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posted on Colonial Sense: 05/16/2012 Columbus may not have been First to America May 03, 2012, Discovery News by Rossella Lorenzi An investigation worthy of a Dan Brown novel has shed new light on the voyages of John Cabot,? ?the Italian navigator and explorer, revealing that he may have? ?had? ?knowledge of European expeditions to the? "?New World?"? that predated Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage.
Although commonly credited with "discovering" America, Christopher Columbus would not reach the mainland of the New World until 1498, when he sailed to South America.?
posted on Colonial Sense: 05/16/2012 First Native American Baptized and Buried in England to be Honored May 03, 2012, Indian Country Today Media Network by Staff In 1984 the Town of Manteo in North Carolina made a request that a Native American named Rowley be honored. On June 23 that request will be granted when a memorial plaque is placed at St. Mary’s Church in Bideford, England where Rowley is buried.
According to the Outer Banks Sentinel, Rowley traveled from Roanoke Island to England on one of the first return voyages. He was presented at the court of Queen Elizabeth and stayed there. On March 12, 1588 he was baptized and on April 7, 1589 he walked on.
posted on Colonial Sense: 05/09/2012 Cinco De Mayo: Not Mexico's Independence Day May 04, 2012, Discovery News by Staff With a history steeped in battles and rebuilding, Mexico has earned every right to be proud. Today marks a Mexican holiday that more and more people celebrate every year in the United States, many not knowing the reason for the festivities: the "Batalla de Puebla" (Battle of Puebla) or "Cinco de Mayo" (Fifth of May).
While it may all seem like a huge fiesta now, the history of this holiday is covered in bloodshed and remembrance.
Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not the celebration of Mexico's independence day. El Grito de la Indepedencia (The Cry of Independence) is held annually on Sept. 16 in honor of Mexico's independence from Spanish rule in 1810.
posted on Colonial Sense: 05/09/2012 A New Sonnet Written FOR Shakespeare April 27, 2012, Forbes by Tanya Mohn A new sonnet to commemorate Shakespeare’s 448th birthday and the launch of the World Shakespeare Festival was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), the producer of the festival, and was made public earlier this week.
The World Shakespeare Festival is the biggest event of its kind ever staged, according to its organizers, and is an unprecedented collaboration with leading arts organizations from around the world, involving more than 70 partners coming together to celebrate Shakespeare, with more than 70 productions, as well as events, exhibitions and broadcasts.
posted on Colonial Sense: 05/08/2012 Researchers Say They Have New Clue to Lost Colony May 03, 2012, The Associated Press by Martha Waggoner A new look at a 425-year-old map has yielded a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from North Carolina's Roanoke Island in the late 16th century.
Experts from the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum in London discussed their findings Thursday at a scholarly meeting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their focus: the "Virginea Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina created by explorer John White in the 1580s and owned by the British Museum since 1866.
posted on Colonial Sense: 05/08/2012 Little-Known Swedenborg gets Fresh Look in New Book April 20, 2012, The Washington Post by Annalisa Musarra William Blake, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Martin Luther King Jr. and even Helen Keller all found something to like in Emanuel Swedenborg.
...Swedenborg, born in 1688 as Emanuel Swedberg, began his life as a scientist but experienced a “spiritual awakening” in the second part of his life, starting one Easter weekend when he began to have dreams and visions.
Now a stunning new exhibition at Buckingham Palace demonstrates how Leonardo da Vinci was also one of the most ground-breaking anatomists of all time.
posted on Colonial Sense: 05/07/2012 Did Cold Weather Cause the Salem Witch Trials? April 20, 2012, LiveScience by Natalie Wolchover Historical records indicate that, worldwide, witch hunts occur more often during cold periods, possibly because people look for scapegoats to blame for crop failures and general economic hardship. Fitting the pattern, scholars argue that cold weather may have spurred the infamous Salem witch trials in 1692.
The theory, first laid out by the economist Emily Oster in her senior thesis at Harvard University eight years ago, holds that the most active era of witchcraft trials in Europe coincided with a 400- year period of lower-than-average temperature known to climatologists as the "little ice age."Oster, now an associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago, showed that as the climate varied from year to year during this cold period, lower temperatures correlated with higher numbers of witchcraft accusations.
posted on Colonial Sense: 05/06/2012 Map’s Hidden Marks Illuminate and Deepen Mystery of Lost Colony May 03, 2012, The New York Times by Theo Emery For centuries, the Tidewater coast of North Carolina has held one of early America’s oldest secrets: the fate of more than 100 English colonists who vanished from their island outpost in the late 1500s.
Theories abound about what happened to the so-called Lost Colony, ranging from sober scholarship to science fiction. Some historians believe that the colonists might have been absorbed into American Indian tribes. Other explanations point to darker fates, like disease, an attack by Spaniards or violence at the hands of Indians. The wild-eyed fringe hints at cannibalism and even alien abduction.
posted on Colonial Sense: 05/06/2012 Surveys Call into Question Location of Fighting on Fort Ann's Battle Hill April 26, 2012, The Post-Star (NY) by Jon Alexander State officials confirmed Saturday recent archaeological surveys found no evidence of a battle at the site of a proposed mine on Battle Hill, throwing the actual location of the Revolutionary War skirmish in question.
Gino Vona, owner of Big Boy Construction, wants to develop a 50-acre mine with Troy Topsoil on his 160-acre parcel atop the mound where English forces met scattered Continental units that were fleeing Fort Ticonderoga on July 8, 1777.