Nakhimov: The Ship That Was Sunk Twice

In August 1986, the Soviet cruise liner Admiral Nakhimov collided with a freighter while leaving port and was sunk, killing over 400 people. It was the worst shipping disaster in Soviet history. And strangely enough, this was not the first time the ship had been sunk.

The “Admiral Nakhimov” in 1925, as the German liner “Berlin”

The Battle of Nashville

The Battle of Nashville, in December 1864, destroyed an entire Confederate Army and ended the Civil War in what was then the western part of the United States. But today the battle has been largely forgotten.

Confederate Redoubt Number One

McKinley: The Forgotten Assassination

In September 1901, President William McKinley was shot and killed by a self-proclaimed anarchist. It was the third Presidential assassination in US history. But today, McKinley and his untimely death are virtually forgotten.

McKinley monument, Columbus OH

Icons of Aviation History: The Polar Star

The first thing you notice when you look at the Northrop Gamma 2B “Polar Star” is that it doesn’t have wheels–it has skis. This airplane was not designed to land on runways–the Polar Star was specially built as an Antarctic explorer.

Polar Star on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

Cadbury Castle and the Legend of King Arthur

Cadbury Castle, in Somerset, England, doesn’t look like much today–just a terraced hill with some faint outlines of defensive ditch-works. But the site attracts a large number of curious tourists each year because, according to local legend, it is the location of the legendary King Arthur’s Camelot.

A stone marker atop Cadbury Castle

The First Flights: The Montgolfier Brothers

When the Wright Brothers took off at Kittyhawk in 1903, people had already been flying for over a century. In fact, the first manned flights were launched in front of huge crowds in Paris, just a few years before the French Revolution. But they did not happen in airplanes.

The Montgolfier balloon launches in Paris in 1783

The Crystal River Nuclear Plant: How Progress Energy Broke Its Own Nuke

In 2009, the Progress Energy company in Tampa Bay FL decided to upgrade its aging nuclear power plant at Crystal River by replacing the plant’s steam generators with newer ones. This was a routine operation that had already been done in several dozen other nukes around the US. But in the case of Crystal River, it turned out to be anything but routine.

Crystal River Unit 3                         Photo by Duke Energy

 

Earth’s Other Moons

If someone were to ask you “how many moons does the Earth have?”, you would answer “One”. And you would be correct–most of the time. But not all of the time…..

Luna