In December 1986, the United States federal government completed a deal to buy Santa Rosa Island for $29.5 million. The 53,000-acre island, located 26.5 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, was bought by the National Park Service from its longtime private owners, the Vail & Vickers ranching partnership. Under the deal, the ranching…

Theodore Roosevelt’s famous “man in the arena” passage remains one of his most enduring reflections on courage, effort and failure. In his 1910 speech “Citizenship in a Republic”, delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, Roosevelt said: “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and…

New swing bridge installed as major milestone reached for Wichelstowe canal An English town has installed a six-metre swing bridge whose deck contains the equivalent of 140 recycled plastic bottles per square metre and can be manually opened for passing boats. The new structure, officially named Bushey Fox Bridge, was lifted into position by crane…