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HISTORIC COLLECTIBLES
Meet Wayne Fortna, a Pennsylvania teacher who kept one white pumpkin alive for nearly 40 years just for Thanksgiving pie; gardeners can still buy its seeds todayWayne Fortna cultivated a unique white pumpkin for nearly forty years, ensuring a Thanksgiving pie tradition. After his death, his daughter...
New York has already restored 200 million oysters. Now it wants 1 billion back in its harborNew York Harbor is the focal point of an extraordinary ecological restoration project known as the Billion Oyster Project. The aim is to tr...
Million dollar mistake: A 24-cent stamp became one of America’s rarest due to a printing error. It turned the stamp into a collector’s prize worth $2 millionThe 1918 “Inverted Jenny” stamp was originally sold for just 24 cents, but a printing mistake left the Curtiss JN-4 airplane upside down. O...
US govt sold Apollo 11 moon-dust bag for just $995 in 2015; two years later Illinois woman got $1.8 million for the same bagIllinois woman got $1.8 million for moon-dust bag: A bag used during NASA’s Apollo 11 Moon mission was sold at a US government auction for ...
Mark Twain once admired its views. George Clooney’s $100 million Lake Como villa once belonged to the ‘ketchup king’: Inside its extraordinary historyGeorge Clooney’s Villa Oleandra on Lake Como is an 18th-century, 25-room property with a rich history, elegant interiors and expansive gard...
In 406 BC, Socrates opposed an illegal mass trial of Athens’ generals, even when the angry assembly threatened his opponents with the same fateIn 406 BC, Socrates stood against an angry Athenian Assembly after the Battle of Arginusae. Athens wanted to try several generals together,...
Jack Miner banding a duck in Ontario in 1909; news from South Carolina the following year revealed where it had travelledJack Miner began bird banding in Ontario in 1909 with his first mallard, Katie. Katie's recovery in South Carolina provided the first compl...
In 1921, Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant began building towers in his Los Angeles yard; 33 years later, his handmade creation included a tower more than 99 feet highIn 1921, Italian immigrant Sabato “Simon” Rodia began an ambitious project on his small property in Los Angeles. Working alone during night...
In 1851, over 800 abandoned ships filled San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Cove; some were turned into hotels, salons, churches, while others became museum relicsBeneath San Francisco’s bustling streets lies a forgotten maritime past. During the Gold Rush of 1849, thousands of fortune seekers arrived...
In 1992, an English metal detectorist searched a field for a lost hammer; moments later, he uncovered a Roman hoard containing thousands of ancient objectsToday, the Hoxne Hoard remains one of Britain's most extraordinary Roman archaeological discoveries, and its unlikely origin continues to c...
In 1984, Lincoln's handwritten final public address emerged from a secret compartment in an antique table; the forgotten manuscript later sold for $231,000A remarkable manuscript discovery at New York City’s Morris-Jumel Mansion brought an overlooked piece of Revolutionary-era history back int...
In the 1980s, rare shells linked to Captain Cook were thrown into a university dumpster; 40 years later, the forgotten collection returned to England's heritage archivesRare shells linked to Captain James Cook nearly vanished in the 1980s. The collection was thrown into a university dumpster, apparently for...
In 1983, Atari dumped 14 truckloads of games like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Atari 2600 and others in a landfill in New Mexico. In 2014 more than 800 of them were sold for more than $100,000Atari’s 1983 disposal of video-game cartridges and computer equipment at an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill became one of gaming’s most fam...
A NASA intern Gary George paid $217 for 1,150 NASA tapes; 43 years later, 3 Apollo 11 recordings showing Neil Armstrong sold for $1.82 millionFormer NASA intern Gary George spent just $217.77 on 1,150 surplus NASA videotapes in 1976, unaware that three reels contained rare first-g...
In 2009, NASA started conducting the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice under Operation IceBridge to bridge the observational gap between ICESat and ICESat-2In 2009, NASA started conducting the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice under Operation IceBridge to bridge the observational gap...
The repeat challenge: India’s historic bid to defend its crown at 2026 Chess Olympiad in SamarkandIndia seeks to replicate its historic 2024 Chess Olympiad success in Samarkand. The nation's chess players are defending champions with imm...
Before Bittu Tabahi, actor Madhavan had praised an Andhra man's fight to clean an ancient stepwell. 300 volunteers came forward to helpA social media post by Abbayi Kanth highlighted the alarming state of a historic temple well in Andhra Pradesh, which had turned into a sev...
The epistemology of power: Why BRICS must build a common scientific architectureFor nations striving for geopolitical balance, achieving scientific and technological independence is crucial. The BRICS alliance, with its...
Angelina Jolie's surprising knife collection: How the Hollywood actress' childhood fascination turned into an unusual hobbyAngelina Jolie has had a fascination with knives and daggers since childhood. From receiving her first daggers at 11 or 12 to collecting sp...
A 120-year-old taxidermy bear is helping scientists solve modern wildlife crimes; its preserved hair could change how poaching cases are investigatedA museum bear named Boris is now helping fight wildlife crime. His fur is being studied for microscopic and genetic characteristics. This r...