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Stories from Sonja Anderson

Freddie Mercury in the "Made in Heaven" music video

Freddie Mercury’s Boundary-Pushing Costumes Take Center Stage at the Victoria and Albert Museum to Mark the 80th Anniversary of His Birth

Eight ensembles from the Queen frontman’s career will be displayed across six stops in the London museum’s permanent galleries, offering a glimpse into the clothes behind his legendary stage persona

The Ilovik-Paržine 1 shipwreck, with logs and amphorae visible in the foreground

A Brittle Coating on a 2,200-Year-Old Roman Shipwreck Reveals How Ancient Sailors Kept Their Ships Afloat

Traces of pine tar and beeswax preserved on the vessel reveal the painstaking techniques shipbuilders millennia ago used to protect their ships from the briny deep

The statue was unvelied on August 14.

A New Statue Honors ‘Moby-Dick’ Author Herman Melville in the Massachusetts City Where His Whaling Adventures Began

The 7.5-foot-tall bronze artwork stands in the heart of historic New Bedford, the 19th-century whaling port that inspired the author’s famous 1851 novel

Wisconsin Air National Guard officers carry the wingtip on July 12.

This American Pilot Downed 40 Enemy Aircraft During World War II. Researchers Discovered the Wreck of His Plane in a Pacific Jungle and Brought a Wing Back to His Home State

Richard I. Bong, flying a plane decorated with a portrait of his future wife, Marge, became America’s highest-scoring “ace” and received a Medal of Honor

The quake rocked Kumamoto on the Japanese island of Kyushu.

This 400-Year-Old Impenetrable Japanese Castle That Survived a Samurai Siege Just Crumbled in an Earthquake

In 1877, a force rebelling against Emperor Meiji attacked Kumamoto Castle on Japan’s southern Kyushu island

Gunther von Hagens wearing his signature black fedora

This Man Turned Human Corpses Into Popular Museum Displays. Now, the Creator of These Controversial ‘Body Worlds’ Has Donated His Own Body to Science

Gunther von Hagens, who invented plastination, a method of preserving bodies by replacing their natural fluids with polymers, recently died at age 81

Visitors with regular admission tickets are not usually allowed inside the monument.

Want to Spend Some Alone Time With Stonehenge? This August, Lucky Visitors Get the Chance to Enter the Stone Circle Before the Site Opens to Tourists

Almost every day next month, management of the prehistoric landmark in England will draw a winning ticket and offer a unique experience to a visitor before the daily bustle begins

The museum has already curated a collection of hundreds of artworks.

See the New Frank Gehry Building Rising From the Shore of the Persian Gulf in Abu Dhabi to House a Global Art Collection

Officials just announced a December opening for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the long-awaited fourth installment in the Guggenheim Foundation’s lineup of art museums

The five cannonballs ranged in size from grapefruit to cherry.

TSA Officers Found Five Cannonballs Stolen From a Civil War Fort in a Checked Suitcase at an Alabama Airport

The inert artifacts gave security officers in Gulf Shores a good scare. Investigators say the weapons came from Fort Morgan, which guards Mobile Bay

A portrait of Chagall taken by Pierre Choumoff 

French Customs Detained This Marc Chagall Etching for Two Decades After an Attempted Border Crossing. Now It’s Headed for Public Display

An acrobat perches on a violin in the absurd scene, which draws on the Russian artist’s favored motifs

One of the design proposals

It’s Nature vs. Culture as Europeans Vote on New Designs for Euro Banknotes That Pit Kingfishers Against Leonardo da Vinci

The European Central Bank released a shortlist of ten potential designs for a new series of printed banknotes, the first complete redesign since the Euro note was issued in 2002.

La Lampe philosophique (The Philosopher’s Lamp), René Magritte, 1936

Wacky, Mysterious Paintings by This Surrealist Still Influence Contemporary Artists. An Exhibition in London Will Explore the Legacy of René Magritte

The Belgian Surrealist was famous for his playful subversion, like when he created a painting of a pipe and then defiantly declared it wasn’t a pipe, after all

Kids learned about historical laundry tasks on the museum’s reopening day.

Kids Can Try Out the ‘Oliver Twist’ Lifestyle at This English Museum Revealing Conditions for Poor People in a Victorian Workhouse

After a restoration, the Ripon Workhouse Museum reopened to the public, showcasing the sights, sounds and rules of England’s 19th-century “solution to poverty”

The secret listeners recorded conversations onto acetate discs.

British Intelligence Turned This Mansion Into a Bugged Spy Trap for Nazi Prisoners of War During World War II

Visitors can now tour the house, where German generals relaxed and gabbed upstairs while Jewish refugees working as spies and translators for the British government listened in from the basement

A pitcher throws at a WPBL Fanfest in Stockton, California.

New Women’s Pro Baseball League Teams Are Named for These Pioneering American Women, Giving Female Players Another League of Their Own

The Firebells, Heights, Queens and Hunters—of San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Boston—were inspired by an honorary firefighter, a civil rights activist, a first basewoman and a physician

The exumed remains were reburied in caskets in 2022.

Thousands of Kidnapped Africans Died on an Island in the Atlantic After Being Rescued From Slave Ships. Evidence in Their Teeth Traces Their Journeys

Remains in the graves of St. Helena, where the British military housed “liberated” enslaved Africans, contain isotopes from inland Angola and Zimbabwe

The Draken Harald Hårfagre is not modeled after a single historic ship, but an amalgamation of many Viking vessels described in stories.

This Viking Longship Crossed the Atlantic Before Starring in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ as Odysseus’ Greek Galley

Hollywood stars including Matt Damon went to rowing camp to learn how to operate the vessel for the new film

The S.S. Great Britain was the world’s largest passenger ship upon its launch.

Once the World’s Biggest Passenger Ship, This Metal Marvel That Crossed the Atlantic and Took Immigrants to Australia Has a New Museum Home

A new museum dedicated to stories surrounding the S.S. “Great Britain” is about to open in Bristol, where the ship is permanently dry-docked

The church was built around 1300.

This 700-Year-Old English Church Nearly Closed—but Then the Vicar Discovered a Stash of Gold Coins Under the Altar

Just before Easter, a box of gold bullion minted in the 1990s changed the outlook for a tiny congregation struggling to cover costly repairs

Big Boy No. 4014 stopped in Philadelphia.

The Largest Operating Steam Locomotive in the World Weighs 1.2 Million Pounds. Now, the Historic Train May Be Coming to Your Town

Built in the 1940s, Big Boy No. 4014 retired in 1961 after traveling for more than one million miles. It’s now making its way across the country in honor of America’s 250th birthday

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