One of these is a Saint of the Catholic Church... (2)

New feature – a top 10 of History news and oddities from around the web will be posted every Thursday. Enjoy and tell us what you think.

1) 15 by 60 metres, Egypt has announced that they have found and excavated a massive temple to the cat goddess Bastet in the ancient city of Alexandria. Largely intact, the structure seemingly has nine lives (pun intended, deal with it). (Link)

2) The ‘relics’ or bones of Joan of Ark that have been stored in a French holy place for centuries have turned out to largely be…those of a cat. (Link)

3) He’s been made a saint of archaeology and of strenuous scientific conservationism but a new story supposes that Howard Carter may have stolen from the tomb of Tutankhamun. (Link)

4) The Nazis stole the Amber panels from Moscow’s Hermitage museum 70 years ago. The priceless artifacts may soon be discovered or else we will all be very angry with one particular journalist claiming he found them. (Link)

5) Winston Churchill put out a cigar butt in August of 1941. In case this really interests you, there is a story attached to it. In case you are completely hellbent on the subject, you can actually buy the tobacco stump for $500. (Link)

6) Millennia of revolution and war have devastated the giant Buddha statues carved out of Chinese rock faces. Beijing now tries to preserve one of the last remaining ones. (Link)

7) Pope Pius XII let Hitler and Mussolini round up Jews in Rome…but helped thousands of them escape. Pope Pius XII tried to remain neutral and protect his Church…but helped fascist criminals such as Ante Pavelic escape. The debate on the canonization or demonization of Pope Pius XII may never be over. (Link)

8 ) Florence Green of the UK, 108 years of age, turns out to be one of the First World War’s only remaining veterans, having fought for the women’s Royal Air Force. (Link)

9) 1700-year-old bronze mirrors have been found in Japan. Perhaps the Japanese have been practicing in front of the mirror all this time…to come up with game shows that freaks the bejesus out of us. (Link)

10) After a long stay in the loony bin of public revile, Mel Gibson is set to make a Viking Epic… that presumably isn’t a sequel to Braveheart. (Link)

THIS WEEK IN :

1778: Captain Cook discovered the Hawaii Islands. Well, there were already people there but they didn’t wear pants or have a flag so Cook came to the conclusion that their land now belonged to the British Crown. (Link)

1920: Prohibition begins in America and also coincidentally begins the wealth and proliferation of organized crime. (Link)

THE LIGHTER SIDE: Cracked.com brings us -

- “The 7 Creepiest Unexplained Broadcasts” – Cause it ain’t quality media if you’re not reducing your public to quivering masses of fear, confusion and perhaps a soupcon of urine. (Link)

- “The 6 Most Baffling Nobel Prizes Ever Awarded” – And people though President Obama’s award was strange. (Link)

End.

1) While on the run from US agents, drug baron Pablo Escobar once kept warm by literally burning through $2 million in one night. Ahh the warm embrace of burning drug money.  (Link)

2) The last surviving copy of one of the first maps depicting America is slowly disintegrating. Turns out “America” was just an inside joke of the authors – it just stuck. (Link)

3) A new 100-feet-tall statue of a young Chairman Mao has startled more than a few conservative Chinese by showing the communist hero with long flowing hair. Was Mao the reincarnation of Beethoven? (Link)

4) After the Second World War, decades of oppressive communist rule and a recent civil war, Albania has been left with a countryside of “concrete mushrooms”. These 750,000 military bunkers are now being examined to…build condos? (Link)

ON THIS DAY IN 1922: Howard Carter discovers the unopened tomb of Tutankhamun, an unimportant pharaoh that has taught us more about ancient Egypt than the last 200 years of archaeology. This site shows you original documents and recordings of Carter and his team describing the find. (Link)

AND AS FOR THE LIGHTER SIDE: Cracked.com’s “6 Historic Villains You Didn’t Know Had Incredible Careers” – You shoot one little president and no one remembers how good an actor you were. (Link)

End.