History Adventures World

Editor Eleanor Brown presents a collection of personal essays from 18 different authors about their experiences in the City of Light.

On June 3, 1769, the planet Venus briefly passed across the face of the sun in a cosmic alignment that occurs twice per century. Anticipation of the rare celestial event sparked a worldwide competition among aspiring global superpowers, each sending their own scientific expeditions to far-flung destinations to time the planet’s trek.

The plot has been enacted, but there's been a problem. Now dire consequences await the would-be assassins.

Ready to explore Portland’s cobblestone streets, iconic lighthouses, and award-winning cuisine? Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a lifelong fan, Portland Your Way is the ultimate guide to uncovering hidden treasures, vibrant culture, and unforgettable adventures.

This short history audiobook features the story of Ernest Shackleton. He was among the last of a group of intrepid men from the Golden Age of Discovery in the Victorian era. He sought honor for England and himself in embarking on a dangerous journey to lead a team of men to cross the Antarctic continent.

September, 1939. When Jimmy is evacuated to a small village in Wales, it couldn’t be more different from London. Green, quiet and full of strangers, he instantly feels out of place. But then he finds a skull hidden in a tree, and suddenly the valley is more frightening than the war. Who can Jimmy trust? His brother is too little; his best friend has changed. Finding an ally in someone he never expects, they set out together to uncover the secrets that lie with the skull. What they discover will change Jimmy - and the village - forever.

In Polish: This is a story about the journey of two brothers who travelled through the largest river in the world on...bikes. But not ordinary bikes - they were "Amazonian” bikes. The story is as bodacious as the trip itself, which seemed like an unachievable madness, but turned out to be a great adventure and a valuable life lesson. For one of its heroes it was a dream come true, for another the last chance for salvation. The book is written by Piotr Chmieliński - the first person on Earth who sailed through the Amazon River in a kayak.

People have been climbing as long as they've existed, and for those who relish the challenge, nothing can top Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on the planet at over 29,000 feet. As Sir Edmund Hillary put it, "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves."

In the 19th century, the British and Russian empires were engaged in bitter rivalry for the acquisition of Southern Asian. Although India was the ultimate prize, most of the intrigue and action took place along its northern frontier in Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Tibet. Mapping the region and gaining knowledge of the enemy were crucial to the interests of both sides.

This audiobook discusses how Alaskans view tourists and also offers a tourist's history of the state. The author Levi specializes in history and creative thinking. His historical specialty is the Alaska Gold rush.

For almost 500 years, human beings have been finding ways to circle the Earth - by sail, steam, or liquid fuel; by cycling, driving, flying, going into orbit, even by using their own bodily power. The story begins with the first centuries of circumnavigation, when few survived the attempt: In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan left Spain with five ships and 270 men, but only one ship and 35 men returned, not including Magellan, who died in the Philippines. Starting with these dangerous voyages, Joyce Chaplin takes us on a trip of our own as we travel with Francis Drake, William Dampier, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, and James Cook.

From the New York Times bestselling author of First Man comes a sweeping saga involving two extraordinary—and extraordinarily different—adventurers who have only one thing in common: the ambition to cross the Atlantic in a rowboat . . . alone. With gripping and insightful prose, James R. Hansen brings to life John Fairfax and Tom McClean's expeditions, from their battle with the elements to their own inner demons. Completely Mad is a nail-biting, epic tale of endurance, and listeners will be gripped until the end to find out who won.

Like most Americans at the time, Plennie Wingo was hit hard by the effects of the Great Depression. When the bank foreclosed on his small restaurant in Abilene, he found himself suddenly penniless with nowhere left to turn. After months of struggling to feed his family on wages he earned digging ditches in the Texas sun, Plennie decided it was time to do something extraordinary - something to resurrect the spirit of adventure and optimism he felt he'd lost. He decided to walk around the world - backward.

How did the ancient Egyptians travel in this quaint old land thousands of years ago? What sort of transportation did they use? For how long did they go? What destinations did they visit? For which purposes did they travel? Is it correct to describe the ancient Egyptian travels as "tourism" or not? According to our current perceptions of tourism, if the Egyptians had tourism in ancient times, did they understand it as such? Which varieties of tourism did the ancient Egyptians have compared to what mankind has today?

Fictional? Authoritative? Fantastic? Deadpan? Investigations into the real, the true...and the things that should be true....

Published to coincide with the centenary of the first expeditions to reach the South Pole, An Empire of Ice presents a fascinating new take on Antarctic exploration. Retold with added information, it's the first book to place the famed voyages of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, his British rivals Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton, and others in a larger scientific, social, and geopolitical context.

Time is running out for planet Earth. Marseria, the insidious Martian plague, has been infecting our planet for over twenty years and has resisted every human effort to eradicate it. With all life on Earth facing extinction, the only solution left is to directly access a specific piece of Martian technology. But, according to diaries left behind by Ogilvy the astronomer, the Martians have hidden it at the lake on the moon.

He aquí la mayor aventura jamás vivida por pueblo alguno. En poco más de medio siglo, los españoles hallaron, exploraron, conquistaron, y en buena parte, poblaron un territorio veinte veces mayor que la península Ibérica, llegaron a un nuevo continente, abrieron dos océanos, y dieron por vez primera la vuelta al mundo. El descubrimiento y la conquista de América cambiaron para siempre la historia universal.

Año 218 a.C., dos legiones romanas bajo el mando de Cneo Escipión desembarcan por sorpresa en la península Ibérica. Tienen como objetivo cortar las vías de suministro de los cartagineses, una estrategia más en el trascurso de la Segunda Guerra Púnica. Será el primer movimiento de un largo proceso que culminará con la invasión y colonización de Hispania, uno de los territorios más ansiados por Roma.

Quinn Bradley has learned to use the magic of another world. And that world is in danger. Having decided to betray CASE Global, he can finally reveal his origins to the Enclave and warn them about the company’s imminent invasion. Even if it means alienating Jillaine...and allying with someone he’s always considered his adversary. But war makes for strange bedfellows, and uniting Alissians against such a powerful enemy will require ancient enmities - as well as more recent antagonisms - to be set aside. The future of their pristine world depends on it.