The Bible's Oldest Men, Oldest Woman, Heaven without dying, and Noah's Ark

The usual lifetime of men of that period ranged from 6 to 9 hundred years:
   Moses died at 120 years of age.
   Jacob died at 147 years of age.
   Abraham died at 175 years of age.
   Isaac died at 180 years of age.
   Terach died at 205 years of age.
   Enoch (family of Cain) died at 365 years of age.
   Shem died at 600 years of age.
   Lamech died at 777 years of age.
   Mahalalel died at 895 years of age.
   Enosh died at 905 years of age.
   Kenan died at 910 years of age.
   Seth died at 912 years of age.
   Adam died at 930 years of age.
   Noah died at 950 years of age.
   Yered died at 962 years of age.
   Methuselah died at 969 years of age (oldest).
   The oldest woman was Sarah/Sarai/Sara, died at 127 years of age.
It took Noah and his family 120 years to build the Ark.
   Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and he disappeared and went straight to Heaven, did not see death.
   A flaming chariot descended from Heaven, drawn by horses of fire in a whirlwind brought Enosh (father to Methuselah), straight to Heaven, did not see death.
  
  

The Real Beginning of the Civil War

   The American Civil War began under the administration of Abraham Lincoln, or so history books tell us. We have been taught that the first shots of that terrible conflict were fired on April 12, 1861, when the North attempted to reinforce Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. A closer look, raises some doubts as to precisely when the war began, and who was president at the time.
   With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union and was soon followed by six other Southern States. The fat was in the fire, but it was President James Buchanan who had to cook it, not Abraham Lincoln. The president-elect wouldn't take office until March.
   Buchanan would have loved to just let things simmer until the inauguration of the new president, but he was backed into a corner. The recently occupied garrison of Fort Sumter was badly in need of supplies.
   So, in early January, he ordered the Star of the West, a merchant ship, to deliver the much needed provisions. Down the coast it went to Charleston. on January 9, it reached its destination. Unfortunately South Carolina was ready.
   Buchanan's secretary of state, John Floyd, a southern sympathizer, had warned the Rebel authorities that the Star of the West was on its way, and a battery of anxious cadets from the Citadel positioned several guns at the shore. When the supply ship entered the harbor they let loose with the first shots of the Civil War, three of which hit the Star of the West.
   With that, the Star retreated to open waters and returned to its home port. She had been driven off by hostile fire, but as we said, the fat was in the fire.
   When Lincoln was sworn in, one of his first acts was to re-order the provisioning of Fort Sumter. This second attempt was likewise repelled by the Rebels, and there was no turning back. The war may have begun in earnest on April 12, 1861, but the first shots over Fort Sumter were fired months before, while James Buchanan, not Abraham Lincoln , in the White House.