History

Alexandre Étienne Choron

Alexandre Étienne Choron was a French chef. Choron is also remembered for his dishes served during the Siege of Paris by the Prussians in which began on September 19, 1870. During the siege, Parisians were reduced to eating cats, dogs, and rats. The bourgeois were not content to eat on such low animals, and demand at the de luxe restaurants remained high. As food reserves dwindled, these restaurants, including Voisin, improvised. Choron eyed the animals kept at the local zoo, and served exotic animal dishes at Voisin. For the midnight Christmas meal of 1870, Choron proposed a menu principally composed of the best parts of the animals kept in the Jardin d'acclimatation (one of Paris' zoos) – stuffed head of donkey, elephant consommé, roasted camel, kangaroo stew, bear shanks roasted in pepper sauce, wolf in deer sauce, cat with rat, and antelope in truffle sauce – has become legendary. The menu's wines were Mouton-Rothschild 1846, Romanée-Conti 1858 and Château Palmer 1864.

Staffordshire Hoard

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold yet found. It consists of more than 1,500 items that are nearly all martial in character. The artefacts have tentatively been dated to the 7th or 8th centuries. The hoard has been valued at £3.285 million.

Flak towers

Flak towers were large, anti-aircraft gun blockhouses used by the Luftwaffe to defend against Allied air raids during World War II. They were able to fire 8000 rounds per minute with a range of up to 14 km in a full 360-degree field of fire.

Sedan crater

Sedan Crater is the result of the Sedan nuclear test. The radioactive fallout from the test contaminated more US residents than any other nuclear test, and the Sedan Crater is the largest man-made crater in the United States. It can be seen from earth orbit with the unaided eye.

Mata Hari

Mata Hari was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I.

Iron pillar of Delhi

The iron pillar of Delhi, India is a 7 meter high pillar in the Qutb complex which is notable for the composition of the metals used in its construction. The pillar is 98% pure wrought iron, and is a testament to the high level of skill achieved by ancient Indian ironsmiths. It has attracted the attention of both archaeologists and metallurgists, as it has withstood corrosion for over 1,600 years in the open air.

White Mischief

With much of the rest of the world at war, a number of bored British aristocrats live dissolute and hedonistic lives in a region of the Kenya Colony known as Happy Valley, drinking, drugging and indulging in decadent sexual affairs to pass the time. This is a dramatization of their story.

Westvleteren Brewery

Westvleteren, a Belgium brewery founded by Trappist monks. The infamous Westvleteren 12 beer comes from here.

Dyatlov Pass incident

The Dyatlov Pass incident refers to an event that resulted in the deaths of nine ski hikers in the northern Ural mountains on the night of February 2, 1959. The lack of eyewitnesses and subsequent investigations into the hikers' deaths have inspired much speculation. Investigators at the time determined that the hikers tore open their tent from within, departing barefoot in heavy snow. Though the corpses showed no signs of struggle, two victims had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs, and one was missing her tongue. According to sources, four of the victims' clothing contained substantial levels of radiation. There is no mention of this in contemporary documentation; it only appears in later documents. Soviet investigators determined only that "a compelling unknown force" had caused the deaths.

Piri Reis map

The Piri Reis map is a famous pre-modern world map compiled in 1513 from military intelligence by the Ottoman-Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis.

Opus

Encyclopædia of the sublime