And it’s built to survive a nuclear blast.
The October issue of Smithsonian magazine is also the starting point of a series of mind-bending puzzles designed by the Jeopardy! champion.
You’ve only got a few hours left to get over to the Library of Congress to get a look at the original rough draft of the Declaration of Independence. The draft, which was written by Thomas Jefferson and edited by John Adams and Ben Franklin, is being cycled out of the “Creating the United States” exhibit at the end of the day today, for at least the next few years. It’s being replaced by George…
Being somewhat of a history buff, I remember being bummed when I first moved to D.C. to discover the National Archives were closed for renovations. A few years later, the doors opened again, and finally seeing these amazing, centuries old documents in person is something I won’t forget. Flickr user FrogMiller took this crystal clear photo (with no flash, of course) of Mr. Hancock’s famous signature. EXIF. Entrance to the Rotunda at the The…
Was Ben Franklin a playa, and Thomas Jefferson a great lover? Was the route to independence from Britain wrought with as much inner political wrangling as any of today’s Congressional machinations? Should our national bird really have been the turkey? 1776, Keegan Theater’s take on one of America’s most clever and underrated musicals, attempts to answer these questions through vividly imagined depictions of our founding fathers, and smart, lyrical songs; you have to love a…
It looks like Senate Republicans really don’t want today’s scheduled Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to happen as planned. DCVote spokesperson Kevin Kiger tells us that Republicans have tried to invoke the 2-hour Rule, which would cut off committee action two hours after the Senate started work for the day. We’ve got our browsers set to the live webcast of the hearing, set to begin at 1:30 p.m., at which point we’ll know whether Sen. Russ…
The recently flooded National Archives is closed but still active, hosting some neat events on this, our nation’s birthday. Earlier this morning, a crowd of sweaty people gathered at the Archives to hear historical figures (or at least their reenactors) read the Declaration of Independence. Announced by a town crier, the historical impersonators of the documents’ framers, Thomas Jefferson (suitably fire-haired), Ben Franklin, and John Adams, as well as two injured Iraq war soldiers and…
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, official repository of government records, unveiled today a new exhibit of some of their collections. Hoping to capitalize on the scheduled release of “National Treasure” next week, the exhibit, titled “Public Vaults” features some of the Archive’s more interesting holdings, including information on the Declaration, the camera used to shoot the Zapruder film of JFK’s assassination, the tape recorder used by Nixon’s secretary to delete 18 minutes of…
Those who love (or despise) Dan Brown’s literary crack, some more details about his new book, which will be set in Washington, are coming to the surface. The NY Times reports that during a reporters roundtable, Brown’s publisher let the title of the book slip. The “Da Vinci Code” author’s new book is titled “The Solomon Key,” which we’re Googling right now to see what it may be tied to. As DCist has reported before,…