Hugo’s home on show
GUERNSEY: Writer Victor Hugo (1802-1885) spent almost 15 years in exile on the British island of Guernsey off the French coast in the English Channel. The Romantic French novelist’s house has now been renovated for more than €4 million (R63.3m).
Hugo – famous for and designed Hauteville House in
St Peter Port himself. It now belongs
– to the city of Paris. Hugo was exiled for rebelling against the coup d’état in which Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte took power in December 1851.
The house opened to the public yesterday and will be open until September 30. WASHINGTON: DNA testing has proved that US revolutionary war hero Casimir Pulaski was a woman or intersex, according to a documentary to be broadcast today.
The Polish-born general, who has been credited with saving the life of George Washington during the 177583 war against Britain, was known as the “Father of the American Cavalry”. He went to the US voluntarily to fight, and was known for his bravery in battle as well as for being a very private person, difficult to deal with and having no interest in women or drinking. He was injured at the 1779 Battle of Savannah and died days later.
Researchers first made the discovery about Pulaski’s sex 20 years ago, when Pulaski’s bones were exhumed. Charles Merbs, a forensic anthropologist at Arizona State University, who studied the bones, said: “The skeleton is about as female as can be.”
Merbs believes Pulaski’s aristocratic family were not sure of his sex at birth, decided he was a boy and raised him as such.