Collections — Towers, palaces & grisly history
Monuments & the Macabre
The landmarks everyone knows, plus the dark corners of how they got here — the Tower of London, the Great Fire, a battle or two, and the buildings that watched it all happen.
30 places in this collection
- 1White HouseUnited States
My fact is that American president Calvin Coolidge used to ride a robot horse inside the White House three times every day.
Open this place → - 2Bletchley Parknatural landmark · United Kingdom
Alan Turing, at Bletchley Park, used to chain his cup to a radiator so that no one would steal it.
Open this place → - 3Soviet UnionHistorical (former USSR)
It does not sound like a great party, the 26th Congress of the Soviet Union.
Open this place → - 4Eiffel TowerFrance
This was for a world's exposition which France was holding in 1900, and they needed a sequel to the Eiffel Tower, because the Eiffel Tower was a huge hit and they said we need another thing that's really big…
Open this place → - 5Buckingham PalaceUnited Kingdom
In 1896, telephone wires were laid between Buckingham Palace and a bunch of concert halls in London so that the royal family, whenever they wanted to, could listen to a concert.
Open this place → - 6Great Wall of ChinaChina
On the Great Wall of China, you know the whole thing about whether you can see it from space or not.
Open this place → - 7Tower of LondonUnited Kingdom
He also closed the Royal Menagerie, which used to be based at the Tower of London.
Open this place → - 8Statue of LibertyUnited States
The Statue of Liberty was designed by Bartholdi and he based the body on his mistress and the face on his mother, which is a little bit Freudian, isn't it?
Open this place → - 9London BridgeUnited Kingdom
Lots of the previous London Bridge got sold off as souvenirs.
Open this place → - 10Empire State BuildingUnited States
The workers on the Empire State Building used to carve their wives' names into the buildings.
Open this place → - 11Battle of AgincourtFrance
Almost every Englishman at the Battle of Agincourt ate a small amount of soil just before the battle started.
Open this place → - 12Great Fire of LondonUnited Kingdom
It avoided the Great Fire of London, then in 1672 it caught up with the curve and it burned down.
Open this place → - 13East GermanyGermany
In East Germany, they could pick up Western television, because obviously it's not far away.
Open this place → - 14StonehengeUnited Kingdom
In 1915, a wealthy barrister called Sir Cecil Chubb went to an auction in Salisbury intending to buy a pair of curtains at a knock-down price and ended up buying Stonehenge.
Open this place → - 15Tower BridgeUnited Kingdom
If you've ever seen the movie Speed, where they have to jump the gap of a bridge, that happened on Tower Bridge with a bus driver in 1952.
Open this place → - 16West GermanyGermany
The USA and the UK and France all had military liaisons in East Germany, and the Soviets were allowed some in West Germany.
Open this place → - 17London EyeUnited Kingdom
The king accused the wizard of stealing his spot, which was by the London Eye — prime turf.
Open this place → - 18Panama CanalPanama
It was built in New York and it had to get to California, but they had to take it via the Panama Canal.
Open this place → - 19ChernobylUkraine
At Chernobyl, when it happened, they flew over in helicopters, they dropped 5,000 tons of sand and lead and clay on top of the fire to snuff it out.
Open this place → - 20Golden Gate BridgeUnited States
There were out-of-work men who would routinely line the sight of the Golden Gate Bridge, and they were waiting for someone to either quit or fall off the bridge.
Open this place → - 21MayflowerUnited States
The Mayflower 2, when that originally went out in the 1950s, they had problems on the way, and they had to divert, and during the diversion, they went across Bermuda, and they almost sank.
Open this place → - 22Taj MahalIndia
It started in April 2008 when a Dutch student committed the act on the Taj Mahal.
Open this place → - 23Roman EmpireHistorical (Rome)
The economic activity of the Roman Empire can be measured by studying thousand-year-old ice in Greenland.
Open this place → - 24Berlin WallGermany
When the Berlin Wall, when people were trying to get across, there was that couple where the lady who shouldn't have gone across was sewn into the seat of the car.
Open this place → - 25Byzantine EmpireHistorical (Constantinople)
They travelled down into Europe and got to the Byzantine Empire where they kind of became citizens.
Open this place → - 26Battersea Power Stationnatural landmark · United Kingdom
Battersea Power Station affected TV in a massive way because there was a fire there and the fire caused power failures all throughout London.
Open this place → - 27Ottoman EmpireTurkey
200 years ago, in the Ottoman Empire, if you knocked off someone's turban, it was punishable by death.
Open this place → - 28Boston Tea PartyUnited States
The Boston Tea Party was December 16th, 1773, and it was a huge landmark day for civil disobedience.
Open this place → - 29American Civil WarUnited States
In the 90s, a researcher looked into it, found out that he'd been eight when the war ended, and definitely had not fought in the American Civil War.
Open this place → - 30Leicester SquareUnited Kingdom
At the Leicester Square one, they had a new show every couple of years until 1861.
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