Jun 17th, 2013 at 4:00PM: National Park Service
Historic cannons from Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, that date to the Civil War have been meticulously conserved and returned to the fort, the National Park Service announced. Some of these big guns, weighing up to 15,000 pounds each, were used to fire on Fort Sumter just across Charleston Harbor. It was this attack on a federal fort that was the official start of the Civil ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
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Scientists Preserve Cannons That Started The Civil War
Jun 17th, 2013 at 4:00PM: National Park Service
Historic cannons from Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, that date to the Civil War have been meticulously conserved and returned to the fort, the National Park Service announced. Some of these big guns, weighing up to 15,000 pounds each, were used to fire on Fort Sumter just across Charleston Harbor. It was this attack on a federal fort that was the official start of the Civil ...Norwegian Scientists Plan To Freeze Themselves In Polar Ice
Jun 16th, 2013 at 2:00PM: Wikimedia Commons
A hundred and twenty years ago, Norwegian scientist Fridtjof Nansen started a journey that made him one of the greatest explorers of all time. He set out to purposely get his ship frozen in the polar ice.
The reason? To study polar currents. His ship, the Fram, was purpose-built for the task. It needed to be; many crews had perished in the far north when their ships got frozen ...Lost City Uncovered In Cambodia
Jun 15th, 2013 at 3:00PM: saturn ♄, Flickr
A 1,200-year-old city has been uncovered by archaeologists in a thick, mountainous jungle in Cambodia, Australia's Fairfax Media has reported. An international team of researchers using helicopter-mounted laser-imaging technology discovered dozens of temples connected by networks of roads, canals and dykes some 25 miles north of the famous Angkor Wat complex.
The city, ...The Kimchi-ite: Hahoe, A Korean Village That Time Barely Touched
Jun 15th, 2013 at 10:00AM: Jonathan Kramer, Gadling
Less than an hour bus ride outside of the nondescript city of Andong in central South Korea, a little village doesn't just hold onto the past, it embodies it. Hahoe Folk Village (pronounced Hahwe) has been inhabited for well over 600 years, with many artifacts and buildings considered to be Korean national treasures.
Today, it stands as a unique relic for visitors to ...Photo Of The Day: Le Mont Saint-Michel
Jun 14th, 2013 at 5:00PM: annegbt, Flickr
Across the Cherbourg Peninsula from the infamous Omaha Beach in Normandy is one of France's most striking landmarks, as well as one of the most popular outside of Paris, Mont Saint-Michel. Dominating the the landscape of this tidal island turned commune is the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey, a place so beautiful Victor Hugo lobbied to preserve it. Over the millennia and a half that ...UNESCO Reports Damage To Timbuktu Worse Than Previously Reported
Jun 12th, 2013 at 3:30PM: Emilio Labrador
A team from UNESCO has visited Timbuktu in Mali to make its first on-the-ground assessment of the damage caused by last year's occupation by the Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith).
The group took over Timbuktu in April 2012 and imposed a harsh form of Shariah law. Believing the city's famous shrines and medieval manuscripts to be against Islam, even though they ...Smithsonian Relocates Slave Cabin To Be Centerpiece Of Upcoming Exhibition
Jun 11th, 2013 at 12:00PM: Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture
The Smithsonian Institution has received a unique donation – an intact slave cabin from a plantation in South Carolina. The cabin, which was on the grounds of the Point of Pines Plantation on Edisto Island, was donated by the current landowners.
For the past month a Smithsonian team has been meticulously dismantling it ...Like Castles? Go To Slovenia
Jun 10th, 2013 at 10:00AM: The little nation of Slovenia is situated on a crossroads. On the southeastern edge of the Alps and on the way to the rest of the Balkans and to central Europe, it's seen more than its fair share of invading armies.
No wonder, then, that this country that's slightly smaller than New Jersey has some 700 castles. Many are in ruins thanks to those invading armies, while others were dismantled ...Ljubljana: Why Slovenia's Cool Capital Needs To Be On Your Bucket List
Jun 7th, 2013 at 12:00PM: Sean McLachlan
Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, has been trumpeted by travel writers for a good 10 years now, yet this artsy little city of 270,000 still doesn't get overrun with tourists. Perhaps it's because it's surrounded by better-known countries like Italy and Croatia; perhaps people confuse it with Slovakia; perhaps people still have old Communist imagery in their heads. Whatever it is, ...Cycling The Niagara River Recreation Trail: Ice Wine, War of 1812 History And A Back Door To Niagara Falls (Part 1)
Jun 6th, 2013 at 10:00AM: I must have been absent from school the day we learned about the War of 1812. Growing up, history was my favorite subject, but as I sat in an office interviewing Paul Dyster, the mayor of Niagara Falls, New York, who mentioned upcoming events to commemorate the bicentennial of the conflict, I couldn't for the life of me recall who won the war (it was a stalemate) or even why it was fought. ...Touring The World War One Battlefield Of Isonzo
May 30th, 2013 at 11:00AM: Sean McLachlan from public domain image. Original photographer unknown.
