In 1891, when geologist Erwin H. Barbour was conducting an expedition in the poorlands near White River, Nebraska, locals drew his attention to unusual fossils. They were sand-filled spiral tubes up to 3 meters long with walls of white fibrous material. Such fossils were found in an area that at the time was considered the bottom of a dried-up ancient lake.
The Lauterbrunnental Valley in Switzerland has been my photographic dream for years. It is surrounded by mighty peaks of the Bernese Alps: Eiger (3970 m), Mönch (4107 m) and Jungfrau (4158 m). It is one of the deepest valleys in the Alps and you can admire here amazing waterfalls. There are 72 of them!
The list includes a tsar’s house and a wooden skyscraper.
Polish archaeologists found a very large hoard of 6.5 thousand silver coins, silver and gold bullion, and two wedding rings, which could belong to Princess Maria, daughter of Chernigov Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich of the Rurik dynasty.
Massachusetts police officer Matt Lima became a US news hero after setting an example of kindness and compassion for those in need over the Christmas holidays.
A resident of Hobart, Australia, won A $ 1.061 million (roughly $ 800,000) in the lottery with a lottery ticket she received from her family for Christmas.
Groom wins £10,000 on £25 wedding day bet he forgot he’d placed.
Birdwatcher stumbles upon £800,000 hoard of 2,000-year-old Celtic gold coins dating from time Boudicca was at war with the Romans.
Experts say each coin is worth up to £650 and could have belonged to Boudicca.
The lucky finder said ‘a cascade of coins fell out,’ of an urn he had unearthed.
In the middle ages, many Russian communities, especially in the Novgorod and Pskov regions, believed in building churches as response to calamities raging at that time, most often epidemics. The tradition known as obydennye khramy requires that the church be completed within the course of a single day. These one-day votive churches were built by communal labor and were simple in design and small in size. Construction usually began at night and ended before sunset of the following day. By nightfall, the church had to be consecrated. Made of wood, they stood no more than 40-50 years.
Four days before Christmas, the sky will offer a sight that hasn’t been seen since the Middle Ages and may have inspired one of the Bible’s most famous stories. The two largest planets in the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, will be so close to one another in the sky on Dec. 21 that they will appear to be fused into a single point of light.
Michael Walsh Stories and Books 
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