Forgotten mysteries, oddities and unknown stories from history, nature and science.
The Tampa Bay FL area has always been associated with war and the military. It was subject to a blockade and naval bombardment during the Civil War, it was the primary shipping point for American troops in the Spanish-American War, and it was the site of several major training airbases for bomber and fighter crews Continue reading The Pinellas Plant Nuclear Facility
The discovery of Australopithecus deyiremeda led to some very surprising results. Australopithecus deyiremeda, from Wiki Commons In 2009, researcher Yohanne Haille-Selassie, working at a place called Burtele in the Waranso-Mille region of Ethiopia (not far from where Lucy had been found in Hadar), made a puzzling discovery. In sediments dated to around 3.4 million years, Continue reading A Closer…
The early evolution of turtles has long been the topic of debate and controversy among paleontologists. But a new finding has helped clear up matters, somewhat. . Fossil turtle Baena, from the Cretaceous period As a group, turtles are old. Older than humans, older than our primate ancestors, older even than the dinosaurs. Turtles have Continue reading The Early Turtles
The Irish Wars of Independence were the opening stage for decades of armed conflict. . The Headquarters of the Citizen Army Ireland had always fought viciously against domination by England, but was unsuccessful. In 1801, under the Act of Union, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England all became one country, the United Kingdom , which was ruled Continue reading The Irish Wars of Independence
The rocket-powered X-15 took its pilots to the very edge of space X-15 on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum After the success of the X-1, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) and the military were interested in going further. The Air Force was working on the concept of a “space bomber“, Continue reading Icons of Aviation History: The X-15 Rocket Plane
Ferdinand Magellan is usually given credit for making the first circumnavigation of the globe, but in fact he was killed halfway through the trip and never made it. . Juan Sebastian Elcano, photo from Wiki Commons When the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan set sail for the Far East in September 1519, he had only the Continue reading The First Trip Around the World
“Lucy”, discovered in 1974, remains as perhaps the most famous hominin fossil ever. Nearly every human ancestor that has been presented since then has been classed as either “older than Lucy” or “younger than Lucy”.. 3d print of Australopithecus afarensis skull In the early 1970s, French paleo-anthropologist Maurice Taieb began surveying a location in the Continue reading A Closer Look at…
The Ginkgo Tree (Ginkgo biloba), with its distinctive fan-shaped leaves, is a familiar inhabitant of many city parks. But this living fossil is now the only current representative of what was once a widespread lineage. Gingko Tree For most of Earth s history, there was virtually no life on land life was limited to the sea. Simple Continue reading The Gingko Tree: A Living Fossil
By the last years of the 19th century, southern Africa had become a powder keg that was ready to explode. Boer troops, photo from Wiki Commons During the later half of the 19th century, Africa had been carved up by the European powers. Northern Africa had been colonized by the French and Italians, while the Continue reading The Boer Wars
During the Vietnam War, an accident nearly destroyed one of the USA s newest and most modern aircraft carriers. USS Forrestal photo from WikiCommons The aircraft carrier had played the decisive role in the Pacific War against Japan, After World War Two ended and the Cold War began, it was expected that the carrier battle group Continue reading The USS Forrestal Fire