Through the Looking Glass

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, using the pen name Lewis Carroll, wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” which was banned in China.

Albert Einstein

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Banning Books

In China, animals are forbidden to use human language. This belief led China to ban which book written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

Straits of Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan was trying to find a way to sail through the land mass of the new world (the Americas) to reach the Spice Islands and ultimately circle the earth with his ships.
The search proved difficult, but finally in October of 1520, after almost a year and the loss of one of his five ships, he found what would come to be known as the “”Straits of Magellan.” It took him 38 days to sail through the straits, but he eventually reached the Pacific at the end of November 1520.
Not realizing how large the Pacific was, they thought a crossing would only take a few days. Exhausted and almost out of supplies, four months later the ships reached Guam (March 1521). The explorers were now able to find fresh supplies and continue their quest to reach the Spice Islands.
Unfortunately Magellan was killed by Philippine natives only a month later, although his crew eventually completed their journey – having lost 4 of their original 5 ships! The surviving ship finally returned to Spain in the fall of 1522 proving Magellan’s belief in circumnavigation true. Sadly he never lived to see it.

Elvis Presley

“You only pass through this life once, you don’t come back for an encore.”

Finding the Spice Islands

Of Portuguese birth, but sailing under the Spanish flag, Ferdinand Magellan set sail in September of 1519, trying to reach the Spice Islands. He believed he could get there sailing West and circumnavigating the globe, but he needed to find something to convince skeptics he was right. What?

Superstitious? Violet and Arthur Should Have Been!

Most people are unaware of the fact that the RMS Titanic had two far less famous sister ships, the older Olympic and the younger Britannic. Prior to the Titanic sinking (Sept. 20, 1911), the HMS Hawke collided with the Olympic, damaging both ships badly, although fortunately no lives were lost. But after the Titanic sank (Nov. 21, 1916), the Titanic’s younger sister Britannic was hit by a mine in the Aegean Sea. It sank and took 30 lives with her.
On board all three ships at the times each of their disasters struck were Violet Jessop, a nurse, and Arthur John Priest, a stoker. Truth is stranger than fiction!