The HMS Surprise would be the most famous of all British frigate sailing ships, except for two things: It's floating in San Diego's harbor, and, of course, it never existed.

The Surprise is the fictional ship of Captain Jack Aubrey in the popular...

With 25 million visitors a year, New York's Central Park is the most popular green space in America. But strangely, most of the people who visit the park have little idea what they are seeing.

As they meander down some 58 miles of...

It would be difficult to overestimate the strange appeal that the American Civil War holds on people. Historian Ken Burns notes that more than 50,000 books have been written on the conflict. There are eight Civil War magazines, tens of thousands of re-enactors and millions of tourists who visit battlefields...