Records and Achievements

Subterms

    Latest story

    150 Shares189 Views

    Ruby Slippers From ‘Wizard of Oz’ Sell for $28 Million at Auction

    by

    The slippers, worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz,” were stolen from the museum that bears her name in 2005 before investigators recovered them in 2018.The ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore as Dorothy in the 1939 production of “The Wizard of Oz” were sold for a record-breaking $28 million on Saturday during a live auction in Dallas in the latest turn for one of the most recognizable and storied artifacts in film history.Heritage Auctions sold the slippers on behalf of a collector, Michael Shaw, who owned them. The slippers — which sold for vastly more than the $10 million that the auction house’s executive vice president, Joe Maddalena, believed they would — are one of only four known surviving pairs worn by Ms. Garland in the movie.The auction house did not immediately disclose the identity of the buyer.“There is simply no comparison between Judy Garland’s ruby slippers and any other piece of Hollywood memorabilia,” Mr. Maddalena said.The final bid of $28 million was the largest sum spent at an auction for a piece of entertainment memorabilia, the auction house said. It exceeded the previous record-holder, Marilyn Monroe’s subway dress from the 1955 film “The Seven Year Itch,” which sold in 2011 for $5.52 million with fees, the auction house said. Including taxes and fees, the slippers sold for $32.5 million.During the auction, which was peppered with “Wicked” and “Wizard of Oz” references and puns, the auctioneer excitedly held a crouching position — like the Wicked Witch of the West in the story — as he pointed to people around the room, who called out bids in $100,000 increments. At times, a bidder, often on the phone with a client, would elevate the top bid by $800,000 or more, which garnered some stifled “ooohs” and “ahhhs” from attendees.The auction included other pieces of “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia. A Wicked Witch of the West hat worn by the actress Margaret Hamilton sold for nearly $3 million, the auction house said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    More stories

    • 88 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Bitcoin Price Surges to a Milestone: $100,000

      by

      The price of a single Bitcoin rose to six figures for the first time, an extraordinary level for a 16-year-old cryptocurrency once dismissed as a sideshow.In May 2010, Laszlo Hanyecz, an early cryptocurrency enthusiast, used Bitcoin to buy two pizzas from Papa John’s. He spent 10,000 Bitcoins, or roughly $40 at the time, in one of the first purchases ever made with the digital currency.It has turned out to be the most expensive dinner in history.On Wednesday, the price of a single Bitcoin rose to more than $100,000, a remarkable milestone for an experimental financial asset that had once been mocked as a sideshow and a fad. The total cost of those pizzas today: $1 billion.Bitcoin now stands as arguably the most successful investment product of the last 20 years. The value of all the coins in circulation is $2 trillion, more than the combined worth of Mastercard, Walmart and JPMorgan Chase. The motley assortment of hackers and political radicals who embraced Bitcoin when it was created by an anonymous coder in 2008 have become millionaires many times over. And the invention has spawned an entire industry anchored by publicly traded companies like Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, and promoted by celebrities, athletes and Elon Musk.Even the president-elect says he is a believer. During the campaign, Donald J. Trump marketed himself as a Bitcoin enthusiast, vowing to create a federal stockpile that could push its price even higher.

      Note: As of 10 p.m. Eastern on Dec. 4Source: Investing.comBy The New York TimesBitcoin began as “essentially an experimental hobbyist project,” said Finn Brunton, the author of a 2019 book about the history of cryptocurrency. “To see where it is now is to see a really impressive feat.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 175 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Dub Jones, Who Scored 6 Touchdowns for Browns in One Game, Dies at 99

