Jaunted - Tag: History Travel

Oxford: Brush Up on Your Beatles Knowledge With Summer School at Oxford University

Jennifer Kester — 2010-02-02T12:22:19-05:00

You'll get schooled in the Beatles at Christ Church in Oxford.

While smarty-pants head to Oxford for serious academic study, you can go to become a Beatles scholar.

The University of Oxford's Continuing Education Department's 20-year-old Oxford Experience program will offer an intensive class on "The Beatles, Popular Music and Sixties Britain" from July 4 to 10. It may not sound like the rigorous courses that one would expect from the hallowed halls of Oxford, but this won't be a class you can sleep through—especially since classes don't have more than 12 students in them.

Plymouth: Back Where Thanksgiving Began: Plimouth Plantation

juliana — 2009-11-24T17:49:32-05:00

If you ever wanted to go back to a simpler time of Thanksgiving without the hassle of planes, trains, automobiles and WiFi, say to the time of the very first Thanksgiving, then Plimouth Plantation may be the right place for Thanksgiving 2010. (Or Thursday, if you find yourself in the New England area with no concrete dinner plans.)

The heritage site, where the first Thanksgiving is believed to be held, does Thanksgiving dinner every year. Er, we should call that dinners as there are multiple dining options from a buffet to a Victorian Thanksgiving dinner to an all-day Thanksgiving celebration. But this place is also way more than Thanksgiving dinner. Plimouth Plantation has done its best to recreate the time and living conditions of 1621 when pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving here.

Fortunately, Plimouth doesn't gloss over the lives and stories of the Native Americans that inhabited the land long before English settlers showed up. The Wampanoag Homesite actually tells the story of the English settlers arriving from an Indigenous point of view.

New York: Discover President Obama's Lost Years on a Tour of His New York Haunts

Victor Ozols — 2009-11-21T14:07:58-05:00

President Obama is most closely associated with the city of Chicago, but he spent five years in New York as a student and community organizer, and a local actor has created a walking tour that shines a light on what he calls Obama's "lost years" here. The AP introduces us to Jeremiah Miller, whose two-hour "Obama's New York" tour takes visitors to some of the places the 44th president spent time during his 1981-1985 stint in the city.

In Russia, Seven Wonders Find You

Victor Ozols — 2009-11-14T14:20:12-05:00

Russians do not like to be dissed, so when the so-called Official New 7 Wonders of the World list came out recently without one Russian wonder, the great bear sprang into action. More than 26 million people cast their online ballots for the most amazing wonders of Russia, and we can now debate whether any of the Seven Wonders of Russia belong on the global list.

Nikumaroro: Only the Coconut Crabs Really Know Where Amelia Earhart Is

Victor Ozols — 2009-10-24T11:42:09-05:00

Just as a biopic of her life is released, a group of researchers claim to have found the spot in the western Pacific where Amelia Earhart disappeared on an attempted round-the-world flight in 1937. As the Discovery Channel points out, the awkwardly-acronymed The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) said it has evidence that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, made a forced landing on a coral atoll called Nikumaroro - part of the Phoenix Islands, Kiribati - and became castaways and eventually succumbed to disease, thirst, hunger, or injury.

Lake George: Revolutionary War Drags On as British Soldiers Blast Dude With Cannon in Upstate New York

Victor Ozols — 2009-10-18T14:32:02-05:00

Most people think the American Revolutionary War ended with the surrender of General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, but there appear to be a handful of British holdouts still battling from a fort in in upstate New York. As msnbc.com points out, an American tourist and his wife were recently shot by a British cannon as they enjoyed a picnic lunch on the southern shore of Lake George.

Berlin: Tour the Secret Escape Tunnels Under the Berlin Wall

Victor Ozols — 2009-10-17T17:29:10-05:00

East Germany must have been a really nasty place to live, because so many people risked their lives to escape to the west. A creepy tour in Berlin provides a stark reminder of the lengths people will go for freedom, with walks through some of the escape tunnels under the Berlin Wall. An interesting AP story points out that about 300 people managed to escape through various tunnels in the years after the wall was built in 1961, with many continuing to work from the west to free family members.