Background: Born in Venice, Ohio, Alson spent much of his childhood on a farm in Morning Sun; when he was a teenager, the family moved to Darrtown. Alston attended Milford Township High School in Darrtown, and received the nickname "Smokey" as a high school pitcher, owing to the speed of his fastball. He graduated from high school in 1929 and married longtime girlfriend Lela Vaughn Alexander the next year. In 1935, Alston graduated with a degree in industrial arts and physical education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Context: The team finished 21 games back in seventh place (71-83 (.461)) in 1958, the club's first season in Los Angeles. Criticism of Alston had begun to mount during that season, but he led the Dodgers to a world championship in 1959. Six players on the 1959 team finished with double-digit totals in home runs, while 22-year-old Don Drysdale led the team's pitchers with 17 wins. Several Los Angeles players, including Wally Moon, characterized Alston as indecisive in the late 1950s and 1960s. However, Moon later came to describe Alston as a good manager who had gotten "good mileage" out of his players.  Managing the NL All-Star Team in 1960, Alston attracted some controversy when he left ]]1960 Milwaukee Braves season|Milwaukee Braves]] pitchers Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette off the roster. An Associated Press report said the omission may have been a snub directed at Dressen, who was the manager in Milwaukee. The 1960 Dodgers finished in fourth place. The following year, the team finished in second place after veteran Duke Snider missed two months with a broken arm. The Dodgers lost the lead in the 1962 NL pennant race and rumors surfaced that Alston and coach Leo Durocher might be fired, but the team retained both for 1963.  The Dodgers swept the World Series in 1963, the first time that the New York Yankees had lost a World Series in four games. Alston's pitchers excelled, as Koufax struck out 23 batters over two games and Drysdale threw a shutout in Game 3. Over the four games, Alston employed only four pitchers: three starters and one reliever. The 1964 team was 80-82, its first losing season in several years. Alston used the team's 1964 performance to motivate them moving forward. In spring training before the 1965 season, he said that he would not let his team forget the difficulties they had in the previous season.  The Dodgers returned to the World Series in 1965 against Minnesota. Alston could not start his number one pitcher, Koufax, in the opening game on October 6 because Koufax was observing Yom Kippur. Instead, Alston turned to Drysdale, who struggled and surrendered seven runs in just 2 2/3  innings. When Alston came to the mound to remove him in the bottom of the third, Drysdale quipped, "I bet right now you wish I was Jewish, too." The team recovered from losing that first game and they won the World Series in seven games. Koufax appeared in three games during the series, registering two shutouts.  Alston's Dodgers teams of the 1960s benefited from the strong pitching by Drysdale and Koufax. In 1966, both players held out of spring training and demanded three-year contracts each worth $500,000, which was more money than anyone was making in baseball at the time. The players were eventually signed for lesser amounts. Drysdale struggled that year, but Koufax won 27 games. The Dodgers returned to the World Series, but were swept by the Baltimore Orioles. Koufax retired after the season on the advice of doctors who examined his sore arm. Drysdale retired three years later. Both men had pitched their entire major league careers for Alston.
Question: Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
Answer: Managing the NL All-Star Team in 1960, Alston attracted some controversy when he left

Background: Erich Honecker (German: ['e:RIc 'honeka]; 25 August 1912 - 29 May 1994) was a German politician who, as the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party, led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until the weeks preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. From 1976 onward he was also the country's official head of state as chairman of the State Council following Willi Stoph's relinquishment of the post. Honecker's political career began in the 1930s when he became an official of the Communist Party of Germany, a position for which he was imprisoned during the Nazi era. Following World War II, he was freed and soon relaunched his political activities, founding the youth organisation the Free German Youth in 1946 and serving as the group's chairman until 1955.
Context: In May 1945 Honecker was "picked up" by chance in Berlin by Hans Mahle and taken to the Ulbricht Group, a collective of exiled German communists that had returned from the Soviet Union to Germany after the end of the Nazi regime. Through Waldemar Schmidt, Honecker befriended Walter Ulbricht, who had not been aware of him at that point. Honecker's future role in the group was still undecided until well into the summer months, as he had yet to face a party process. This ended in a reprimand due to his "undisciplined conduct" in fleeing from prison at the start of the year, an action which was debated upon it jeopardizing the other (communist) inmates.  In 1946 he became the co-founder of the Free German Youth (FDJ), whose chairmanship he also undertook. After the formation of the SED, the Socialist Unity Party, in April 1946 through a merger of the KPD and SPD, Honecker swiftly became a leading party member and took his place in the party's Central Committee.  On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republic was formed with the adoption of a new constitution, establishing a political system similar to that of the Soviet Union. Within the state's socialistic single party government, Honecker determinedly resumed his political career and the following year was nominated as a candidate for the Politburo of the SED's Central Committee. As President of the Free German Youth movement, he organised the inaugural "Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend" in East Berlin in May 1950 and the 3rd World Festival of Youth and Students in 1951, although the latter was beset with organisational problems.  During the internal party unrest following the suppressed uprising of June 1953, Honecker sided with First Secretary Walter Ulbricht, despite the majority of the Politburo attempting to dispose Ulbricht in favour of Rudolf Herrnstadt. Honecker himself though faced questioning from party members about his inadequate qualifications for his position. On 27 May 1955 he handed the Presidency of the FDJ over to Karl Namokel, and departed for Moscow to study for two years at the School of the Soviet Communist Party at Ulbricht's request. During this period he witnessed the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in person, where its First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev denounced Joseph Stalin.  After returning to East Germany in 1958 Honecker became a fully-fledged member of the Politburo, taking over responsibility for military and security issues. As the Party Security Secretary he was the prime organiser of the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 and also a proponent of the "order to fire" along the Inner German border.
Question: what's an interesting fact about his post war return to politics?
Answer:
was nominated as a candidate for the Politburo of the SED's Central Committee. As