You saw nothing! (1 and 3)

1) The Korean War began 60 years ago and China had NOTHING to do with it…according to Chinese textbooks. (Link)

2) Georgia has torn down a statue of Stalin in his hometown of Gori. The President says Stalin does not have his place in the 21st century while his opponents claim historical vandalism. (Link)

3) The terracotta warriors of Xi’an lay dormant for many centuries but discoveries are now made every other week. (Link)

4) Two Canadian teachers were arrested for taking worthless rusty railway pins from the ground. They simply wanted a little souvenir from the Auschwitz Death Camp and thus do the metal spikes take meaning. (Link)

5) Many art thieves were arrested when trying to sell a painting by Renaissance master Caravaggio. People became suspicious when a $100 million painting that has been missing for years was offered up for sale. (Link)

6) In a spectacular bout of lack of foresight, Booker Prize winner Yann Martel is quoted as saying “Jews don’t own the Holocaust”. (Link)

7) New records reveal more on Hitler’s time in jail. Among others, a letter begs Mercedes for money. (Link)

8 ) This week on “Collectors With Too Much Money”, Marilyn Monroe’s chest x-ray sells for $45,000. (Link)

9) Discovery News tells us that Amelia Earhart may have survived months as a castaway. Discovery News: giving “grasping at strings” a whole new meaning. (Link)

10) I stand corrected, Discovery News now tells us that the Boy-Pharaoh Tutankhamun did not die of blunt trauma or malaria but of sickle-cell anemia. (Link)

ON THIS WEEK IN:

- 1919: On June 28th, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, officially ending the First World War. Germany was unfortunately not invited to this signing and would bear a grudge for, let’s say, 20 years. (Link)

- 1963: On June 26th, JFK gave his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in Berlin. Unfortunately, in German, this means “I am a cake”. (Link)

THE LIGHTER SIDE:

- 11points.com’s “11 Most Badass Jews In History” – They can’t all look like Woody Allen. (Link)

- Cracked.com’s “5 Most Widely Believed Facts About WWII (That Are Bullshit)” – If we all believe it…is it still a lie? (Link)

End.

A Google Images search for "Sad Nazi" gave this picture of Ralph Fiennes in Shindler's List (1)

1) The World “celebrates” 65 years since the Allied bombing of Dresden. Neo-Nazis flooded the streets to protest. Perhaps they know how we feel when they celebrate the holocaust. (Link)

2) France got the Atomic Bomb in the early 60s. Their first experiments? Irradiating their own soldiers to see what happens. Results: not good for the soldiers. (Link)

3) Surprisingly free of charge, the Vatican has selected some documents from their secret archives (1939-45) that will soon go online. (Link)

4) The murder of two Italian nobles remains unsolved but the Italian police have just announced it will reopen the case. Oh yeah, and it has been cold for 450 years. (Link)

5) In Greco-Roman mythology, the hero Aeneas used the golden bough of a tree to travel safely to and from the underworld. Ambitious archaeologists announced they have found where the bough was held… (Link)

6) New research shows that the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun died of malaria and bone disease. This probably means we will not be able to reanimate him in the future, Frankenstein style. (Link)

7) Zimbabwe has just inaugurated a display of a perfect wooden replica of the Ark of the Covenant. Or, they are exposing an old wooden box for media attention. Who knows? (Link)

8 ) Over at the World History Blog, some may wonder if indeed, Alexander the Great fought and vanquished the Yeti. It would explain why we can’t find it anymore… (Link)

9) Walter Frederick Morrison died at the age of 90. Who you ask? Frisbee inventor Walter Frederick Morrison. (Link)

10) Historian Victor Davis Hanson reanalyzes the overdone subject of Roman Downfall. He then confirms why it is still a very relevant topic in the United States today. (Link)

THIS WEEK IN:

- 1633: On Feb. 13th, Galileo Galilei goes on trial for wantonly and deliberately suggesting that the earth revolves around the sun, in direct opposition to what is in the Bible. (Link)

- 1942: On Feb. 19th, President Roosevelt authorised the internment of all Japanese Americans. Somehow, German Americans were spared the same fate. (Link)

THE LIGHTER SIDE:

- “The 6 Most Badass Robot (Invented Before Electricity)” – Another decade and da Vinci would have ruled the world with a robot army. (Link)

- “7 Mind-Blowing Easter Eggs Hidden in Famous Works of Art” – Michaelangelo would have been a great stand-up comic…or maybe a terrible one.

End.

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.