Author: Ms. R.

After World War I, Southern Slavs finally united in a new country, an idea that originally emerged during the 17th-century.  The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes were founded in 1918, but was renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. It lasted until 1991 when it split into six new republics: Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia. Even today, there are many people in these six countries that would love to have the old Yugoslavia back. There’s even a term……

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As travelers pass through the Main Hall of Union Station in Washington, D.C., they walk beneath the sandaled feet of 46 cast plaster Roman legionnaires. Renowned architect Daniel H. Burnham designed Union Station, which opened on October 27, 1907. As part of Burnham’s plan for the design of the National Mall, its grand, neoclassical style was based upon the designs of ancient Roman baths and the Arch of Constantine.  In 1906, artist and sculptor Louis Saint-Gaudens was selected to create……

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At first glance, the Kennedy Biscuit Lofts are simply a group of apartment buildings with a pleasant courtyard, off a quiet street near Cambridge’s Central Square. But a series of plaques in the brick reveal this location to be the former home of the F.A. Kennedy Steam Bakery, where the Fig Newton—named after the nearby town of Newton—was first conceived and produced in 1891. Built in 1875, the bakery was later bought by Nabisco (who continue to sell Fig……

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Taq Kasra, also called the Archway of Ctesiphon, is located about 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of Baghdad. It is the only above-ground structure that remains of Ctesiphon, an ancient city that acted as the royal capital of the Persian Empire, notably during the Parthian and Sasanian periods, until the Muslim conquest of the region in the seventh century.  While there is some debate as to the year of its construction, the archway is at least 1,400 years old…….

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A global pandemic rages. In some cities, people shun society completely, while others sit in bars, downing beers and trying to forget about the disease raging around them. But this isn’t 2020—it’s the mid 1300s. The Black Death, which arrived in Europe in 1347, ripped across the continent, killing around 50 percent of its population. Jean de Venette, a French Carmelite friar who documented the pandemic, called it “a most terrible scourge inflicted on us by God.” We now……

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The Spartans idealized order throughout life, but also in death. Spartan funerary customs had the deceased laid to rest in unmarked graves that mingled with the living inside the city walls.  Marked gravestones were reserved only for special cases, such as men who fell in battle or women who died while holding religious office (though some scholars suggest women who died in childbirth may have also been awarded such memorials). These were the only citizens deemed important enough to……

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Colonel John Laurens, a soldier and statesman from South Carolina, was killed in his home state on the banks of the Combahee River. The day he died, in August 1782, he was just 27 years old. At the time, British forces were close to defeat; they had lost badly at Yorktown the previous October. But while the ramparts of Yorktown were preserved—as were other Revolutionary War sites, such as the places where Alexander Hamilton and George Washington died—the location……

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Since 1881, a stuffed and mounted Bald eagle has been on display at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, and most recently, perched above the podium of the Wisconsin State Assembly chambers.   The original mount was the earthly remains of Old Abe, an eagle who rose to prominence during the American Civil War as the mascot for the 8th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. Old Abe was also the inspiration for the insignia of the United States Army’s 101st Airborne……

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For decades now, locals of the New South Wales Central Coast have debated the authenticity of a series of hieroglyphs carved into a hidden rockface in the Brisbane Water National Park. Many believe they have Egyptian origins.  Intrepid explorers have scrambled up the tight gap between two sandstone rockfaces, emerging into a narrow passage, to examine the hieroglyphs. The symbols are familiar to anyone with an understanding of ancient Egypt and include an image of Anubis, the name of King……

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