City Gate

Kalgan, a gate to the Great Wall of China-1899

In his memoirs about a family trip to China in 1899, Herbert Hoover recalls his Christmas Eve stop in the town of Kalgan. While there, he met an American medical team doing missionary work. He describes the Christmas dinner he had there as a 'good one, but the fine American faces were a better tonic'.

Coventry Cathedral

Winston Churchill tours the roofless ruins of Coventry Cathedral after it was almost completely destroyed by a World War II bombing in November of 1940. Located in West Midlands, England, St. Michael's Cathedral, as it became known, was constructed between the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

In the post-war years, a new cathedral was erected directly adjacent to the old cathedral ruins, as seen in the above picture. 

First Communion

For decades, NASA kept quiet the fact that Apollo 11 Lunar Pilot Buzz Aldrin made history of his own shortly after he and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. Aldrin held a prayer service in the lunar module and actually took Communion from a small communion kit, provided him by his pastor at the Webster Presbyterian Church in Houston.

Atheist Madelyn O'Hare had filed a lawsuit against NASA shortly after astronauts read from the Bible during the Christmas Eve 1968 orbit of the Moon by Apollo 8. In order to avoid another lawsuit and to preserve the historic value of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, NASA imposed a radio blackout during Aldrin's private service, unbeknownst to the rest of the world.

A Symbolic Journey

In 1930, Dr. Clyde William Tombaugh, pictured above, was credited with discovering the dwarf planet Pluto. On January 19, 2006, nine years after his death in 1997, NASA launched the New Horizons, a robotic spacecraft which is currently on its' way to Pluto. The craft, which is expected to fly by Pluto on July 14, 2015, is carrying several non-scientific articles of symbolic relevance including some of Clyde Tombaugh's ashes.

A small circular cylinder containing some of Dr. Tombaugh's ashes is pictured attached to the inside of the New Horizons spacecraft.

Eastern State Penitentiary

Opened on October 25, 1829, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia was the largest public building project of its' time. The wheel shaped structure was designed to primarily keep inmates isolated from each other as well as the outside world, the belief being that this would be beneficial to their spiritual rehabilitation. Economic reasons as well as overcrowding eventually led to the prison closing in 1971. Today, Eastern State's massive walls provide tourists with their own original form of deteriorating beauty as a result of being abandoned for many years.

Thru the years, Eastern State housed such famous criminals as Willie "The Actor" Sutton, and Alphonse "Scarface" Capone, and was also the setting for many television shows as well as Hollywood movies. In order to safely protect visitors from its' ongoing decay, the penitentiary is currently maintained in a state of  'preserved ruin'.

Hockey Comes Indoors

The first organized indoor game of ice hockey was played on March 3, 1875 at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Canada. In 1893, this photograph was taken by William Notman during a game in the same building.

Nellie Bly

Female journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran (1864-1922), who was widely known by her pen name Nellie Bly, is pictured in 1890 after having traveled around the world in a record setting 72 days. In addition to her famous voyage, she was also known for her report in which she faked mental illness and was admitted to an asylum in order to expose corruption in the institution. 

Tokyo Rose

Iva Toguri was an American who participated in propaganda broadcasts by Radio Tokyo to Allied soldiers in the South Pacific during World War II. On her program, 'Zero Hour', Toguri referred to herself as 'Orphan Ann', but she quickly became known as 'Tokyo Rose' to Allied troops.

When she tried to return to the United States, she was tried on 8 counts of treason, and eventually convicted on one count. Iva Toguri was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and was paroled after serving 6 years and 2 months. In 1974, an investigation into her trial revealed that a key witness had lied in their testimony. In 1977, President Gerald Ford issued her a full pardon. She died of natural causes on September 26, 2006.

Leaders' Private Moments

General Douglas MacArthur and President Harry Truman are photographed thru the back window of their automobile on Wake Island, US Territory in the North Pacific in October 1950.

Pope Saint Pius X

Pope Pius X pictured in the Vatican Gardens in December 1904.

Born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto on June 2, 1835, he was the leader of the Roman Catholic Church from 1903 until his death on August 20, 1914.  He was canonized by Pope Pius XII on May 29, 1954, the first Pope to be canonized since 1712.