- George — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
The little town of George, Washington, has two claims to fame: it is the only town in the country bearing the full name of a United States president, and its popular Fourth of July celebration features what is believed to be the world’s largest cherry pie, weighing in at one-half ton. Located at exit 149 off Interstate 90 in Grant County, George is midway between Seattle and Spokane. The town was built in the mid-1950s by Charles (Charlie) Brown, a pharmacist from nearby Quincy, who placed the winning (and only) bid of $100,000 on 339 sand-swept and desolate acres of land in an auction managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Reclamation. Brown put in waterlines, platted streets, sold pie-shaped lots, and built a truck stop he called the Martha Inn. The town was dedicated on July 4, 1957, and incorporated on July 4, 1961. After Brown died in 1975, George was purchased by a group of investors that had big plans that never materialized. Modest development followed in the early 2000s, but George never attained the special status that Brown had hoped for. In 2010, it was home to 503 residents.
- Albert Einstein (Wikipedia)
Albert Einstein (/ˈaɪnstaɪn/ EYEN-styne; German: [ˈalbɛʁt ˈʔaɪnʃtaɪn]; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Best known for developing the theory of relativity, he also made important contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics. Relativity and quantum mechanics are the two pillars of modern physics. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from relativity theory, has been dubbed “the world’s most famous equation”. His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”, a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory. His intellectual achievements and originality resulted in “Einstein” becoming synonymous with “genius”. Einsteinium, one of the synthetic elements in the periodic table, was named in his honor.