Just too weird,,, Squash Holds Decapitated King Louis XVI's Blood
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A fun, short video,,,

Five Common Historical Misconceptions Explained
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The tomb, poignant and grisly, sheds light on the lives of the soldiers who died in explosions from heavy shells that penetrated the tunnel.

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The roof of the "Killian Shelter," a tunnel 125 meters (410 feet) long near the small town of Carspach in the Alsace region, was discovered by chance in October 2010 during excavation work for a nearby road building project. The regional French archaeological authority, PAIR, began a thorough dig last month and expects to complete its work by mid-No...
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In a paper published in an academic journal, German and Austrian researchers recount an extraordinary tale where archaeology, the Third Reich and cosmic treasure are intertwined like an Indiana Jones movie.

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It is a particularly rare kind of meteorite called an ataxite, which has iron and high contents of nickel, according to the study, published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.

“The statue was chiseled from an iron meteorite, from a fragment of the Chinga meteorite which...
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“This finding is perhaps the most ancient evidence of pre-historic dentistry in Europe and the earliest known direct example of therapeutic-palliative dental filling so far,” said research leader Federico Bernardini at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in a press release.

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The researchers believe that the beeswax was applied shortly before or after the man’s death as the edges of the tooth fracture are not worn. If he was still alive, the filling was...
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Known as the Nichoria bone, the blackened fossil is part of the thigh bone of an immense extinct mammal that roamed southern Greece perhaps a million years ago. The bone was collected by ancient Greeks and may have even helped inspire certain beasts in Greek classical mythology. It was then rediscovered 40 years ago.

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"Most likely, the ancient Greeks found the bone in the lignite deposits of the Megalopolis basin, known in antiquity as the 'Battleground of the Giants.' There, the dense co...
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Archeologists from the University of Tübingen have found eight extremely well-preserved spears – an astonishing 300,000 years old, making them the oldest known weapons anywhere. The spears and other artifacts as well as animal remains found at the site demonstrate that their users were highly skilled craftsmen and hunters, well adapted to their environment – with a capacity for abstract thought and complex planning comparable to our own. It is likely that they were members of the species...
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"The discoveries so far leave us in no doubt that we are on the site of Leicester's Franciscan Friary, meaning we have crossed the first significant hurdle of the investigation," Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist on the dig, said in a statement.

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After his death in the Battle of Bosworth Field, Richard III was brought to Leicester and buried at Greyfriars. The location of the grave, and the church itself, was eventually lost to history, though University of Leicester archaeologists t...
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"He really typifies all of the major types of learned magic, from summoning and conjuring demons, to exorcising demons to the powers of cloaking himself, making himself invisible," said John Chuchiak IV, a professor at Missouri State University who translates and publishes documents recording the opening of the trial in his new book "The Inquisition in New Spain 1536-1820"(John Hopkins University Press, 2012).

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At the start of the trial, Calderón was denounced in a speech by Miguel López...
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Lincoln's mental stability was called into question after she suffered from depression following the deaths of not only her husband but also two of her young children. She allegedly spent the years after President Lincoln's death attempting to communicate with him via seance.

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The dueling legal teams will dress in period clothes from the era but will argue their case relying on current law. Actors will play the roles of Mary Todd Lincoln and Robert Todd Lincoln, but real-life judges will s...
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Castello di Amorosa - Word to the wise: Imbibe the cabernet sauvignon and pinot grigio at the Castello di Amorosa winery carefully, because somewhere in the 121,000-square-foot, 107-room, eight-level complex there's a dungeon with a functional Renaissance-era iron maiden. It took 14 years to construct the castle using historically accurate medieval building techniques. The end result is an "authentic" 12th- and 13th-century Tuscan castle with drawbridge and moat.

Hearst Castle - Understatemen...
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Pieces of the sunken vessel are now clearly visible because of the near-record low water levels.

The Montana, built in 1882, was the largest vessel to ever travel the Missouri. It was longer than a football field.

The Montana struck an underwater tree in 1884 and was piloted ashore. The boat has been there ever since for the past 128 years.

Drought reveals famous sunken ship
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"I dug down about one foot but my wife just wanted to me to cover it back up because we had three children running around at the time," he said. "I always wanted to dig it out to see if I could find a pot of gold at the bottom, so when I retired at the end of last year that's what I started to do."

Steer is seeking help from experts to determine exactly how old the well is. In the meantime, he has installed lights along its shaft and covered up the opening with a trap door.

At one point during ...
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For those that have heard my TOTO episodes on Pic de Bugarach, the Cathars were mentioned in regards to Daniel Bettex (the Bettex Affair - see: pt 2 show notes, the Philip Coppens article referenced gives awesome info),,,so my interest was piqued,,,


,,,few individuals were more colourful than a dark-haired, green-eyed young man named Otto Wilhelm Rahn. His gaunt figure, swathed in characteristic black coat and fedora, casts a long shadow out of those twilight years, a ‘great silhouette�...
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Historical records show that Richard III was buried in the church of a Franciscan friary in Leicester shortly after his defeat and death at the hands of Henry Tudor's army in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

But the destruction of the friary as Britain's monasteries were dissolved under Henry VIII and subsequent removal of its stone ruins meant that over the ensuing centuries the king's exact burial site was forgotten.

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Richard III has gone down in history as a monstrous tyrant with a hunch...
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In March 1712 Jane Wenham, who became known as ‘the witch of Walkern’, was condemned to death for witchcraft at the age of 16. She was found guilty of the charge at Hertford Assizes after being accused of flying and speaking to Satan in the shape of a cat.

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On March 4, 1712, she was found guilty and became the last woman to be condemned to death for witchcraft in England. Her saviour came in the form of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper, whose family seat was at Cole Green Park.

Tha...
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It had been thought that Waldseemueller had only made four copies, but researchers at a Munich university have now discovered a fifth version.

This new map was found in the pages of an unrelated 19th century book.

Sven Kuttner, head of old books at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University, said: “It seems to be a second edition and this is a unique map. Until now, we have no signs for a further map like this.”

Rare copy of Waldseemueller's early America map found in Germany
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Did the Germans launch a crewed rocket into space in 1933?

Bruno Fischer and the three officials then retired to a small hollow in the ground about two hundred yards away and Fischer closed the switch that sent the rocket on its journey. There was a blinding flash and a deafening explosion, and the slim torpedo-shaped body was gone from the steel framework in which it had rested.

Did the Germans launch a crewed rocket into space in 1933?"A few minutes later it came into sight again, floatin...
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