Month: June 2020

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, the mysterious disappearance of Muriel Trevenard and its haunted history

Nathan

On a scenic basalt rock headland that juts into the Pacific Ocean stands a beautiful white lighthouse. At 28 meter tall, the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, located in Newport, Oregon, is the state’s tallest lighthouse and It’s been guiding ships for 145 years. For over a century, ghost stories have swirled around the lighthouse, locally know as Oregon’s most famous haunted lighthouse. It was built in 1871, and first lit on August 20, 1873. One tale tells of a construction worker helping to build the tower who fell to his death.…

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Tunguska Event: the mystery that puzzled scientists for almost 100 years

Robin

A huge mysterious blast rocked eastern Siberia on this day, June 30, 1908, leaving millions of trees lying on the ground, mostly pointing in the same direction, over an area of many kilometres. The reports describe a fireball in the sky, like a second sun, and a series of explosions “with a frightful sound,” followed by shaking of the ground as “the earth seemed to get opened wide, and everything would fall in the abyss.” The indigenous Evenks and Yakuts believed a god or shaman sent the fireball to destroy…

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#TodayInHistory – June 30

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June 30 – Some important events on this day. 1294 👉🏼 Jews are expelled from Berne, Switzerland 🇨🇭 1520 👉🏼 Spanish conquistadors are expelled from Tenochtitlan following an Aztec revolt against their rule under Hernán Cortés during “La Noche Triste” (the Night of Sadness). Many soldiers drown in the escape, and Aztec emperor Montezuma II dies in the struggle. 1860 👉🏼 Famous debate on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution held at the Oxford University Museum and dominated by arguments between Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce 1863 👉🏼 Dutch…

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Everything you need to know about New Orleans’ Cities of the Dead~

Leo S

There is no shortage of spooky graveyards in America, especially in the South and, it seems, when it comes to burying the dead no city does it better, and with more extravagance, than New Orleans. With row after row of above-ground tombs, New Orleans cemeteries are often referred to as “Cities of the Dead.” Burying the dead in a city that is below sea level and prone to flooding is no easy task. The dead prefer to stay dry and if not kept that way will make their displeasure known…

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#TodayInHistory – June 29

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June 29 – Some important events on this day. 512 👉🏼 A solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland. 🌓 1534 👉🏼 Jacques Cartier discovers Prince Edward Islands Canada. He explored and claimed what is now Canada for France. In addition, he was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River. These he named “The Country of Canadas”, after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec City) and at…

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Scaf: the French artist whose realistic graffiti art seems to Jump off the walls

Robin

As lockdowns loosen, people start wandering into the streets to appreciate fresh air, open spaces, but also some more or less decent graffiti on the walls. But there is an artist really incredible: his stage name is scaf, or scaf_oner on Instagram and, moreover, he isn’t a mere “vandal”. “I love to paint in all of these abandoned places. Above all, I like abandoned houses, manors, castles and factories,” he said. By doing so, he transforms them and adds extra value to them, rather than the opposite and the work…

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#TodayInHistory – June 28

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June 28 – Some important events on this day. 1389 👉🏼 Ottomans defeat Serbian army in the bloody Battle of Kosovo, opening the way for the Ottoman conquest of Southeastern Europe 1519 👉🏼 King Carlos I elected Holy Roman Catholic Emperor Charles V 1776 👉🏼 Final draft of Declaration of Independence submitted to Continental Congress. Signed by representatives from 13 states on 4th July 1776 the declaration was a statement adopted by the Second Congressional Congress and the first step toward forming an independence United States. The declaration was drafted…

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Francesco Petrarca’s house: a modest museum in the final home of Italian poet

Anya016

“In the Euganean Hills, I had a small house built, decorous and noble; here, I live out the last years of my life peacefully, recalling and embracing with constant memory my absent and deceased friends.” (Petrarch, Senili, XIII, 8, Letter to Matteo Longo, January 6 1371). Francesco Petrarca, one of the first humanists, was a founding figure in the Italian Renaissance, but also the poet who helped solidify modern Italian. He spent his final years tending vegetables in this incredibly old house, which predates even his own residence there. Years…

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#TodayInHistory – June 27

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June 27 – Some important events on this day. 1358 👉🏼 Republic of Dubrovnik is founded 1542 👉🏼 Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sets sail from the Mexican port of Navidad to explore the west coast of North America on behalf of the Spanish Empire. The first explorer to navigate the coast of what would become California, he also explored much of the West Coast of the United States on behalf of the Spanish Empire. 1652 👉🏼 New Amsterdam (now New York City) enacts first speed limit law in North America 1693…

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Do not eat, touch, or inhale the air around the manchineel tree! You could die.

