Christmas gift turned Australian woman into millionaire
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.
Briton won £ 10,000 on his wedding day
Groom wins £10,000 on £25 wedding day bet he forgot he’d placed.
Briton found golden treasure age 2000 years, thanks to the birds
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.
Medieval Russians Built Churches in One Day to Ward Off Epidemics
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.
Spectacular Chance to see the Star of Bethlehem
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.
A Viking banquet hall was found in Norway
The ancient Viking burial site in Estefall in southeastern Norway was in fact a whole complex, including a feast hall and a religious building.
Egypt uncovers tomb treasure trove buried for 2,500 years
Experts have uncovered some 100 sarcophagi at an ancient necropolis south of the Egyptian capital Cairo. The country’s tourism minister described the find as a “treasure.”
Spooky stuff: Contacting spirits of the dead
High society circles in St. Petersburg in the late 19th century were fascinated with seances and efforts to contact the dead. There was one problem, however. This macabre movement in fact had started as a prank by two young charlatans in the U.S. The fraudulent nature of this pseudo-science, however, didn’t stop educated and powerful Russians from indulging in what is known as ‘Spiritualism’.
Life’s little pleasures: a mini history of the doll’s house
What of the origins of doll’s houses? Where does the interest come from – for our children to love to play with them, for so many adults to love to collect exquisite miniatures like this?
Horses’ Ass!
The American and other standard railroad gauges (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. Admittedly, this is a rather odd number. Why was that gauge used?
Michael Walsh Stories and Books 
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