(Fox News) – High school students on an archaeology field trip helped discover a 6,000-year-old stone ax head at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate.
Roughly 7 inches long and 3 inches wide, the ax would have been an important part of the Native American tool kit in the fourth millennia B.C, according to experts. Famous as the home of one of America’s founding fathers, the Virginia estate also offers a fascinating glimpse into the nation’s earlier history. The artifact is now one of more than 50,000 artifacts found on the Mount Vernon estate.
(Fox News) – Fans of “The Wizard of Oz” looking for a glimpse of the ruby slippers are in for a treat.
The National Museum of American History revealed on Twitter Friday the famous shoes from the celebrated movie are being put back on display.
The museum said “After their journey to the museum’s Conservation Lab, they are stabilized, sparkling clean, and ready to be on view for years to come.”
Oct. 19 kicks off the “opening weekend of the Ruby Slippers gallery,” as well as other displays, the museum said on its website, after the shoes paid a visit to the conservation lab for restoration.
NEW YORK (AP) — The sale of a prominent Abraham Lincoln scholar’s collection of material pertaining to the nation’s 16th president brought in nearly $300,000 at a New York City auction.
Swann Galleries says nearly 90 percent of Harold Holzer’s collection of hundreds of Lincoln books, artwork and documents was sold recently at auction in Manhattan. The overall sale total of $299,995 topped the presale estimate of $158,000 to $236,000.
An 1860 painting of Lincoln before he grew a beard drew the highest price at $40,000.
Holzer is an award-winning historian best known for his books on Lincoln and the Civil War. He collected hundreds of Lincoln items during the decades he spent researching and writing about him.
Holzer currently serves as director of Hunter College’s Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute.
Harold Holzer
Abraham Lincoln’s Opera Glasses,The Pair He Brought to Ford’s Theatre and Held in His Hands at The Time of His Assassination.
(Fox News) – Extremely rare letters from infamous World War I spy Mata Hari to her lover have been sold for $15,000 at a Los Angeles auction.
Born Margaretha Zelle in the Netherlands in 1876, the courtesan and exotic dancer was better known by her stage name of Mata Hari. She was recruited by France to spy on Germany during World War I, and was later accused of being a German double agent.
Arrested in Paris on Feb. 13, 1917, she was put on trial on July 24 of that year, charged with spying for Germany and causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Convicted, she was executed by a French firing squad on Oct. 15, 1917. Some historians, however, think that she was a scapegoat and her execution was used as a distraction from the devastating losses France suffered during the war.
On this day in 1945, the Allies proclaimed V-J Day, victory over Japan, a day after Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally.
Woodstock began on this day in 1969 at Max Yasqur’s dairy farm in upstate New York.
Napoléon Bonaparte(August 15, 1769 – May 5, 1821)
Napoleon was the Emperor of France who rose to power in the aftermath of the French Revolution in 1799 and waged war with every major European power in a series of wars known as the Napoleonic Wars. After a series of military failures he was finally defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and spent the last 6 years of his life in exile on the island of St. Helena.
On this day in 1947, India became independent from Britain and was divided into the countries of India and Pakistan. India had been under British rule for about 200 years.
The Omagh bombing was a car bombing that took place on this day in 1998 in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It was carried out by a group calling themselves the Real Irish Republican Army, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) splinter group who opposed the IRA’s ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement.
An aerial view of the devastation caused in Omagh after the bombing.
The Panama Canal was officially opened to commercial traffic on this day in 1914, as an American ship sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The first vessel to pass through the canal was the American cargo and passenger ship SS Ancon.
A newly expanded Panama Canal in 1016.
"The Wizard of Oz" premiered in Hollywood, CA. on this day in 1939. Judy Garland became famous for the movie’s song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
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