Browsing: Travel

A Brief History On September 24, 2015, yet another religious related tragedy occurred when as many as 2,000 faithful Muslims in Saudi Arabia for the Hajj were stampeded and suffocated when a large crowd met another large crowd at a road intersection and chaos resulted.  The worst tragedy in a long line of Hajj related tragedies, some estimates were as high as over 2,400 dead, the worst Hajj related disaster. Digging Deeper In previous articles we have discussed tragedies and disasters related to religious events and locations, and asked the question, “What do these tragedies mean?”  If you are a…

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A Brief History On September 21, 1170, invading Normans, Vikings that had settled in France, captured the Kingdom of Dublin and established their own Irish kingdom replacing a previous Viking kingdom in Ireland from the 9th Century called Dyflin. Digging Deeper Vikings, the premier seafarers of the 8th through the 11th Centuries, spread their DNA far and wide in their travels, both in trade and in conquest.  Many Europeans today have genes passed down from the Vikings, people from modern Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, countries that today have a combined population of only around 22 million. Places that have Viking…

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A Brief History On September 17, 1961, downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was the site of the first retractable roof arena in the world, although its purpose may surprise you! Digging Deeper The Civic Arena was built mainly as the home of the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, although it moved into the sporting world in a big way in 1967 when it became the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL hockey team, until 2010, when it finally closed. Of course, the 17,000 seat arena also hosted many other sporting events, professional and amateur, including basketball, wrestling, boxing, soccer, figure skating, gymnastics, and…

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A Brief History On September 16, 1979, eight people yearning to be free of oppressive communism in East Germany made a flight to freedom in a hot air balloon to West Germany. Digging Deeper Amazingly, the escapees had been plotting their flight for over 18 months and had failed in a previous attempt.  Lucky for them the authorities were unable to identify the would-be aeronauts.  The successful balloon was the third balloon constructed by the determined Germans. Germany had been separated into Soviet and other Allied zones after the end of World War II in Europe, with East Germany dominated…

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A Brief History On September 12, 1992, NASA launched mission STS-47, an historic flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. Digging Deeper Among the notable facts about this particular flight, is that this mission marked the 50th space shuttle flight.  Another first, was the first African American woman in space, Mae Carol Jemison.  Mamoru Mohri became the first ever Japanese astronaut aboard a US spacecraft, and the first married couple to be together in space when Mark Lee and Jan Davis made the space flight as crew members. Endeavor made a total of 25 successful space flights from 1992 until retirement in…

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