Like every other nation involved in World War I, Italy suffered terribly. It joined the war in 1915, throwing its lot in with the Allies against the Central Powers. Italy's most immediate threat was its neighbor the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The border was mostly in the Alps and soldiers on both sides carved out ice caves from ...Gorizia: Italy's Overlooked Historic Border City
May 29th, 2013 at 9:00AM: Sean McLachlan
Visitors to Italy tend to skip Gorizia. Tucked away at the northeast edge of the country on the border with Slovenia, this small city tends to get bypassed on the way to Trieste or Slovenia.
I would have never gone there myself except that I was a guest author at the city's annual history and book fair, the èStoria Festival. Now in its ninth year, the festival is drawing ...Could Bahrain Become The Next Big Heritage Tourism Destination?
May 21st, 2013 at 11:00AM: Desert Island Boy, flickr
The tiny Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain is home to one of the most mysterious ancient civilizations of the Middle East.
Archaeologists have long known about a civilization called Dilmun. It's mentioned in many Mesopotamian texts as a wealthy place of "sweet water." Even the Epic of Gilgamesh mentions it, but all the sources were vague about its location.
It ...Preservation Group Wants To Save Civil War Battlefield
May 19th, 2013 at 9:00AM: Wikimedia Commons "Cavalry Charge Near Brandy Station, Virginia," a drawing by Edwin Forbes, 1864
A preservation group is trying to protect the site of the largest cavalry battle in North America.
The Civil War Trust has announced it has nearly reached its $3.6 million goal to preserve 56 acres of the site of the Battle of Brandy Station. The plot includes Fleetwood Hill, which was the center ...Archaeologists Digging At Lincoln Castle Uncover Early Christian Community
May 17th, 2013 at 3:00PM: Lincolnshire County Council
Archaeologists excavating at Lincoln Castle have discovered the remains of an early Christian community, according to a Lincolnshire County Council press release.
The team, which was digging inside the castle to clear the way for an elevator shaft, found the remains of a church that dates back at least 1,000 years. Inside a sealed niche in the wall they found human ...In Fine Style: The Art Of Tudor And Stuart Fashion Opens At The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace
May 15th, 2013 at 1:00PM:
The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, London, is putting on a fashion show, although the fashions are more than 400 years out of date.
"In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion" examines the luxurious clothing and jewelry worn by British monarchs and members of their court. It focuses on the two dynasties of the 16th and 17th centuries with everything from ornamental armor for a ...Frederick The Great's Picture Gallery Celebrates 250 Years With Special Exhibition
May 12th, 2013 at 12:00PM:
A magnificent art gallery constructed by Frederick the Great of Prussia in Potsdam is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, Art Daily reports.
The gallery at Sanssouci Park, part of Frederick the Great's palace complex, was home to his vast collection of Classical and (then) contemporary art. While it lost much of its collection over the years, especially during the Napoleonic Wars and ...Famous Roman 'Tomb' May Have Actually Been A Temple
May 12th, 2013 at 10:00AM: At the Roman necropolis in Carmona, Spain, visitors are led to the popular "Elephant's Tomb," a large underground chamber that gets its name from a crude sculpture of an elephant found there.
Now archaeologists are saying it may not be a tomb at all, but rather a temple to one of the ancient world's most mysterious religions. A team from the University of Pablo de Olavide, Seville, has analyzed ...Gettysburg's American Civil War Wax Museum Is For Sale
May 10th, 2013 at 10:30AM: A favorite destination in America's most famous Civil War battlefield faces an uncertain future as its owners are retiring and putting the building up for sale.
The American Civil War Wax Museum at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was opened in 1962 and is selling for $1.7 million, the Evening Sun reports. Being a popular tourist attraction, the current owners say they are confident someone will buy ...Napoleonic Wars Refought In Spain
May 6th, 2013 at 2:00PM:
The second of May is a date that every Spaniard knows. In 1808 on that date, the Spanish people rose up against Napoleon and started a long struggle to kick his troops out of the country. They'd been occupied the year before when Spain's weak king had foolishly allowed French troops march through his territory to invade Portugal. Napoleon, being Napoleon, decided to keep both countries.
The ...