      by

      A 6-foot-4 halfback and flanker, he was a tall, reliable target for Browns quarterback Otto Graham as Cleveland rolled to titles in the late 1940s and ’50s.Dub Jones, an All-Pro running back and flanker for Cleveland Browns championship teams of the late 1940s and ’50s and one of four N.F.L. players to score six touchdowns in a single game, died on Saturday at his home in Ruston, La. He was 99.His son Bert, a former N.F.L. quarterback, confirmed the death.Playing in an innovative offensive scheme devised by Paul Brown, the founder and coach of the Browns, Jones was a double threat. He was an outstanding runner at right halfback and caught passes out of the backfield as a flanker, a position introduced by Brown to spread the field for passes uncorked by the future Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham.On Nov. 25, 1951, Jones scored four touchdowns running from scrimmage and two on passes from Graham in the Browns’ 42-21 rout of the Chicago Bears at the cavernous old Cleveland Stadium, tying the six-touchdown record set by the Chicago Cardinals’ Ernie Nevers in a 1929 game. Only Gale Sayers, with the 1965 Bears, and Alvin Kamara, with the 2020 New Orleans Saints, have matched them.Brown used rotating guards as “messengers” to bring in plays, although he allowed quarterbacks to call an “audible,” changing his play if they saw a vulnerable defensive alignment. Late in the Browns’ 1951 romp of the Bears, Brown stuck with that procedure.“With Cleveland safely ahead, I sent in a running play,” he recalled in an autobiography, “PB: The Paul Brown Story” (1979, with Jack Clary). “Otto knew that Dub Jones had already scored five touchdowns and needed only one more to set a record, so he discarded the call and selected a pass. Dub scored on the play, and I said nothing about it because the play had been successful.”Jones ran for 116 yards on nine carries and caught three passes for 80 yards in that game, including Graham’s climactic 43-yard touchdown toss.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Pete Rose, Baseball Star Who Earned Glory and Shame, Dies at 83

      by

      One of the sport’s greatest players, he set a record with 4,256 career hits. But his gambling led to a lifetime ban and kept him out of the Hall of Fame.Pete Rose, one of baseball’s greatest players and most confounding characters, who earned glory as the game’s hit king and shame as a gambler and dissembler, died on Monday. He was 83. His death was confirmed by the Cincinnati Reds, the team with which he spent most of his career. No cause was given.For millions of baseball fans, Rose will be known mainly for a number, 4,256, his total of hits, the most for any player in the history of the game. But he was a deeply compromised champion.Rose, of the Cincinnati Reds, on the field before his game against the New York Mets in 1978.Gary Gershoff/Getty ImagesFew sports figures have been the lightning rod for controversy and public opinion that he turned out to be, an athlete who maximized his gifts, earned a legion of fans with his competitive zeal and achieved wide celebrity and acclaim — only to fall from grace with astonishing indignity.Had Shakespeare written about baseball, he might well have seized on the case of Rose, whose ascent to the rarefied heights of sport was accompanied by the undisguised hubris that undermined him.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Polaris Dawn Astronauts in SpaceX Dragon Reach Record Orbit Above Earth

      by

      After launching early on Tuesday, the billionaire Jared Isaacman and his crew traveled to altitudes not visited by any astronaut since the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and ’70s.Four private astronauts aboard an ambitious space mission led by a billionaire entrepreneur traveled farther from Earth on Tuesday than any other human being in more than half a century.Two of them, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, have now gone farther from the planet than any other women ever.The mission, named Polaris Dawn, lifted off through a break of favorable weather before sunrise on Tuesday. The flight had been grounded for nearly two weeks by unsettled weather in and around Florida.The astronauts, flying an elliptical path around Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, looped outward as far out as 755 miles above the planet’s surface. The mission’s orbits were carefully planned to reduce the hit of radiation the crew would absorb, and to minimize the chances of being struck by tiny bits of rock crisscrossing the solar system.The journey on Tuesday was only a small fraction of the nearly quarter million miles that NASA’s Apollo astronauts traveled to the moon. But after the last mission going there in 1972, humanity has stayed close to our planet, not venturing beyond orbits a few hundred miles up.The Polaris Dawn mission, led by Jared Isaacman, founder of the payment services company Shift4, is a collaboration with SpaceX, the rocket company founded by Elon Musk. It is the first of three missions designed to spur technological advances needed for Mr. Musk’s ambition to send people to Mars eventually.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Mr. Greedy, an African Penguin With 230 Descendants, Dies at 33

      by

      An African penguin who left many offspring in his long life, he belonged to the largest colony of the aquatic bird species in North America, according to the zoo.The popular African penguin known as Mr. Greedy, a fixture of the Maryland Zoo who had sired many offspring and left “an astounding 230 descendants” over five generations, has died after an age-related decline in his health, the zoo said in a statement.He was 33 — yes, in human years. (The zoo said it had no accurate way to determine the equivalent in penguin years.) He was the oldest penguin in his colony, which the zoo said is the largest in North America.When he was not busy reproducing or bringing joy to zoo visitors, Mr. Greedy swam hard, took care of his mate — nicknamed Ms. Greedy — and was constantly looking for things to steal.His mischievous ability to steal nesting materials and food from others had earned him the affectionate nickname by which he was known, Jen Kottyan, the bird curator at the zoo, said in a phone interview on Saturday.Mr. Greedy, born in 1991, had a more official, though less personable name: African penguin No. 821. The cause of death was euthanasia on Aug. 27, the zoo said.In his long life, Mr. Greedy “made a tremendous contribution to his endangered species,” said the statement from the Maryland Zoo, which is in Baltimore.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 188 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Jordan Chiles Lost a Bronze. She’s Not the First American Affected by a Medal Change.

