Tourists enjoy the cherry blossoms in full bloom around the Tidal Basin on March 22 in Washington, D.C.Karen Bleier / AFP – Getty Images Washington, D.C., celebrates 100 years of friendship, cherry blossoms By Jane L. Levere, msnbc.com contributor April 1, 2012, 11:03 am MSN.comThis year’s National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C., kicking off Tuesday, is the centennial celebration and is expected to bring record-breaking numbers of tourists and revenue to the city. The festival runs through April 27 — a five-week celebration rather than the usual two. Washington Mayor Vincent C. Gray called the festival “one of the biggest events, if not the biggest event of the year…

  Irish explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton and two members of his expedition team beside a Union Jack within 111 miles (178 km) of the South Pole Hulton Archive / Getty   Tuesday, Dec. 01, 2009 Antarctica By Kristi Oloffson On Dec. 1, 1959, representatives from a dozen countries, including the U.S., Japan and the U.K. met in Washington to sign a treaty intended to keep the Cold War out of the coldest place on Earth. Fifty years later, the Antarctic Treaty is still in effect, making it one of the world’s most successful international agreements, with its member nations still meeting once a year. The pact calls for keeping…

South Pole anniversary final week: comment by Mark Langridge (Correne Coetzer) Leader of the only team who retraced Scott’s route during the 2011-12 Antarctic season, Mark Langridge told ExplorersWeb that each day he, Kevin Johnson and Paul Vicary thought of Scott and his team.The modern explorers arrived Cape Evans, the original start point, on November 3rd. Arriving at Scott’s hut with great expectation to go inside, the team got the cold shoulder. “We were disappointed with the AHT who were unable to let us in Scott’s hut (we had a permit) even though their helicopter was taking off as we landed 800m away!” Mark told ExplorersWeb. Carrying Capt. Oates’ Polar…

On October 27, 1904, New York City’s subway system officially opened, but talks to build an underground rail system began soon after London opened its subway in 1863. It wasn’t until 1894 that a referendum was put on the ballot to generate financial support from the city and create the Rapid Transit Board, which was in charge of planning the route. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was awarded the contract to build the first subway line. The Rapid Transit Board planned one original route, stretching from City Hall to 96th Street, which then split into two more routes from Broadway to 242nd Street and another that ran under the…

Mar 21, 1871: Stanley begins search for Livingstone On this day in 1871, journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his famous search through Africa for the missing British explorer Dr. David Livingstone.   In the late 19th century, Europeans and Americans were deeply fascinated by the “Dark Continent” of Africa and its many mysteries. Few did more to increase Africa’s fame than Livingstone, one of England’s most intrepid explorers. In August 1865, he set out on a planned two-year expedition to find the source of the Nile River. Livingstone also wanted to help bring about the abolition of the slave trade, which was devastating Africa’s population. Almost six years after his…

The teenage queen, now the subject of a new movie, was embraced by France in 1770. Twenty-three years later, she lost her head to the guillotine. (But she never said, “Let them eat cake”)   Late September sunlight filters onto the blue velvet furnishings of the jewel-box theater built for Marie Antoinette at Versailles. The painted, original backdrop depicts a rustic farmhouse hearth, and I can just imagine the young queen reveling in her role as a shepherdess while her witty friends and dull husband, French king Louis XVI, applaud politely. At the time I was there, the theater was closed to most visitors (it is now open to the…

On this day in 2003, the United States, along with coalition forces primarily from the United Kingdom, initiates war on Iraq. Just after explosions began to rock Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, U.S. President George W. Bush announced in a televised address, “At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.” President Bush and his advisors built much of their case for war on the idea that Iraq, under dictator Saddam Hussein, possessed or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction.   Hostilities began about 90 minutes after…

After four months of widespread protest in America, the British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, a taxation measure enacted to raise revenues for a standing British army in America. The Stamp Act was passed on March 22, 1765, leading to an uproar in the colonies over an issue that was to be a major cause of the Revolution: taxation without representation. Enacted in November 1765, the controversial act forced colonists to buy a British stamp for every official document they obtained. The stamp itself displayed an image of a Tudor rose framed by the word “America” and the French phrase Honi soit qui mal y pense–“Shame to him who thinks…

Julius Caesar, the “dictator for life” of the Roman Empire, is murdered by his own senators at a meeting in a hall next to Pompey’s Theatre. The conspiracy against Caesar encompassed as many as sixty noblemen, including Caesar’s own protege, Marcus Brutus. Caesar was scheduled to leave Rome to fight in a war on March 18 and had appointed loyal members of his army to rule the Empire in his absence. The Republican senators, already chafing at having to abide by Caesar’s decrees, were particularly angry about the prospect of taking orders from Caesar’s underlings. Cassius Longinus started the plot against the dictator, quickly getting his brother-in-law Marcus Brutus to join. Caesar…