A Brief History On February 15, 1949, even Indiana Jones would have been envious of the work of Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux who began digging at the Qumran Caves where they later found the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Jewish documents that date back as far as the 3rd Century BC. Digging Deeper Some other contenders for the title of “Greatest Archaeological Find” include: The Rosetta Stone, found in 1799 by Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt, finally allowed researchers to interpret Egyptian hieroglyphics. King Tut’s Tomb, found in 1922, totaled over 5,000 objects from Ancient Egypt, the…
Browsing: Travel
Read More
A Brief History On February 14, 1779, Captain James Cook, navigator, map maker, and explorer, was killed by native Hawaiians at the island of Hawaii near what is now Kealakekua. Cook is one of several notable explorers to die while exploring, including: Digging Deeper Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sea captain often cited as the “first person to circumnavigate the Earth,” actually never completed his famous voyage as he was killed in a fight with natives in the Philippines in 1521. Robert Falcon Scott died trying to become the first person to reach the South Pole in 1912. Scott and four…
A Brief History On February 3, 1998, a bizarre aircraft accident occurred on the ski slopes of Italy when a USMC EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare jet flew below allowable altitude and cut the cable to a cable car carrying skiers. Digging Deeper The cable car was carrying an operator and 19 passengers, all of whom were killed as the car fell 300 feet from the severed cable. The pilot and navigator of the jet were uninjured, and the damaged jet made a safe landing. The accident happened in the Dolomite mountains at Cavalese, and of course, the Italian public and…
A Brief History On January 31, 1846, the result of the Milwaukee Bridge War was the formation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Fought over a bridge being built over the Milwaukee River, two of the three settlements in the area, Juneautown and Kilbourntown, were highly competitive with each other and along with Walker’s Point were incorporated as the Village of Milwaukee in 1839. Digging Deeper The intense rivalry between the leading citizens of each area boiled over in 1845 when one of the several bridges in the village was struck by a schooner sparking rumors of an intentional ramming. The Kilbourntown people…
A Brief History On January 19, 1995, a Bristow Helicopters Eurocopter AS332L Super Puma suffered a terrifying lightning strike while transporting 16 oil workers and a crew of two from Aberdeen, Scotland to an offshore oil rig. Much like the more famous “Miracle on the Hudson” in 2009, the skilled pilot was able to make a water landing and saved all on board. Digging Deeper Unlike the Hudson River, the North Sea is farther from shore and considerably rougher, with far fewer folks around to conduct an immediate rescue. The icy cold water in January could kill survivors within minutes…