      by

      A court invalidated the gymnast’s win. Here are other notable cases of Americans who lost (or gained) a medal after an event.Taking away an Olympian’s medal is unusual — but not uncommon. On Sunday, the American gymnast Jordan Chiles became the latest athlete to lose one.At the Paris Olympics, Ms. Chiles had won bronze in the individual floor exercise. She originally finished in fifth place with a score that was less than one-tenth of a point from third place, but after her coach appealed, she won the bronze. That appeal, however, came four seconds too late, a court ruled, reinstating Ms. Chiles’s original score. The bronze will now go to Ana Barbosu of Romania, according to the International Olympic Committee. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee intends to appeal the ruling.Ana Barbosu of Romania will get the bronze medal that was taken away from Ms. Chiles.Daniel Berehulak/The New York TimesSeveral other athletes in Olympic history have had to return a medal — most commonly after a failed drug test or the use of a banned substance. Here are some other notable cases of U.S. Olympians giving up their medals — or winning new ones after another athlete was disqualified.Jim Thorpe, 1912 Stockholm GamesThe American track and field star Jim Thorpe won two gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon in Stockholm, setting a world record in the latter event, with 8,412 points, that stood until 1948.But Mr. Thorpe was also talented in several other sports, including baseball, basketball and football.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 88 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      How Did Simone Biles Become the G.O.A.T.?

      by

      To end the Olympics she once thought would never happen for her, Simone Biles began her floor exercise routine on Monday and did what she was made to do: flip and twist and thrill an arena filled with people there to watch her.Every time Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, landed one of her wildly difficult tumbling passes, the crowd seemed to shout, “Wow!” all at once. And when she was done, standing alone on the floor in her sparkly leotard, the spectators rose to honor her — perhaps as much for her entire career as for a brilliant but flawed floor routine.Biles stepped out of bounds twice during the routine, which was by far the most difficult that any of the finalists attempted. As a result, she did not win, as expected. Instead, she received the silver medal, while Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, her rival, won the gold by just over three one hundredths of a point. The American Jordan Chiles, one of Biles’s closest friends, won the bronze.When Chiles’s bronze medal was announced, she cried — and Biles smiled and laughed while hugging her.Three years earlier, Biles withdrew from nearly all of her events at the Tokyo Games after becoming disoriented in the air, a moment that prompted her to consider quitting the sport. On Monday, she finished the Paris Games with three gold medals and one silver. (Earlier in the day, she finished fifth on the balance beam after losing points because of a fall.)Her imperfect final performances did little to dull her luster at these Games. On each day she competed, celebrities dotted the stands, making gymnastics — already a marquee sport of the Olympics — seem like the hippest club in Paris. There were Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise and Ariana Grande, and sports legends like Serena Williams, Michael Phelps and Stephen Curry. After a day at the water polo venue, Flavor Flav, the rapper, said how much he admired Biles and wanted “to meet her, shake her hand and give her a hug and tell her how proud I am of her.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 150 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Voyager 1, After Major Malfunction, Is Back From the Brink, NASA Says

      by

      The farthest man-made object in space had been feared lost forever after a computer problem in November effectively rendered the 46-year-old probe useless.Several months after a grave computer problem seemed to spell the end for Voyager 1, which for nearly a half century had provided data on the outer planets and the far reaches of the solar system, NASA announced on Thursday that it had restored the spacecraft to working order.“The spacecraft has resumed gathering information about interstellar space,” NASA said in its announcement about Voyager 1, the farthest man-made object in space.Since the problem surfaced in November, engineers had been working to diagnose and resolve the issue, a tedious and lengthy process complicated by the fact that it takes almost two days to send and receive information from Voyager 1, which was the first man-made object ever to enter interstellar space and is currently more than 15 billion miles from Earth.The space community had been holding its breath since last year as the prospect of fixing the aging probe appeared as dire as ever.In February, Suzanne Dodd, the Voyager mission project manager, said the problem, which hindered Voyager 1’s ability to send coherent engineering and science data back to Earth, was “the most serious issue” the probe had faced since she began leading the mission in 2010.Voyager 1 and its twin probe, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977 on a mission to explore the outer planets. NASA capitalized on a rare alignment in the solar system that enabled the probes to visit the four of the outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — by using the gravity of each to swing to the next.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More