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Dorothy Olsen

Dorothy Olsen (1916–2019) was an American aircraft pilot and member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II. She developed an interest in aviation at a young age and earned her private pilot's license in 1939, when it was unusual for women to be pilots. In 1943, Olsen joined the newly formed WASPs as a civil service employee. After training in Texas, she was assigned to the Sixth Ferrying Group in Long Beach, California, where she worked ferrying new aircraft from the factories where they were built to U.S. airbases. She flew more than 20 types of military airplanes, including high-performance fighters – such as the P-51 and the twin-engine P-38 – which she favored over larger aircraft such as bombers. After the war, Olsen retired from flying and moved to the state of Washington, where she married, raised a family, and lived for the rest of her life. In 2009, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal honoring her service during the war. (Full article...)

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Cover of Al-Asma'i, 1908
Cover of Al-Asma'i, 1908

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Pope Alexander VI
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Nazca lines

The Nazca lines are a group of geoglyphs made in the soil of the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They were created in two major phases – the Paracas phase (from 400 BC to 200 BC) and the Nazca phase (from 200 BC to 500 AD). The combined length of all the lines is more than 1,300 km (800 mi), and the group covers an area of about 50 km2 (19 sq mi). Most lines run straight across the landscape, but there are also figurative designs of animals and plants. Scholars differ in interpreting the purpose of the designs, but in general, they ascribe religious significance to them. The lines were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. This is an aerial view of the geoglyph known as the "monkey", one of the most well-known in the Nazca lines.

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

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