The RMS Republic , commanded by Captain Inman Shelby and carrying 742 passengers and crewmen, sailed from New York on January 23, 1909, 117 years ago. It was headed for ports around the Mediterranean. The RMS Republic The Republic was a large, majestic ship, "a palatial liner," of the White Star Lines . She had been built in 1903 in Belfast, Ireland. Because of the large number of wealthy Americans who sailed aboard her, she was often called "the Millionaires' Ship." In addition to her...

It might be the beginning of January, but baseball is never far from my mind. After the Braves' dismal year last season, I'm beginning to feel like I did when I was a kid and first began to follow the Braves and experienced their loss to the Mets in the first-ever league playoff series. But, like the Cubs fans said for decades, there's always next year. But what turned my attention back to baseball this time was two events on this date in history: Stan Musial' s contract in 1952 and Curt...

On this day in 1493, Chris Columbus , who had sailed the ocean blue the year before, was on yet another voyage when he saw what he had heard sailors tell stories of and his imagination apparently had embellished. This is what he thought he was seeing. He thought he saw the legendary mermaids of naval lore. But the reality was quite different than the stories had led him to believe and what his imagination had envisioned. He described the "mermaids"--those half-fish-half-female beauties--as...