Mixed Trivia 11

Maryland

Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951 – October 17, 2019), born and raised in Baltimore, was a popular American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for Maryland's 7th congressional district from 1996 until his death in 2019. The district includes just over half of the city of Baltimore, including most of the majority-black precincts of Baltimore County, as well as most of Howard County. He previously served in the Maryland House of Delegates. Cummings was the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform from January 2019 until his death in October of that year. Before his funeral service at Baltimore's New Psalmist Baptist Church, Cummings lay in state at the U.S. Capitol Building's Statuary Hall, the first African American lawmaker to achieve that honor. Following a state funeral, the official funeral for Cummings was held at the New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore and was attended by members of his family, various political figures — including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — and thousands of Baltimore residents. Presidents Bill Clinton and Barak Obama spoke at the widely attended memorial, along with countless others who considered Cummings a mentor. A man of strong principles, he never hesitated to reach across the aisle to Republicans, making life-long friends.

His parents were sharecroppers in South Carolina and left the state after they had Cummings’ eldest sibling. While Cummings was born and raised in Baltimore, South Carolina never stopped being home for the late congressman, according to relatives who still lives in the state.

Peter Green

Peter Green (born Peter Greenbaum; October 1946) is a legendary English blues rock lead guitarist, singer-songwriter and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac. He vanished decades ago in a blur of drugs and mental illness, proclaiming he left the music business "for my freedom." Previous he had played lead guitarist for John Mayall and the Blues Breakers, replacing Eric Clapton, then preceding Mick Taylor.

Green was a major figure in the "second great epoch" of the British blues movement. B.B. King commented, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats. Eric Clapton has praised his guitar playing, noting his use of string bending, vibrato, and economy of style. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Rolling Stone ranked Green at number 58 in its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". His tone on the instrumental "The Supernatural" was rated as one of the 50 greatest of all time by Guitar Player.  In June 1996, Green was voted the third-best guitarist of all time in Mojo magazine.

The Hittites

Scotland's national instrument, the Bagpipe or in Gaelic "piob-mhor" (the great pipe) is not, contrary to popular belief, an instrument which has its origins in and has diffused from Scotland. The bagpipe is an instrument of great antiquity, an instrument which has its origins in the Middle East and traveled through and evolved in Europe alongside the diffusion of early civilization. The "Oxford History of Music" makes mention of the first documented bagpipe being found on a Hittite slab at Eyuk. This sculptured bagpipe has been dated to 1,000 B.C. Biblical mention is made of the bagpipe in Genesis and in the third Chapter of Daniel where the "symphonia" in Nebuchadnezzar's band is believed to have been a bagpipe. The Hittites were an Anatolian people living in what is now Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon. The empire started in the 18th century BCE, peaking in the 14th century BCE and finally trailing off around 1180 BCE with the collapse of the Bronze Age. Author Sayce traces the history of the Hittite people, attempting to demonstrate that this was an empire of significance that is not afforded the credit it deserves.

No

Alexander the great was King of Macedon and created one of the largest empires of the ancient world by the age of thirty. He was never defeated in battle, and only stopped expanding his Empire because his men wanted to go home. It’s likely he could have expanded his empire even further if they had kept going. His army stretched from Greece to Northwestern India. Ambitiously he sought to conquer until he reached the end of the world. Alexander the great was taught by the philosopher Aristotle at a young, about politics, and philosophy. This might be why he was such an inspiring ruler. Alexander not only conquered over 2 million square miles of land, but created the biggest library of all time, the library of Alexandria. Alexander III of Macedon is one of the most famous conquerors of all time. One of the lesser known facts about Alexander the Great, was that he had different colored eyes, one was dark brown, and the other was sky blue.