Leo S

Throughout the coasts of the Caribbean, Central America, the northern edges of South America, but also in south Florida, there can be found a pleasant-looking beachy sort of tree, often laden with small greenish-yellow pretty fruits. You might be tempted to eat the inviting fruit. But no, do not eat the fruit! Or maybe you might want to rest your hand on the trunk, or touch a branch? Absolutely no, do not touch the tree trunk or any branches! But also…do not stand under or even near the tree for…

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#TodayInHistory – June 26

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June 26 – Some important events on this day. 363 👉🏼 Roman Emperor Julian is killed during retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by troops on the battlefield. 1284 👉🏼 According to the Lüneburg manuscript, a piper leads 130 children of Hamelin away. This story bacame a popular tales, still today. ✔️READ THE ARTICLE! 1498 👉🏼 Toothbrush invented in China using boar bristles. 1541 👉🏼 Francisco Pizarro, conqueror of the Incas, assassinated 1794 👉🏼 Battle of Fleurus: major victory by forces of the First French Republic…

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The abandoned Spitzer Castle in Beočin – Serbia

Ivan

We are in the town of Beočin, on the slopes of Fruška Gora mountain, where rests a peculiar building, in ruins and long forgotten. Locally known as Spitzer Castle, the mansion was built in the late 19th century by Eduard Ede Spitzer, co-owner of the Beočin cement factory. The building is one of the rare examples of the eclectic architecture in Serbia’s northern province of Vojvodina. Spitzer hired the famous architect Imre Steindl, best known for his work on the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest, to design and engineer the…

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In Japan, coronavirus pandemic inspired haunted house drive-through experience

Robin

A haunted house tour operator in Japan has announced the world’s first horror drive-through experienced as a responsible way of providing horror enthusiasts with summer scares also during the Covid-19 pandemic. While restaurants and shops remain the most affected business by the coronavirus, amusement parks and events aren’t fairing much better either. Regarding haunted house attractions, It’s hard scaring someone without getting up close, but some companies are starting to adapt to the situation and trying out new things. As a result, haunted house design company Kowagarasetai has created what…

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#TodayInHistory – June 25

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June 25 – Some important events on this day. 1183 👉🏼 Peace of Konstanz signed between Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Italian Lombard League 1630 👉🏼 Fork introduced to American dining by Governor Winthrop 1638 👉🏼 Lunar eclipse is 1st astronomical event recorded in the American Colonies 1678 👉🏼 The Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is awarded a doctorate in philosophy, the first woman to receive a university or research doctorate 1876 👉🏼 Battle of the Little Bighorn: US 7th Cavalry with Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer blown away by…

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The witches of Benevento and their walnut tree Sabbats

Ivan

We are in Italy. When the Romans conquered the area in the 3rd century B.C. they changed its original name Maleventum (meaning “bad event”) into Beneventum (“good event”) but, name apart, it was a place of crossroads. The city stood in fact where the Appian Way forked and the Sabato and Calore rivers came together and, interestingly, crossroads (in italian “crocevia”) were the special domain of the goddess Trivia, protector of witches, with word Tri-via that means “three roads”. The legend of the witches of Benevento dates back to the…

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The mysterious case of dance mania that broke out in Medieval Europe

Adam

St. John’s Dance, known historically as St. Vitus Dance, was a social phenomenon involving a type of dance mania that gripped mainland Europe between the 14 th and 17 th centuries. On this day, June 24 1374, just several decades after the Black Death swept across Europe, one of the most well-known major outbreaks of dance mania in Medieval Europe broke out in the German city of Aachen, even if it spread to Liege, Utrecht, Tongres and other towns up and down the Rhine. What was the problem? Afflicted individuals…

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#TodayInHistory – June 24

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June 24 – Some important events on this day. 843 👉🏼 Vikings destroy Nantes 972 👉🏼 Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces. Mieszko I of Poland decisively defeated Odo I of Lusatia 🇵🇱 1314 👉🏼 Battle of Bannockburn; Scotland regains independence from England 1322 👉🏼 Jews are expelled from France for 3rd time 1374 👉🏼 Sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion. ✔️ READ…

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The fascinating story of Nocino, the witches’ liqueur.

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Patron saints. Every Italian town has one and a local public holiday for celebrating their heavenly protector. In some italian regions, San Giovanni Battista or John the Baptist, is venerated with evening bonfires or fireworks and the night between 23 and 24 June, is also linked to the preparation of a culinary specialty handed down from ancient times: the harvesting of green walnuts to make the liqueur nocino. Many families still preserve the “secret family recipe” of nocino, a liqueur made from green walnuts, often enriched with those particular herbs…

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The albumen of St. John: a curious Italian tradition

Danijel90

John the Baptist is the most depicted saint in art of all centuries. His night has always been considered magical and prodigious, probably because it immediately follows the summer solstice (June 22), when the sun reaches its peak on the horizon and gives strength and vigor to all creatures. The night of St. John is also called the second New Year, very similar to the first for the magical conception and the rituals connected to it, first of all the bonfires. The difference lies in the contents: if the New…

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St John’s eve: ancient rituals to mark midsummer

Ivan

Saint John’s Eve, starting at sunset on 23 June, is the eve of celebration before the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist. The Gospel of Luke states that John was born six months before Jesus, therefore, the feast of John the Baptist was fixed on 24 June, six months before Christmas according to the old Roman calculation. This feast day is one of the very few saints’ days which commemorates the anniversary of the birth, rather than the death, of the saint being honored. The Feast of Saint John…

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Saint Mathieu Lighthouse | France

