We are nearing the Christmas holiday season, and all the decorations are being put out for Saint Nick. Houses and malls alike are getting a covering of lights with highlights of green and red. Children will soon look to the sky, a-waiting the jingling of bells and the sound of hooves on the rooftop. But have you ever wondered who Saint Nicholas was and why we hang stockings out at Christmas?
This Saturday marks the 113th anniversary of man’s first “heavier-than-air” flight in a powered craft. On Dec 17, 1903 at 10:35am, with Orville at the controls and Wilbur standing by, the Wright Brothers made history. Their glider, called “Flyer”, lifted off and flew 120 feet in 12 seconds across the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk on the coast of North Carolina.
The oldest shipwreck from Europe's Golden Age of Exploration has been found off the coast of Oman, the country's Ministry of Heritage and Culture will announce on Tuesday.
The wreck is believed to be that of the Esmeralda, which was part of a fleet led by legendary Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama during his second voyage to India (1502-1503).
The wreck was initially located in 1998 and excavated between 2013 and 2015 by a partnership between the Oman Ministry of Heritage and Culture and the shipwreck recovery company Bluewater Recoveries Ltd., which is directed by David Mearns. Support for the project was provided by the National Geographic Society Expeditions Council.
Cape St. Vincent, one of the major geographical features of the Algarve with its millennia of history; The Monastery of São Vicente de Fôra in Lisbon; St Vincent’s Anglican Church of the Algarve; we are indeed surrounded by the name of St. Vincent. But who was he?
There is little to give you the answer anywhere near the Cape itself apart from a small statue of him in the little Church of Nossa Senhora de Graça inside the fortaleza in Sagres and some scant information on him in the museum in the Cape lighthouse complex, and even nearly all Guide Books give him but a passing reference. This is particularly odd and indeed sad since he is, in fact, the Patron Saint of Lisbon (and perhaps almost as importantly to some, the Patron saint of Wine Producers!).
New Year is the time at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner.
The New Year of the Gregorian calendar, today mostly in use, falls on 1 January (New Year's Day), as was the case both in the old Roman calendar (at least after about 713 BCE) and in the Julian calendar that succeeded it.
From the number of Cretans to be executed for every dead German soldier to advice on which brothel to use, new research is shedding light on Nazi wartime atrocities in Greece.
Greece's defense ministry on Monday unveiled its first findings from research into formerly classified Wehrmacht papers found in archives in the United States.
The British Embassy in Lisbon, in partnership with the National Archives - Torre do Tombo, are pleased to announce that Portugal will be one of the countries included in the Magna Carta Global Tour, to commemorate its 800 years.
Over the course of four months an original version of the Magna Carta from 1217 and the only surviving King’s Writ from Runnymede in 1215, on loan from Hereford Cathedral, will tour seven countries and four continents, travelling a total of approximately 65,000 miles. The tour will include New York, Luxembourg, China, Australia, Singapore, Malta and Portugal, in the second week of December.
A replica of Admiral Horatio Nelson's warship HMS Pickle is to set sail from Portugal to a new home on the Humber following months of restoration.
Finishing touches are being made to the vessel by a team from North Lincolnshire after the unique ship fell into ruin. The schooner brought the news of Nelson's victory and death to England in November 1805.
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