Author: Ms. R.

One of the more prominent ties to the ancient world found throughout Sweden are rock carvings, most notably rune stones. However, most are relatively young with the oldest dating to the 11th-century. Older carvings attributed to the Bronze Age are found in the southern regions of the country. The carvings found in eastern Skane are among the oldest in the country. Not much is known about the people who created these carvings, as there is little remaining regarding their……

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The ground was orange, and the sky was, too. Flame licked through the grass; the little fist of the sun, a gray cloud, and a jagged top of an evergreen were just barely visible through the smoke. The sloped sides of kotcas—triangular dwellings sometimes made of redwood—were visible in silhouette. These structures are part of Kule Loklo, a recreated Coast Miwok village that sits inside the Point Reyes National Seashore. Since a lightning strike on August 18, the Woodward……

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Edward Bright was born in Maldon, Essex in 1721, where he remained throughout his life serving the town as a grocer and candle maker. He was considered an honest tradesman by his customers, genial by his friends, and popular amongst townspeople. But it wasn’t Bright’s kindly personality that distinguished him to those passing by his shop, but rather the fact that he was an extremely large man.  By the age of 20, Bright weighed 335 lbs (152 kilograms), eight……

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In 1939, the Dutch dug a ‘Defensiekanaal’ as an anti-tank trench, lining the 80-kilometer-long canal with trenches and casemates, enclosures from which soldiers could fire their weapons. The result was a formidable barrier that was nonetheless breached the following year. On the day Germany invaded the Netherlands, May 10, 1940, a German armored train passed through the border, over the railway bridge at the River Maas and the little bridge at the Peel-Raam defense line, unopposed. (As the nearby……

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Constructed during the early 1900s and utilized until 1910, this lumber chute was used to bypass areas of the river and creek during logging operations. This was done to prevent log jams along Byers Creek, a waterway filled with various bends.  The lumber would float from the Barry’s Bay area of the region down the Madawaska River. They would then be received at the mills, processed, and sent to the market. Working in the lumber industry during this period was difficult……

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The mother of General Douglas MacArthur, who commanded American forces in the Pacific during World War II, grew up in a Virginian estate called Riveredge. After it fell into disrepair, it was turned into a memorial built from brick from the once-elegant home. Mary Pickney Hardy was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and became Mary Pickney MacArthur when she married Arthur MacArthur Jr. at Riveredge. As MacArthur Jr. had fought for the Union in the Civil War, it caused a stir in the Southern……

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On top of a peak in Santa Clara County, California, in the vaults of one of the world’s first mountaintop observatories, around 150,000 photographic plates bear witness to the early history of modern astronomy. “It’s almost like Aladdin’s cave in there,” says Paul Lyman, a resident astronomer at Lick Observatory. “There are logs where astronomers record the discovery of entire new worlds. I found a record of Sputnik going over the observatory just two weeks after it had launched……

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When Jo Gwi-bun married Yi Don in the 1980s, he handed her a book of his family’s recipes and insisted she use them. “Of course, I had never heard of the book before, and I had no idea how to read the text. It wasn’t even written in modern Korean!” the 71-year-old woman, now known as Lady Jo, exclaims. Lady Jo soon discovered the book was no ordinary compilation of family recipes. Instead, it was a centuries-old artifact credited……

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In Paris, situated a mile apart, are two giants of musical and architectural magnificence—epic voices that carry the passion, cultural tastes, and sound of their eras into the present day. The pipe organs of Notre Dame and Saint Sulpice have resounded for centuries, so when fire tore through the former in April 2019, some minds turned quickly to the fate of its cherished instrument. “Two miracles happened that day,” says David Briggs, an international concert organist and composer. “Nobody……

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The town of Hancock was established in 1880. Just a year later, the settlement contained a train depot, telegraph office, and several restaurants. Various types of wooden shacks and cabins were constructed to house the nearly 200 people that called Hancock home.  The town was constructed 11,000 feet above sea level, making life in Hancock particularly harsh. Many of the buildings were built to withstand the cold and snowy winter months. The saloons in the town offered cold laborers……

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