Good News in History, February 9
152 years ago today, American Pulitzer Prize-winning Poet Amy Lowell was born. During a career that spanned just over a dozen years, she wrote and published over 650 poems, yet scholars cite Lowell’s tireless efforts to awaken American readers to contemporary trends in poetry, including by substantially aiding the rise of Ezra Pound’s work, as […]
Artist Uses Cremation Ashes to Create Unique Memorial Paintings With Personal Meanings
An artist is using cremation ashes in his paintings to create unique memorial landscapes that grieving families can personalize as a way to remember loved ones. Gary Harper began painting professionally just two years ago and was inspired by the loss of his cousin to respectfully experiment with blending a small amount of ashes into […]
‘Extinct’ Snail Found in Alleyway Results in Species Pulled Back From the Brink: A ‘Once in a Career’ Moment
A button-sized snail once thought extinct has been officially saved after conservationists bred and released more than 100,000 into the wild. The greater Bermuda snail (Poecilozonites bermudensis) was believed to be lost forever until a small surviving population was rediscovered in an alleyway in Bermuda’s capital, Hamilton, a decade ago. Now, following an international effort, […]
Apes Show Ability to Imagine in ‘Tea Party’ Experiments, and Scientists are Very Excited
Apes share the human ability to imagine and pretend, suggests new research that included a series of tea party experiments. Scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, called it the first study to show the capacity for pretending is not unique to mankind. They learned that apes can use their imagination and play pretend. […]
‘Crime-Fighting’ Llamas Catch Thief by Surrounding Him in a Field Until Cops Arrive
A would-be thief was caught by police after a herd of llamas cornered the suspect in a field until officers could arrive. It was dark outside when a man was alerted to an intruder on the couple’s farmland by animals making a loud alarm call last Monday evening. The crook was fleeing the scene after […]
Good News in History, February 8
58 years ago today, Planet of the Apes starring Charlton Heston was released in theaters. In the film, an astronaut crew crash-lands on a strange planet in the distant future. Although the planet appears desolate at first, the surviving crew members stumble upon a society in which apes have evolved into creatures with human-like intelligence and speech. […]
Good News in History, February 5
On this day 41 years ago, and in a charming little stint of political theater, the mayor of Rome, Ugo Vettere, and his counterpart Mr. Chedli Klibi in Carthage, Tunisia, met on a mission of goodwill to officially end the Third Punic War, which concluded with the destruction of Carthage 2,132 years ago. The agreement […]
Good News in History, February 4
Happy 53rd Birthday to Oscar De La Hoya, nicknamed the “Golden Boy of Boxing,” and winner of many world titles at lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight. De La Hoya had won 17 title bouts, either for claiming belts or retaining them, before he tasted the first defeat of his career, a reign of dominance […]
Good News in History, February 1
125 years ago, the African-American writer, poet, and playwright Langston Hughes was born on what would become the first day of Black History Month. Hughes became a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance, writing often for The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, as well as a weekly column in a primarily black newspaper […]
One Armed Golfer Gets Hole-in-One After Learning the Game Since His Accident: ‘Golf Gave me the Will to Live’
Golfers as old as 103 have hit holes-in-one—but have you ever heard of the feat being achieved by someone with only one arm? But recently, an Irish golfer celebrated sinking his first ever hole-in-one, after learning how to play the game since an accident left him with only one arm. A physically-challenged golfer is celebrating […]