Obscure American history trivia

Constitution is one. Constellation is another.

Blanking on the rest.

 

The Bonhomme Richard was a captured vessel, not sure if that qualifies. There had to be a ship called the USS Independence before the current version.

PS: I just looked it up. Interestingly, Secretary of War Henry Knox suggested to President Washington that six different construction sites be used, one for each ship, rather than building at one particular shipyard. Separate locations enabled the allotted funds to stimulate each local economy. Pork and earmarks are nothing new in government.

 

Bonhomme Richard doesn't count because that was during the Revolution. There have been multiple Independences, but it wasn't one of the original six. It would have fit the theme, though.

 

And the answer is:

Chesapeake, Constitution, President, United States, Congress, Constellation

 

Who were Emil Seidel and Frank Zeidler?

 

Knew the first, but I wasn’t sure about Zeidler.

 

Former socialist mayors of Milwaukee?

 

The first and last Socialist (capital S) mayors of Milwaukee. Seidel was in office from 1910 to 1912; Zeidler was in from 1948 to 1960.

A couple interesting side notes on Seidel: his personal secretary was Carl Sandburg; and he was Eugene Debs' running mate in the 1912 presidential race.

Zeidler cited ill health when he declined to run for a fourth term (he also took a lot of heat for his then-unpopular stand on civil rights) but he lived until 2006, serving as a pithy social commentator on the state of the city.

 

Who were:

The Primes.

The Primettes.

Stevland Morris.

 

The Temptations, The Supremes and Stevie Wonder.

 

You know your Motown, sir. Great history of the start of Motown in the David Maraniss book, "Once in a Great City," the guy who wrote "When Pride Still Mattered."