198 years ago today, the first issue of the Cherokee Phoenix was published using the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah. Sequoyah, also known as George Gist, was a Cherokee polymath who was one of the few people in history from a pre-literate group who created the original written system for that group’s language. Just as Sequoyah’s Cherokee language is still in use, the Cherokee Phoenix is still in print today, nearly 200 years after its first publication. READ more about its origins… (1828)

For the first time in over 180 years, a giant tortoise population is once again walking the landscapes of Floreana Island—launching the largest restoration effort ever undertaken on the Galápagos islands.

Scientists called “astonishing” the first indisputable evidence of a new species of Spinosaurus found in over a century—uncovered in a remote area of the Sahara Desert.

In what was noted to be a bit of a reversal of traditional roles, a dog was rescued by mountaineers after spending a frigid night in a hollow below a mountaintop.

Five dogs and four hikers were approaching the summit of Fionn Bheinn in the Scottish Highlands near Achnasheen recently, when their dogs fell through a “cornice,” a term for a large buildup of snow on the edge of a cliff face or overhanging ledge.

From Thailand comes a story that’s pure Hollywood: police going undercover as festival lion dancers to nab a suspected art thief.

Dressed as the rump and head of a large Asian lion costume during Lunar New Year festivities, the police sprang upon the suspect and took him into custody, phone cameras mercifully recorded.

14 years ago today, a team of Russian botanists successfully regenerated 36 specimens of Silene stenophylla from frozen samples of the plant’s fruit buried in the Russian permafrost between 40 and 60,000 years ago by squirrels. Surpassing the previous record for regeneration by more than 10 times, placental cells extracted from the frozen fruit were radiocarbon dated to 29,800 years BCE. READ what the plant looked like after it was grown… (2012)

Next Saturday, the 28th of February, stargazers will have the chance to spot Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all clustered together in the sky.

The state of São Paolo in Brazil recently passed a law in honor of a famous loyal dog that will allow residents to have their pets buried in family cemetery plots.

For the first time in the country’s history, a detailed analysis of Armenia’s “dragon stones” has been conducted with the hope of solving the mystery of these large Neolithic monuments.

An English thrift shop that found itself buried under mountains of old donated clothes has gotten a helping hand from a talented designer.

Recent fashion and design graduate Victoria Ford approached the shop and offered to transform some of its unwanted rags into bespoke pieces for sale at premium prices.

40 years ago today, the Soviet Union launched the space station Mir, and with it, a new phase in space exploration. Mir, which means both peace and world in Russian, would provide the home base for a permanently manned international complex orbiting the Earth– and was occupied for 10 years of its 15 in orbit. READ more… (1986)

22 massive granite blocks that once formed the Great Lighthouse of the Alexandria have been hauled up from the bottom of city’s ancient harbor.

The blocks weighed dozens of tons each and consisted of upright pillars, frames, and crossbeams called lintels that once formed the entrance to the structure.