A Brief History On May 1, 1978, Japanese adventurer Naomi Uemura made history as the first person to reach the North Pole all alone. Using a dog sled, Uemura barely made the 57 day trek alive, as he had been raided by a Polar Bear that ate much of his provisions! An intrepid adventurer, Uemura shot the bear dead when it returned the next day. Digging Deeper Uemura was also the first person to raft the Amazon River alone and the first to make a solo ascent of Denali in 1970. Always looking to best his own efforts, he disappeared…
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A Brief History This article is intended to summarize some key points from an overview of the Age of Exploration. Digging Deeper Over three centuries after the Vikings failed to establish a permanent settlement in North America, the Black Death, the worst pandemic in human history brought seemingly apocalyptic horror to Asians and Europeans alike. In the 1400s, as Europeans continued their recovery from the Black Death pandemic, the Inca were among a number of civilizations existing in the Americas with varying degrees of technological advancement. In 1453, Muslim Turks captured Constantinople from Christian Byzantines, thereby placing the world’s most…
A Brief History On April 30, 2008, Russian scientists confirmed that the skeletal remains found near the city of Yekaterinburg, formerly known as Sverdlovsk, in the Ural District of Russia, were indeed the remains of Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and one of his sisters, possibly Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, the son and daughter of the last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II and his wife, Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Digging Deeper Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in 1917, due to ongoing political unrest and the disastrous conduct of World War I. The Czar and Czarina were executed in 1918, along with their…
A Brief History On April 29, 1967, heavyweight boxing champ, Muhammad Ali, was stripped of his crown when he refused induction into the US military. He later was vindicated and regained his championship belt in the ring, and today we look at some sports champions that were stripped of their honors. Digging Deeper One of the saddest and most famous cases was Olympic champ Jim Thorpe, stripped of his Gold Medals won at the 1912 Olympics in the Decathlon and Pentathlon because he had once played semi-pro baseball. In 1982, his honors were posthumously returned. Performance enhancing drugs have cost…
A Brief History On April 28, 1973, Pink Floyd’s album, The Dark Side of the Moon, made it to the top of the Billboard Charts, and went on to spend a record-breaking run of 741 weeks on the charts. Still one of the biggest selling albums of all time, The Dark Side of the Moon deserves serious consideration as the greatest record album of all time. Digging Deeper We invite your opinion as to which album deserves the top spot, and here we list a few contenders, although picking a single winner is not easy! The Beach Boys – Pet…