You have to hand it to the Brits when it comes to golf. This notice was posted in war-torn Britain in 1940 in a north-country golf club.
German aircraft from Norway would fly on missions to northern England; because of the icy weather conditions, the barrels of their guns had a small dab of wax to protect them. As they crossed the coast, they would clear their guns by firing a few rounds at the golf courses. Golfers were urged to take cover — via Stiff Upper Lip
Happy Anzac Day to my fellow Australians.
You might want to bake some Anzac biscuits today — via WhipUp.net
A formula for invisible ink used by spies during the First World War and espionage techniques involving messages etched on toenails are among classified documents released by the CIA.
Six of the oldest files held by the agency, which predate it by several decades, were made public this week — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Obituaries Australia is a digital repository of obituaries published in newspapers, journals, magazines and bulletins. Here you will find the life stories of Australians from the earliest times to the present.
This site is hosted by the National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University, which also produces the award-winning Australian Dictionary of Biography. While the ADB focuses on the lives of notable Australians, Obituaries Australia offers a more egalitarian sample of the Australian experience by reproducing, in a convenient online format, published obituaries relevant to the history of Australia.
An artificial big toe found on the foot of an Egyptian mummy could prove to be the world’s earliest functioning prosthetic body part, it was announced today.
Volunteers who have lost their right big toe are now being recruited to see how effective replicas of the prosthesis are.
The fake toe from the Cairo museum in Egypt was found in 2000 in a tomb near the ancient city of Thebes. Archaeologists speculated the 50- to 60-year-old woman the prosthesis came from might have lost her toe due to complications from diabetes — via redwolf.newsvine.com
John Weber, a 70-year-old from England, was given a metal mug by his grandfather in 1945. Though his grandfather had a good eye
for antiques, John never thought the metal mug was worth much. He played with it as a child, and even used it as a target for his air rifle. The mug, assumed to be brass, has languished in a shoe box under Weber’s bed for decades.
Well, it turns out Weber’s old mug may be the world’s most expensive plinking target! The cup is actually made of solid gold, and is a rare, ancient artwork, crafted over 2300 years ago. The unusual mug, decorated with twin, opposite-facing female heads, was appraised with a value exceeding one-quarter million dollars ($250,000) — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Archaeologists in central London have uncovered a 16th century mass grave containing the remains of patients from the former St Bethlehem’s mental hospital, known as Bedlam — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A Nazi submarine mission to the United States during World War II ended in farce after being hit by a series of disasters, newly-released files show — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A sculpture of a Mayan warrior that sold for more than $4 million at a Paris auction house this week is a fake, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said — via redwolf.newsvine.com
An Iron Age gold hoard found near Stirling by an amateur treasure hunter has been secured for the nation after a fundraising campaign — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Nearly 222 years after the French Revolution, a desk made by royal cabinetmaker Jean-Henri Riesener is back in the Versailles Palace after being acquired by the French state for 6.75 million euros ($9.5 million) — via redwolf.newsvine.com
In October 1947, at Edwards Air Force Test Center, Captain Charles Chuck
Yeager forever changed history, when he was the first pilot to fly faster than the speed of sound — via Jake’s Rolex World
Scientists have established how the largest bone-cracking carnivore to have ever lived went about its business.
The giant hyena, Pachycrocuta brevirostris, roamed Africa more than 2.5 million years ago.
Using new evidence uncovered from recently unearthed fossils, and a biomechanical analysis of the hyena’s jaws, scientists have worked out what it ate and how — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Here’s something that’s guaranteed to make men (and women) of a certain age feel nostalgic for their youth, a 1974 Ford Gran Torino car, which is available to buy via eBay.
Of course, it’s the car made famous by Starsky and Hutch, with this particular model coming complete with the paint job from the TV show, not to mention a flashing red light. It’s a childhood dream come true — via Retro To Go
A student prank led to British Army and intelligence units being mobilised for fear that aliens were mounting an invasion of England, documents released today show — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Before blasting the first human into space in 1961, the Soviet Union fired off one last test flight of the tiny capsule that would carry Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on his historic mission.
The test capsule, Vostok 3KA-2, still scorched from re-entry, will be sold at Sotheby’s in New York on April 12, the 50th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight.
Sotheby’s, which is displaying the capsule at its New York headquarters ahead of the sale, estimates it will fetch between $2 million to $10 million. The owner, who wished to remain anonymous, bought it privately from Russia several years ago — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The earliest ever version of the board game Monopoly has sold for a whopping £90,000.
The set was one of 5,000 made in 1933 by Charles Darrow, the purported inventor of Monopoly, and is the only one to have survived to this day.
The dog-eared set is made out of a piece of oilcloth and is in the form of the original circular shape that is 33 inches in diameter — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Almost nothing tangible remains of genius Bletchley Park codebreaker, Alan Turing; so when an extremely rare collection of offprints relating to his life and work was set to go to auction last year, an ambitious campaign was launched to raise funds to purchase them for the Bletchley Park Trust and its Museum. The Trust is today delighted to announce that the collection has been saved for the nation as the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) has stepped in quickly to provide £213,437, the final piece of funding required — via redwolf.newsvine.com
The copyright industry has tried the same tricks and rhetoric for well over 500 years, and they are also keen on trying to rewrite history. But the tale of the history books differs sharply from what the copyright industry is trying to paint — via redwolf.newsvine.com
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