When Paris Turned Into Venice
1. When Paris Turned Into Venice
Throughout its history, Paris has regularly experienced heavy rainfalls that caused flooding. But in 1910, following months of rainfall, the Great Flood of Paris happened, one of the most severe episodes of flooding in the city’s history. Following months of rainfall, the Seine River rose to 28 feet, carrying winter rains from its tributaries and flooding the Paris conurbation. The city’s residents had to travel by rowboat, make deliveries through windows, and construct makeshift pathways through the City of Lights.
2. Where The World’s Rarest Colors Are Stored
According to Harvard Art Museums’ website, the world’s most unusual colors can be found in the Harvard Art Museums’ Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. Ranging from rare bits of Egyptian blue glass dating to 1,000 BCE to newly released fluorescent hues, the pigment collection comprises over 2,500 samples. Former Fogg Art Museum Director Edward Forbes started the collection at the turn of the 20th century, in the interest of preserving the early Italian paintings he had just begun to collect.
3. When One Man Designed The Safety Car Of The Future
In the late 1950s, a double-jointed vehicle named Sir Vival car was created by Walter C. Jerome of Worcester of Massachusetts, USA. The idea behind this very strange and very expensive machine? To provide a car that protected occupants by having its front section swivel away or even break off in a collision. Both parts of its two-section body of Sir Vival were encircled by separate frames and cushioned by dodgem-car-type rubber bumpers. Its other main feature was protection from poisoned air. However, Sir Vival never survived the idea stage, joining other designs that were never produced commercially.
4. When One Man Declared His Own (Tiny) Kingdom
No man is an island, with one exception: the late Paddy Roy Bates, the Prince of Sealand, who passed away at the age of 91 in 2012. According to TIME magazine, Bates’ kingdom was actually a derelict WWII artillery platform, perched on two brick pillars seven miles off the west coast of England. There he founded the independent Principality of Sealand in 1967, crowning himself Prince and his wife, Joan, Princess. He came up with a constitution for Sealand, designed a flag, created passports, stamps, coins, and even a national anthem.
