History and the making

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* 1000-year old Viking treasure hoard found in Scotland -- "Derek McLennan, a retired businessman, uncovered the 100 items in a field in Dumfriesshire, southwest Scotland, in September."
* Britain to hunt for King Harold's body to test theory about his death -- "King Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, has long been thought to have been killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066."
* Forgotten facts about George Washington’s private life -- "At one time, Washington’s distillery produced 11,000 gallons of whiskey in one year."
* Kennewick Man, an ambassador from the past -- "Eighteen years ago two teenagers made news when they found a skull on the bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Wash. Suspecting foul play, they called the police who thought the skull looked very old."
* The Diario of Christopher Columbus (October 11-15, 1492) -- "All of them go around as naked as their mother bore them; and the women also, although I did not see more than one quite young girl. And all those that I saw were young people, for none did I see of more than 30 years of age. They are all very well formed, with handsome bodies and good faces. Their hair coarse—almost like the tail of a horse—and short. They wear their hair down over their eyebrows except for a little in the back which they wear long and never cut. Some of them paint themselves with black, and they are of the color of the Canarians, neither black nor white; and some of them paint themselves with white, and some of them with red, and some of them with whatever they find."
* Why Columbus Day isn’t really a national holiday -- "A federal holiday is a day off with pay for people who work for the federal government in what are classified as non-essential positions...Many states have chosen to honor some of the federal holidays, and in the long run, it is the states, and not the federal government, that control the observance of the holidays within their borders."