On this day, 137 years ago, the Eiffel Tower was officially completed. The iconic landmark was built as the centerpiece of the 1889 Paris Exposition, a World's Fair marking the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution. Construction took more than two years. The French feat of engineering stands more than 1,000 feet tall, and contains roughly 18,000 individual pieces of iron weighing about 7,300 tons.
The tower stood as the tallest structure in the world for more than 40 years, before being dethroned by the Chrysler Building in New York. And get this, the tower was supposed to be temporary. The original plan was to dismantle it after 20 years, much to the relief of some Parisian elites who saw it as an eyesore.
But science saved the day. The tower proved itself to be an indispensable asset for emerging radio transmission technology, and it's served as a vital antenna ever since. These days, La Dame de fer, or the Iron Lady, continues standing tall above the City of Lights, offering unparalleled views to nearly seven million visitors from around the world each year.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's really iconic, you know, like when you think about Paris, you think about that about the Eiffel Tower.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a symbol of Paris.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's a symbol. It represents France. It's one of the prestigious monuments, as you can see with the number of tourists around us.
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WIRE: The tower's history is as unique as its architecture. Did you know it was originally painted red, and it was even briefly yellow? Or did you know that it's taller in the summertime, when hot temperatures cause the iron to expand?
Speaking of metal, would you believe a notorious conman once sold the tower to scrap metal dealers? Not once, but twice. And get this, the tower even has a unique connection to France's most famous gift to the United States, the Statue of Liberty.
The tower's namesake designer, Gustave Eiffel, was also the brains behind Liberty's intricate iron framework. I fell out of my chair when I learned that.
From lighting up the skyline when it first opened, to going dark for a global cause, the Eiffel Tower is once again taking center stage this time by switching off its lights for Earth Hour.
In Paris, the landmark dimmed its iconic lights, joining cities around the world in a symbolic move to spotlight environmental challenges. Earth Hour began in Sydney back in 2007, organized by the World Wildlife Fund. What started as a local initiative has grown into a global campaign, encouraging millions of people, businesses, and landmarks to turn off non-essential lights for one hour each year.
This year, the movement stretched across continents, including Greece's iconic Parthenon and the Acropolis, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and in Hong Kong, nearly 4,000 buildings, including skyscrapers along Victoria Harbor, switched off for an hour.
Ten-second trivia.
What is the name of the process that heats and aerates cocoa and sugar to make chocolate?
Fermentation, conching, tempering, or refining.
If you said conching, you so smooth. It was accidentally invented in 1879 by Rodolphe Lindt, who discovered that mixing chocolate for a long time created the melt-in-your-mouth texture we expect today.
Did you hear about the 12 tons of KitKat chocolate bars that were stolen? Give me a break. Swiss food giant Nestle says that they were stolen from a truck leaving its production site in Italy. We're talking more than 400,000 candy bars. The company reported the heist happened earlier this week. The vehicle and chocolate still nowhere to be found.
But listen to this. Nestle said all of its products can be traced using a unique batch code assigned to individual bars. So, officials say the thieves could get caught if they try to resell the product. A company spokesperson said, quote, "whilst we appreciate the criminals exceptional taste, the fact remains that cargo theft is an escalating issue for businesses of all sizes," unquote. The good news? The brand says there are no concerns for consumer safety and supply is not affected.
Well, now it is time for an encouraging update about the stranded humpback we told you about last week. Rescuers have been helping to free a stranded whale off the coast of Germany for 11 days now, and as of this taping, they're more hopeful he will swim free. According to one aquatic wildlife expert, the whale, now nicknamed Timmy, has been pushed to deeper waters where it can hopefully swim to safety.
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STEPHANIE GROSS, INSTITUTE FOR TERRESTRIAL AND AQUATIC WILDLIFE RESEARCH (through translator): He is not stranded on the sandbank. He is in water deep enough for him to swim away from. And so the animal is being left in peace for now. And we naturally hope that he is simply gathering his strength there and will be able to swim away on his own and then hopefully eventually find his way out of the Baltic Sea.
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WIRE: Humpback whales are not native to the Baltic Sea and conservationists say the human influence often plays a role in whale strandings around the world.
