Titanic Wireless (Marconi) operated Harold Bride is deserving of recognition. Order by Captain Smith to wire for help Bride and the head radioman Jack Phillips stayed at their post until the power went out. Bride managed to jump into the ocean and found himself underneath a collapsible life boat in the freezing water. He managed to get out and he and 15 other man survived on the top of the upside down boat until they were rescued by the Carpathia.

In spite of frostbite to his feet he worked the Carpathia's radio for another 36 hours notifying the world of the names of the survivors. He sold his exclusive story to the New York Times for $1000. He continued to work as a ship's radioman and served as such in the British Navy in World War I. He died in 1956, the father of three children.

La Brea Woman

Thousands of animal bones have been found in the La Brea Tar pits over the years. This natural wonder near downtown Los Angeles has held saber toothed tigers, wolves, bear and hundreds of other species of animals and plants. Only one set of human remains have been found. The woman nicknamed La Brea Woman died about 9 thousand years ago. It is believed that she was killed as part of some type of religious ceremony.... a sacrifice of some kind. Estimates place her age at about 25. Her skeleton had been on display for many years, but was removed in 2004 to avoid upsetting Native American

tribes.

The Falkland Island's "War"

The Falkland Islands are a group of islands with a total area about the size of Connecticut. They are located 250 miles east of Argentina and 500 miles north of Antarctica. The have been controlled by England since 1831, but have been claimed by Argentina as well.

In April of 1982, the Argentine Navy invaded the islands and occuppied them. The British responded quickly, send a battalion of warships across the Atlantic to confront the invaders.

The United States made attempts to mediate the crisis but the military leaders in the Argentinian government would not back down. The U.S. ultimately sided with the British and offered some support. A fierce sea and land battle resulted in the death of 649 Argentine and 255 British soldiers as well as 3 native Falklanders.

The British action and victory were very popular back home and ultimately propelled Margaret Thatcher as one of the most popular Prime Ministers in this century.

King Clovis 1 -The First King of "France"

King Clovis the 1st became king of a small region of what is now France in 481 when his father died. He was only 15 years old. Using a powerful army and creative tactics he quickly consolidated his power to include most of what is now France. After a very successful battle he converted to Catholic Christianity.

His conversion began the process of making Catholicism the dominant religion in France for the next 1500 years.

In many ways he was the right man at the right time. Rome had ruled most of France for many centuries and with their decline it was easier for a man like Clovis to gain power.

Tallest Building in the World for 3800 Years

Tallest Freestanding Structure in the World for 3800 Years
The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the Ancient World.  It is the only one that is still intact.  It was built about 2500 B.C.  It is in Egypt. It was the tallest structure in the world for 3800 years.  It is also called the Pyramid of Cheops.

The Great Pyramid of Giza

The first structure to surpass the Great Pyramid was The Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England.  It was the tallest building in the world for 238 years, from 1311 to 1549. I had a height of 525 feet. In 1549 the central and tallest tower of the Cathedral collapsed and was not rebuilt. Following the collapse, St. Olaf's Church in Estonia became the tallest structure on Earth.

Lincoln Cathedral

Number of Years That Countries Have Tallest Structure

Country	# of Years	Percent
Egypt	3800	84.37%
Germany	331	7.35%
England	238	5.28%
France	45	1.00%
United States	42	0.93%
Canada	31	0.69%
Russia	9	0.20%
UAE	8	0.18%

Sources:

Great Pyramid of Giza

Tallest Building Timeline

Lincoln Cathedral

Battle of Berlin vs. the Battle of London

As the war between England and Germany progressed, the opposing nations became more and more willing to bomb each other's cities. This exposed more and more women, children and civilians to the dangers.

The Germans had the advantage of distance. They only had the fly the 100 miles from the occupied coast of France to London, allowing them to make two or more bombings a night.

The British, not gaining any advantage by bombing French cities had to fly the nearly 700 miles to Berlin, which cost much more in fuel and aircraft.

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"Barbarians" in Rome

In the year 410 AD the Visigoth's invaded Rome after a long siege and sacked the city. The odd thing about this sacking was that it was more civilized than you would have expected from Barbarians. The Visigoth's, which loosely means "Good People from the West", were a Germanic Tribe that had been frustrating the Roman empire for many years. When they managed to get into the city, they took everything of value but did not kill nearly as many people as might have been expected, and they did not destroy or desecrate any church. The "Barbarians" were Christian's themselves and were respectful to Rome. Anyone who had sought sanctuary in the churches was allowed was left alone. After taking everything of value that they could carry, the Visigoth's left and never returned. Please help support my work by clicking on one of the ads.

Ferdinand Magellan

Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan lived from 1480 - 1521. He is best known for naming the Pacific (Peaceful) Ocean and for being the first to "circumnavigate" the Earth.

After navigating through the difficult Straights that bear is name he entered the Pacific Ocean and by comparison to what he had just endured it did seem Peaceful.

He did not actually make it around the Earth. He was killed in what is now the Philippines. He was showing off his military skills for tribe he had made an alliance with and was overwhelmed and killed. His ship did make it all the way back home but without him.

Spain built a monument to his death on the Philippine island where he was killed, ironically it is in the city of Datu Lapu-Lapu, which is the name of the man who killed him.

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One Math Nerd Proves Another Wrong

Marin Mersenne lived from 1588 to 1648. He had published that 2 to the 67th power minus 1 (147,573,952,589,676,412,927) was a prime number. For more than 250 years, that was widely accepted by mathematicians. In 1903 a mathematician named Frank Cole proved on a chalkboard doing longhand multiplication that 193,707,721 times 761,838,257,287 equaled 147,573,952,589,676,412,927. For math nerds it was a significant bit of history.
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Conquest of Lisbon, Portugal

The city of Lisbon, Portugal was conquered by Berber and Arabic Muslim forces in the year 711. The Christians in the city were allowed to maintain their religion, but were considered second class citizens. In 1108 crusading forces led by led by Sigurd I of Norway retook the city and it returned to Christian rule. Most of the Muslims fled the city or were force to convert to Catholicism. Many of the Islamic mosques were made into Catholic churches....some which survive today.
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