(Thinkstock) The timing of this year's July 4th holiday will lead to a slight decline in travel, according to the 2013 AAA Independence Day Holiday Travel Forecast. AAA Travel projects that 40.8 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home during the Independence Day holiday, a 0.8 percent decrease from the 41.1 million people who traveled last year. The anticipated decline in holiday travel is largely due to a shorter holiday period, according to the organization. With the...

The New Century Global Center building behind an artificial lake in Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan province. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) The biggest building in the world is open for business, and it's so large, it has its own artificial sun. The New Century Global Center in Chengdu, China includes offices, shopping malls, a Mediterranean village, a water park, an ice-skating rink, and hotels. Located in the Sichuan province of southwestern China, the building is a whopping 1.76 million square meters, large...

This photo provided by the family shows, from left, Jolene, Janet and Gabrielle Dunnabeck at their home in Whitney, Texas on Monday, July 1, 2013. The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it is investigating a close call between a Texas-bound Spirit Airlines flight they were aboard and a skydiving plane that forced the jetliner to dive sharply over Michigan on Sunday evening. (AP Photo) DETROIT -- The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it is investigating a close call between a...

A general view shows the Roman Theater in the ancient city of Sabratha, 80 km west of Tripoli, 31 March 2006. Sabratha is considered one of the most significant ancient towns in Libya. (KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images) They've survived thousands of years of the elements -- rain, wind, sun, sand -- but Libya's invaluable archaeological sites are now at risk from humans. The North African country has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years and been influenced by a variety...

Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia (AFP/Getty Images) (Getty Images) According to history.com, many experts believe that fireworks originated in China sometime between 600 and 900 A.D., where they were used in religious ceremonies to ward off evil spirits, and spread to Europe during the 13th century. The precursor to modern fireworka was developed in Italy in the 18th century, reports wisegeek.com, when the Italians started creating self-propelled aerial shells that allowed for more impressive pyrotechnic displays. Today, fireworks are used...

Members of the Old Guard attend the reopening ceremony of the Statue of Liberty on the first day it is open to the public after Superstorm Sandy on July 4, 2013 on the Liberty Island in New York City. (Kena Betancur/Getty Images) NEW YORK -- The Statue of Liberty finally reopened on the Fourth of July months after Superstorm Sandy swamped its little island as Americans across the country celebrated freedom and President Barack Obama urged citizens to live up...

A giant chrome brushed aluminum skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus, made by French sculptor and painter Philippe Pasqua, stands at the pier of riverboat company Bateaux-Mouches on June 12, 2013, in Paris. (Claire Lebertre/AFP/Getty Images) A T-Rex is on the loose along the Seine River in Paris, poised to take a bite out of the Eiffel Tower -- and attract the Tower's tourists. The outdoor art installation is a realistic rendering of a tyrannosaurus rex fossil. It'sa 4-meter-high, 7-meter-long monster, built...

This September 2010 photo provided by Andrew Nosal shows leopard sharks at La Jolla Shores Beach in La Jolla, Calif. The sharks attract onlookers when they come close to shore from June to early December, peaking between August and September. (AP Photo/Andrew Nosal) LA JOLLA, Calif. — Just beyond the breakers at La Jolla Shores Beach, hundreds of dark figures cruise through the sandy shallows like a scene in a horror movie. In most cases, the sight of one shark,...

Rain Room, MoMA PS1, New York City Members of the public experience 'Rain Room,' an art installation by Random International, at the Barbican Centre in London, England. It features a field of falling water that pauses wherever a human body is detected, and will be part of a MoMA PS1 exhibition in NYC. (Photo: Oli Scarff/Getty Images) For years, artists have been drawn to the beauty of nature, making it the subject of their work, as seen in everything from...

Investigators walk past wreckage from a Boeing 777 airplane that crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport July 6, 2013 in San Francisco, California. (NTSB/Twitter) Your chances of surviving an airplane crash, like the recent crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 at San Francisco International Airport, are surprisingly good.More than 95 percent of the airplane passengers involved in a crash survive, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).Despite this reassuring statistic, many people adopt a fatalistic attitude toward...

Spending six months in isolation in a cabin in Siberia might sound like an extreme way to get some peace and quiet, but that's just what French travel writer Sylvain Tesson set out to do in 2010. From February to July, Tesson lived in a cabin on Lake Baikal, 75 miles from the nearest village and a few hours' walk from the next neighbor, according to The Economist. "I wanted to experiment with the simple life and claim back time,"...

Officials from Death Valley National Park are urging visitors to stop frying eggs on park grounds after a video demonstration posted on the park's YouTube account went viral and inspired a hot-weather, egg-frying frenzy. As the park marked the 100th anniversary of its world record for the hottest temperature ever recorded -- 134 degrees on July 10, 1913 -- park officials posted a plea on its official Facebook pagefor visitors to leave their eggs at homeas the park has become...