Plastic pollution keeps piling up every day. About 2,000 garbage trucks worth of plastic ends up in oceans, rivers and lakes around the world, according to the U.N. Environment Program.
Now one company in Wales is looking to turn the tide with seaweed-based packaging to replace single-use plastic, showing how something from the ocean itself could help protect it. CNN's Leroy Ah Ben has the story.
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LEROY AH BEN, CNN PRODUCER: How do you take this seaweed and turn it into this biodegradable packaging and tackle the scourge of plastics in our oceans?
I was born in Fiji in the middle of the South Pacific where plastics in the ocean are a huge issue. And I've always asked myself, surely there must be an alternative to this. And while researching that question, I came across this company called PlantSea in Wales. So, I've decided to go check them out.
(Voice-over): My journey begins here on the rugged coastline of Wales. This is where PlantSea is using seaweed to create truly biodegradable alternatives to single-use plastics. It starts at seaweed farms like Car-y-Mor.
TRACEY GILBERT-FALCONER, CAR-Y-MOR: We'll go out to the farm and harvest the seaweed and then bring it straight back here and it gets spun around and the solid seaweed gets separated from the -- from the liquid and the liquid is our seaweed biostimulant, which is being used in agriculture on farms.
AH BEN: Like fertilizer?
GILBERT-FALCONER: Yeah, like fertilizers. And then the solid bit that's left over, so our by-product, is what PlantSea will use to make their plastic products.
AH BEN: Smells quite tasty.
GILBERT-FALCONER: It's lovely, you can eat this.
AH BEN: PlantSea then brings the seaweed to this innovation center for processing.
ALEX NEWNES, CO-FOUNDER & COO, PLANTSEA: This is where it all starts. So, the seaweed that you've just seen at the farm, this kind of gets dried and chopped up and flaked and this is where it starts in our process. So, today we've processed around 20 kilos of seaweed.
But this should yield, in terms of the wet product, we get about 40 to 50 kilos of dry polymer powder. They'll turn this into film. We should have enough film to do 120,000 of these solid capsules.
AH BEN: For PlantSea, seaweed is a natural fit.
RHIANNON REES, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, PLANTSEA: So, the seaweed actually lends itself very well to material innovation. It has a very rich chemical structure, it's full of sugars and polysaccharides, so it lends itself very well to biomaterials. Most people don't realize that these are made from a synthetic polymer, which is petroleum-based.
Now, while they do dissolve, they don't ever really truly disappear. They create liquid microplastics. Our film and our polymer is a natural polymer and it doesn't leave behind any microplastics.
AH BEN: PlantSea is already working with major brands, proving this can work at scale. So, seaweed is kind of like a wonder material. You can eat it, you can use it as fertilizer, and now it appears you can use it as an alternative to plastic.
The question is, why aren't we using it more?
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WIRE: Today's story getting a 10 out of 10, is stir-upping something special. In the middle of South London, between train tracks and city streets, a riding school is giving kids a chance to connect with horses, many of them for the first time. At the Ebony Horse Club in a neighborhood in Brixton, each week about 160 kids are the main event, learning to ride, groom, and care for horses free of charge.
Hey, it's all part of a program focused on supporting local youth. Teachers say it behooves the kids to participate because riding helps build their confidence and they learn to stay present in the moment.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, when I tried it was actually great and I had fun.
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WIRE: It's a different kind of classroom where these young riders are learning more than just how to stay in the saddle.
All right, superstars, a couple of shout-outs today. This first one goes to Miss Stewart and Miss Sanchez, aka Stenchez, at Fifth Street Elementary in Decatur, Georgia. They sent us these DIY stickers. And I have to tell you, I've been putting them on people's backs all around the office and I don't think they've noticed yet. That's a good thing. Thank you for helping us spread the love.
And a very special shout-out goes to Mr. Powers at Manistique Middle and High School in Manistique, Michigan, retiring after 45 years as an educator. Your students want you to know how much you mean to them. Think of how many former students can say the same. Salute to you, sir.
Tomorrow is your Word Wednesday. So, submit your unique vocabulary word and definition in the comments section of our latest post on Instagram, @CNN10, @CoyWire, and we will choose a winner to work into tomorrow's show.
Make it a remarkable, marvelous, magnificent day. I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN10.
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