On May 31, 1859 a well-known Big Ben, a clock of the biggest tower of the Westminster Abbey, went into operation.
The structure officially bears the name of Queen Elizabeth. It used to be a prison – throughout all the history its only prisoner was suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.
Big Westminster clock is the biggest four-face chiming clock in the world. It was designed by Sir Edmund Beckett and the royal astronomer George Airy.
The accuracy of the clock is adjusted by placing coins on the pendulum: adding or removing an old 1 penny coin will change the clock's speed by 0.4 seconds per day.
Big Ben is the most famous classical landmark of British capital, but access to its internal space is closed for safety reasons. Occasionally only officials and the press get admission. There are no elevators inside the building so, to climb upstairs, one has to overcome 334 limestone steps on foot.
In connection with the change of state of the soils after construction, and due to tunnelling for the Jubilee Line extension, the tower is gradually tilting in the north-west side at approximately 220 mm.
The district court of Amsterdam ordered to return to Ukraine 500 showpieces from four museums of the Crimea famous as ‘Scythian gold’, as Reuters reported on Wednesday, on the 12-th of December.
As it is reported by the edition France24, at the auction in Paris the most famous gun in the story of French literature has been sold. The poet Paul Verlain tried to shot his love partner using the stated weapon directing to bullet to another famous literature activist Arthur Rimbaud.
UNESCO has recognized as the heritage the songs performed by Cossacks within the territory where Dnepropetrovsk region is situated now. It is reported at the web-site of the international organization.
In Britain on Tuesday it was an auction where for the first time for almost a century the skeleton of an extinct bird dodo was sold. The organizers of the action count that the skeleton will charge an amount from 300 to 500 thousand pounds (370-620 thousand dollars).
The samples of saliva of 83 aboriginal Australians and 25 Papuans showed that they are the direct descendants of the first people who inhabited the green continent nearly 50 thousand years ago.
International Day of chocolate is non-official holiday dedicated to the favorite delicacy of many people on the planet. It is always celebrated on the 13-th September annually. This holiday is the wonderful reason to take a piece of chocolate, even if you try cutting down on sweets.
On July 14 France celebrates the French National Day which commemorates the beginning of the French Revolution with the storming of the Bastille fortress.
On June 9 the International Friendship Day is observed. This is not an official holiday and it was introduced quite recently. However, it has a very noble goal to remind people how much their beloved ones mean for them, and to give a chance to spend an evening with them.
In Tintagel Castle in Cornwall which is considered as the birth place of King Arthur the suspension bridge will be built. As The Guardian reports, it will ease the travelling way to the ancient castle located at the rugged cliff.
Hundreds of couples gathered in Times Square in New York so as to repeat a kiss of sailor and nurse embedded at the stated area by a photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt on Victory over Japan Day. It is reported by Associated Press.
