Current Events

Current Events

1st quarter 2023

New 3D Scans Reveal Titanic in Super Detail
May 18, 2023
Experts have completed a first-of-its-kind full-scale digital scan of the famous ocean liner Titanic, which sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912. Specialists at Magellan, a deep-sea mapping company, piloted a pair of submersibles for six weeks, employing sonar equipment and videocameras to create a virtual twin of the massive ship and the area three miles around it, including debris from the wreck. The sonar images alone, taken during 200 hours of surveying, numbered more than 715,000. The result is very, very fine detail, such that viewers can zoom in and appreciate tiny details in the 3D model, such as clear views of individual rivets and even the serial number on the propeller. Experts hope that such availability will address many of the still unanswered questions about the last hours in the life of the giant ship.

Howard Ken Potts One of 2 Remaining USS Arizona Survivors Dies at 102
April 24, 2023
Howard "Ken" Potts, a survivor of the Pearl Harbor sinking of the USS Arizona, has died at his home in Provo, Utah, He was 102. Potts had enlisted two years earlier, when he was 19, and was assigned to the USS Arizona, on which he served as a crane operator. On the day of the Japanese attack, December 7, 1941, Potts was on nearby Ford Island, loading a boat to take supplies to the aircraft carrier. A Japanese torpedo which hit a gun magazine, and the carrier went down in 9 minutes, killing 1,177 aboard. Some were thrown into the water. Potts and his crewmembers loaded as many sailors as he could into his boat and transported them to a nearby island. After the ocean water stopped burning, he switched to transporting dead bodies to shore.

Remains of Antonine Wall-area Fort Found in Scotland
April 24, 2023
Antonine Wall remains Archaeologists have found remains of a 2nd-Century Roman fort in western Scotland. The small fort was part of an extensive series of protective buildings constructed in conjunction with the building of the Antonine Wall, the northern of two walls the Romans built along the Scottish frontier. The wall was 40 Roman miles long, or nearly 43 miles long, and ran from the Firth of Forth to the River Clyde. Nearly two dozen forts were built as well. The recently discovered remains are of a small fort near a school to the northwest of what is today Glasgow. The fort comprised a pair of small wooden buildings, surrounded by a 2-foot-high stone and dirt rampart that was punctuated by two wooden towers in which sat entry/exit gates. A larger, more populated fort once stood a mile to the east, at Duntocher.