Surviving Shipwreck Three Times

People think they are lucky when surviving ship wreck. What to say about Violet Jessop who survived no less than three major disasters on sea? Would you have gone back onto a ship after surviving the sinking of the RMS Titanic? Would you have gone onto the RMS Titanic in the first place after being in the collision of the RMS Olympic? And would your ship of choice have been the HMHS Britannic? Violet Jessop did all that.

Violet Jessop

Stirling Castle With Music in The Ceiling

Stirling Castle once was a Royal residence of the kings of Scotland. Being situated near the border to England, the castle was of strategic importance for centuries before it became the seat of kings. When the Scots started to convert it into a Royal residence, the builders included a curious code into the ceiling of the king’s bedchamber. The code was cracked to reveal the music hidden within.

Stirling Castle ceiling

Galileo Galilei: Master of Science and Self-Promotion

Galileo’s career started in a monastery in Florence; but his father saw a doctor in him. Defying his father, he studied mathematics instead of medicine. He made his first invention at 22. At 25, he was lecturing at the University of Pisa and building high class musical instruments. He had to move to Padova after being mobbed out from Pisa.

Lohengrin: Sweet History of Product Placement

We all know that the splendid knight Lohengrin was an invention. Created as a minor character for an epic poem written by Wolfram von Eschenbach, he entered as a mainstream hero by means of Richard Wagner's opera of the same name. If he was not a historical figure, what is this article doing on a history blog, you might ask. But there is a real history to tell about Lohengrin. It is all about Norway.

The Town of Baden in Baden

The German town of Baden-Baden acquired its name officially in 1931 with a formal decision of the town's council. Before that, it was simply called Baden and was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Baden until 1918. Baden was a bathing spa in Roman times and was known as Aquae like Bath in England. Aquae in Latin and Bath in English have the same meaning as Baden in German. How did Baden end up with the weird tautology of being called Baden-Baden?