Rare film footage of Babe Ruth, and more

Rare film footage of Babe Ruth

Researchers for Major League Baseball have found what they believe is eight seconds of silent 8-millimeter film footage of Babe Ruth playing in Yankee Stadium, in 1928. Although Ruth was the best-known slugger of his age, film footage of him in action is very rare, and the clip is thought to be the only one of him playing the outfield, where he spent more than 2,200 games. A New Hampshire man discovered the film while combing through his grandfather’s home movie collection.

Edgar Allan Poe receives his due

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When a destitute Edgar Allan Poe died in Baltimore in 1849, barely anyone attended his hastily assembled funeral. But this week, hundreds gathered to give the writer a proper send-off, 200 years after his birth. The mourners—some in 19th-century costume, some in “Evermore!” T-shirts—accompanied a horse-drawn hearse bearing a coffin containing a mock Poe corpse to Westminster Hall, the converted church next to his actual grave. Inside, speakers portraying Poe’s acquaintances and colleagues eulogized him; the emcee was actor John Astin, who has toured with a one-man Poe show for years. “I think Poe would have been bemused by it,” said one attendee.

Warship built with salvaged scraps from World Trade Center sets sail

The New York, a 684-foot Navy warship built with 7½ tons of metal salvaged from the World Trade Center ruins of Sept. 11, set sail for its namesake city from the port of New Orleans this week. Well-wishers, many of whom had suffered through Hurricane Katrina, waved flags and cheered as the vessel got under way. “Our cities will be linked for a long time through these tragedies,” said government worker Nesbit Parker. The actual commissioning will take place in early November, when the designation “USS” will be added to its name.