Author: Ms. R.

This majestic and beautiful palace stands on a cliff overlooking the Black Sea in Sochi. It originally belonged to a wealthy tsarist colonel, Andrey Valerianovich Kvitko. He had married an Italian woman, whose wealthy family had two big mansions in Italy. Together they moved to a prestigious Khosta area in Sochi, where Kvitko built the family a new mansion. It was completed in 1916, and said to be an exact copy of one of his wife’s family mansions, only……

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In the early 1800s, Boston’s Catholic leadership decided to build a convent on the Ploughed Hill of Charlestown (now Somerville). Starting in 1820, Ursuline sisters ran the convent and its school for girls on the summit, which they renamed Mount Benedict. In a predominantly Protestant environment, rumors started about mysterious and devious activities in the convent, including forced conversions, kidnapping, and torture. Incited by preachers, a mob of few dozen assembled on August 11, 1834, and set the convent on……

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Otto Benndorf  was born in 1838 in the Principality of the Reuss Elder Line. As a youth he showed much interest in archaeology and eventually decided to pursue it in his higher education. He held a variety of academic positions over the years and participated in numerous archaeological expeditions in Greece, including in Samothrace (1875), Lycia (1881–82), and Ephesus (1895). In 1896 he began efforts to open a facility in Athens to oversee Austrian-run archaeological projects in Greece. Within……

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Known as the Lambert Inn when it was built in 1872, the St. James Hotel became famous during its Wild West days, when such iconic and notorious figures as Wyatt Earp, Jesse James, Buffalo Bill, and Black Jack Ketchum were patrons. Located on the historic Sante Fe Trail, which Americans traversed as they traveled west, into land they considered a frontier, it was a rare spot for them to get a drink, buy supplies, or enjoy a bath and a warm bed. ……

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The Wichita State University campus is home to a small brick building. It might not look like much but it’s the structure where two brothers, Dan and Frank Carney, started one of the most popular pizza chains in the world.  The first thing you might notice when looking at the original Pizza Hut is that it bears no resemblance to the chain’s now-classic red, pavilion-style roof. That’s because this building predates the debut of Pizza Hut’s iconic architecture in the……

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Like so many pubs across the United Kingdom, the Baverstock Arms is surrounded by history. Unlike most historic inns, however, this is not the location of a significant event, nor is it haunted or the subject of traditional tales. This Basingstoke pub is surrounded by history in a far more literal sense: It operates from within an actual museum.  Opened in 2000, the Milestones Living History Museum recreates a typical Hampshire town frozen in time between the Victorian and……

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Much like the country’s capital, Wellington, has embraced the “world’s coolest little capital” title bestowed upon it by Lonely Planet in 2013, many other New Zealand attractions now proudly declare themselves “the world’s coolest.” That’s at least the claim the city of Taupo makes about its local McDonald’s. Its rationale? The 20-seater airplane, decorated in the company’s signature red, right outside its main building. The Douglas DC-3’s history begins with its construction in 1943. After serving as a passenger……

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