Greece

"Fair Greece! and relic of departed worth! Immortal, though no more; though fallen great!"

-- George Gordon, Lord Byron

Picture copyright © Jigzone.com

The Tower of London

Among the ghosts said to haunt the Tower of London are Anne Boleyn, Henry VI, Lady Jane Grey, Margaret Pole, and the Princes in the Tower.

Photograph: Public Domain, from PDPhoto.com

Amber

Amber is the fossilized remains of tree resin, and has been known since very early times. Amber ornaments have been found in Bronze Age excavations, in the Mycenaean tombs, and among the remains of the Lake People in Switzerland.

Photograph: Insect remains in amber pendants, Public Domain

Toll House Cookie

Toll House Cookies were invented by Ruth Wakefield in 1930, while baking a batch of chocolate sugar cookies for her Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. She had run out of baking chocolate, and substituted pieces of broken up semi-sweet chocolate, thinking it would melt into the batter. When it didn't, she found she had invented a delicious new recipe.

Picture copyright © Jigzone.com

Bruegel's Peasant Wedding

Pieter Bruegel the Elder is best known for his depictions of the life of village peasants.

Image: The Peasant Wedding, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1568, oil on canvas, public domain.

Paris, 1493

This woodcut of Paris is from the Nuremberg Chronicle, one of the first printed books, published about 1493.

Fair Rosamund

Ma dame ye ben of Al Beaute ſhryne
As fer As cercled is the mapamonde
For As the cristall glorious ye ſhyne
And lyke Ruby ben your chekys rounde

[Madame, you are a shrine of all beauty,
As far encircling as the map of the world.
For you shine as the glorious crystal,
And your round cheeks are like Ruby.]

-- Geoffrey Chaucer, Balade to Rosemound

Illustration: Fair Rosamund, John William Waterhouse, 1905, public domain

Locomotive Roundhouse

Roundhouses are circular buildings containing a railroad turntable. Originally, they were important for providing a place for a locomotive engine to turn around, as well as providing a shelter for storage and repairs.

Photograph: Locomotive Roundhouse, from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain

Shwedagon Pagoda

According to legend, the Shwedagon Pagoda is 2500 years old. It contains relics of the past four Buddhas: the staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Konagamana, a piece of fabric from the robe of Kassapa, and eight hairs from Gautama.

Illustration: The Shwedagon Pagoda, from an 1825 lithograph, public domain.

Marie Antoinette

"Pardonnez-moi, monsieur. Je ne l'ai pas fait exprès."
("Pardon me, sir. I did not do it on purpose.")
-- Last words of Marie Antoinette, who accidentally trod on the foot of the executioner as she went to the guillotine.

Illustration: painter unknown, oil paint on copper, ca. 1793, public domain

Horse Drawn Carriage

Motorized vehicles have been prohibited since 1898 on Mackinac Island, Michigan, a popular tourist attraction. Exceptions are made for snowmobiles, service vehicles, and emergency vehicles.

Picture copyright © Jigzone.com

Faneuil Grasshopper

The grasshopper weather vane atop Faneuil Hall in Boston is the only part of the structure that has not been modified since 1742. (It was, however, repaired and replaced, following the 1755 earthquake.)

Illustration: Faneuil Grasshopper, by unknown photographer, public domain, per Wikipedia.org

Abraham Lincoln

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

-- Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860

Photograph is by Mathew Brady, of Lincoln and George McClelland, at Antietam, October 3, 1862. It is now in the public domain.