Anya016

Located on Pointe Saint-Mathieu in Plougonvelin, around Brest in Finistère, Saint-Mathieu lighthouse was built in 1835 among the ruins of the ancient Abbaye Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre. The Abbey gives the cape its name, and It was dedicated to Saint Matthew the Evangelist, whose skull it housed. It was a Benedictine abbey, but was revived and reformed by the Maurists in the mid-17th century. According to legend the first abbey here was founded in the 6th century by Saint Tanguy, chosen for its isolated location among the lands he had inherited.…

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#TodayInHistory – June 23

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June 23 – Some important events on this day. 930 👉🏼 World’s oldest parliament, the Icelandic Parliament, the Alþingi (anglicised as Althing or Althingi), established. 🇮🇸 1683 👉🏼 William Penn signs friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape indians in Pennsylvania. It was only treaty “not sworn to, nor broken”. An early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, William Penn was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the…

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The haunted tales of Huguenot Cemetery | St. Augustine | Florida

Leo S

Founded in 1565, St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest continuously-occupied city in America. Since antiquity and all the way to modernity, St. Augustine has been embroiled in all manner of skulduggery. Bloody events pop out of its history, from tribes of natives butchering each other, colonial periods rife with genocide, war, pirate raids, to famine, and plagues. As a region that passed from one Imperialistic dictator to the other every couple of years, when modernity finally made its triumphant entrance, St. Augustine devolved into a haven for smugglers, rum-runners and…

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Henry Hudson and the deadly quest for the the Northern Passage

Robin

June 22, 1611: English explorer Henry Hudson was set adrift in a small boat off the North American coast by mutineers. He was never seen again. When the mutiny took place Hudson, who was searching for the legendary Northern Passage, had reached a large sea that was later named after him, Hudson Bay. In the 17th century European capitals and trading companies were anxious to establish a new route to Asia, and especially India with its coveted and valuable spices. Shipping goods to and from this part of the world…

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#TodayInHistory – June 22

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June 22 – Some important events on this day. 168 BC 👉🏼 Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat and capture Macedonian King Perseus, ending the Third Macedonian War. 1535 👉🏼 Cardinal John Fisher is beheaded on Tower Hill, London, for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. 1559 👉🏼 Jewish quarter of Prague burned and looted. 1611 👉🏼 Henry Hudson set adrift in Hudson Bay by mutineers on his ship Discovery and never seen again. ✔️READ THE ARTICLE! 1633 👉🏼 Galileo Galilei…

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The surreal photos that show sanitation workers disinfecting historic monuments around the world

Pavel

From the Giza pyramid complex, to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. These historic sites and others all over the world are usually teeming with tourists, vendors, and any sort of people. We have already seen images of two major Italian cities, Venice and Milan, during the COVID-19 pandemic, completely free of visitors. And with monuments closed, the tourists have been replaced by other characters like municipal workers from sanitation and utility departments, that can be seen sanitizing these public places. Usually clad in masks, gloves, and protective suits, their job…

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#TodayInHistory – June 21

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June 21 – Some important events on this day. 68 👉🏼 Roman General Vespasian conquers Jericho during the Great Jewish Revolt 1498 👉🏼 Jews are expelled from Nurenberg Bavaria by Emperor Maximillian 1547 👉🏼 Great fire in Moscow, 2-3,000 killed 🔥 1788 👉🏼 US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it. The supreme law of the United States of America, the US Constitution was drafted by the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention which took place between May 25 and September 17, 1787. It was the…

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Holy Well of St. Madron – Cornwall

Nathan

Cornish culture is legendary and mystery awaits around every corner in its land. Despite holy wells are water sources with specifically Christian associations, identified from as early as the 6th century AD, and the custom of venerating springs and wells as sacred sites have characterised pre-Christian religions in Britain, it is clear that some originated as earlier sacred sites. The cult of holy wells continued throughout the medieval period. Its condemnation at the time of the Reformation, around 1540, ended new foundations but local reverence and folklore customs at existing…

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#TodayInHistory – June 20

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June 20 – Some important events on this day. 451 👉🏼 Battle of the Catalaunian Plains: Roman and Visigoths forces defeat Attila the Hun in north east France 1214 👉🏼 The University of Oxford receives its charter 1756 👉🏼 Black Hole of Calcutta: 146 British soldiers, Anglo-Indian soldiers and Indian civilians are imprisoned in a small dungeon in Calcutta, India where most die from suffocation and heat exhaustion 1789 👉🏼 Tennis Court Oath (for a new constitution) in France made at Versailles 1791 👉🏼 King Louis XVI and the French…

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Chhurpi: the world’s hardest cheese come from Nepal.

Robin

Chhurpi, Nepali: छुर्पी, (or Durkha) is a traditional Nepalese cheese that has been a means of survival for many remote communities for centuries. Made out of the milk of yaks, or chauri (a crossbreeding between a yak and a cow), it comes in two varieties – soft and hard. The soft variety is usually consumed as a side dish with rice, as filling for traditional dumplings, or also as a soup. But it’s the hard variety that makes chhurpi famous all over the world. Probably you’ve tried hard cheeses before,…

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