Free Republic

When Modesti Cooper returned home to Houston in July 2019 after more than a decade overseas with the United States military, she moved into her dream house on the corner of Nance and Grove streets in Houston’s Fifth Ward. She’d bought a parcel of land and designed the home from scratch in her downtime while touring from Kuwait to Afghanistan to Iraq. It was a relief to finally move in. “It’s a calm, cool, nice area,” Cooper says. “Besides the traffic, there’s no violence, no noise. It’s so quiet, it’s unbelievable. I had rockets and mortars and missiles blown over...

The Coathanger, as Sydney's Harbour Bridge is affectionately known, was opened 75 years ago. It was the first time in 25 years the bridge had opened to the public to walk across. Some people stopped to admire the latticework of the bridge's superstructure. Some 6m rivets hold together the 52,000 tonnes of steel which make up the bridge. The bridge means much to Sydney and Australia, arising amid the Great [Economic Downturn] of the 1930s. Festive hats dotted the crowd which was entertained by fly-pasts, a regatta and Aboriginal sunset ceremonies.