4 miles. On May 17, 1875, in front of an estimated crowd of 10,000 people, a field of 15 three-year-old horses contested the first Derby. Under jockey Oliver Lewis, a colt named Aristides, trained by future Hall of Famer Ansel Williamson, won the inaugural Derby; that year, Lewis rode Aristides to a second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes. Although the first race meeting proved a success, the track ran into financial difficulties and in 1894 the New Louisville Jockey Club was incorporated with new capitalization and improved facilities. Despite this, the business floundered until 1902 when Col. Matt Winn of Louisville put together a syndicate of businessmen to acquire the facility. Under Winn, Churchill Downs prospered and the Kentucky Derby became the preeminent stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses in North America.
Thoroughbred owners began sending their successful Derby horses to compete in the Preakness Stakes at the Pimlico Race Course, in Baltimore, followed by the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York. The three races offered large purses and in 1919 Sir Barton became the first horse to win all three races. However, the term Triple Crown didn't come into use for another eleven years. In 1930, when Gallant Fox became the second horse to win all three races, sportswriter Charles Hatton brought the phrase into American usage. Fueled by the media, public interest in the possibility of a "superhorse" that could win the Triple Crown began in the weeks leading up to the Derby. Two years after the term was coined, the race, run in mid-May since inception, was changed to the first Saturday in May to allow for a specific schedule for the Triple Crown races. Since 1931, the order of Triple Crown races has been the Kentucky Derby first, followed by the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Prior to 1931, eleven times the Preakness was run before the Derby.
On May 12, 1917 and again on May 13, 1922, the Preakness and the Derby were run on the same day. On eleven occasions the Belmont Stakes was run before the Preakness Stakes. On May 16, 1925, the first live radio broadcast of the Kentucky Derby was originated by WHAS and was carried by WGN in Chicago. On May 7, 1949, the first television coverage of the Kentucky Derby took place, produced by WAVE-TV, the NBC affiliate in Louisville; this coverage was aired live in the Louisville market and sent to NBC as a kinescope newsreel recording for national broadcast. On May 3, 1952, the first national television coverage of the Kentucky Derby took place, aired from then-CBS affiliate WHAS-TV. In 1954, the purse exceeded $100,000 for the first time. In 1968, Dancer's Image became the first horse to win the race and be disqualified after traces of phenylbutazone, an analgesic and anti-inflammatory drug, were found in the horse's urinalysis. Forward Pass thus became the eighth winner for Calumet Farm. Unexpectedly, the regulations at Kentucky thoroughbred race tracks were changed some years allowing horses to run on phenylbutazone.
In 1970, Diane Crump became the first female jockey to ride in the Derby, finishing 15th aboard Fathom. The fastest time run in the Derby was set in 1973 at 1
Virginia
Virginia the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States located between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" due to its status as the first English colonial possession established in mainland North America and "Mother of Presidents" because eight U. S. presidents were born there, more than any other state. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna; the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond. The Commonwealth's estimated population as of 2018 is over 8.5 million. The area's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony. Slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colony's early politics and plantation economy.
Virginia was one of the 13 Colonies in the American Revolution. In the American Civil War, Virginia's Secession Convention resolved to join the Confederacy, Virginia's First Wheeling Convention resolved to remain in the Union. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, both major national parties are competitive in modern Virginia; the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008, it is unique in how it treats cities and counties manages local roads, prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginia's economy has many sectors: agriculture in the Shenandoah Valley. S. Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency. Virginia has a total area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water, making it the 35th-largest state by area. Virginia is bordered by Maryland and Washington, D.
C. to the north and east. Virginia's boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the low-water mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, though surveyor error led to deviations of as much as three arcminutes; the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court; the Chesapeake Bay separates the contiguous portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginia's Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the drowned river valleys of the James River. Many of Virginia's rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock and James, which create three peninsulas in the bay; the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the fall line. It includes major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay; the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era. The region, known for its heavy clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state, the tallest being Mount Rogers at 5,729 feet. The Ridge and Valley region includes the Great Appalachian Valley; the region includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, south of the Allegheny Plateau. In this region, rivers flow northwest, into the Ohio River basin; the Virginia Seismic Zone has not had a history of regular earthquake activity. Earthquakes are above 4.5 in magnitude, because Virginia is located away from the edges of the North American Plate. The largest earthquake, at an estimated 5.9 magnitude, was in 1897 near Blacksburg. A 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Virginia on August 2011, near Mineral. The earthquake was felt as far away as Toronto and Florida. 35 million years ago, a bolide impacted. The resulting Chesapeake Bay impact crater may explain what earthquakes and subsidence the region does experience.
Coal mining takes place in the three mountainous regions at 45 distinct coal beds near Mesozoic basins. Over 64 million tons of other non-fuel resources, such as slate, sand, or gravel, were mined in Virginia in 2018; the state's carbonate rock is filled with more than 4,000 caves, ten of which are open for tourism, including the popular Luray Caverns and Skyline Caverns. The climate of Virginia is humid subtropical and becomes warmer and more humid farther south and east. Seasonal extremes vary from average lows of 26 °F in January to average highs of 86 °F in July; the Atlantic Ocean has a strong effect on southeastern coastal areas of the state. Influenced by the Gulf Stream, coastal weather is subject to hurricanes, most pronouncedly near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. In spite of its position adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean the coastal areas have a significant continental influence with quite large temperature differences between summ
