Quantcast
Channel: The History Press blog
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 750

The Friday Digest 31/10/14

$
0
0

THP Friday digest


This week's update features why witches ride brooms, the 'British Schindlers' and the auction of Hitler's personal copy of Mein Kampf. 


Vintage turn-of-the-century witch beckons ye to celebrate magic au naturelle.


Why Do Witches Ride Brooms? - According to an article by Megan Garber at The Atlantic, they did it for the drugs.


Fife Council archaeologist Douglas Speirs uncovered the Torryburn slab


How to bury a witch - Lilias Adie, a poor woman who confessed to being a witch and having sex with the devil, died in prison before she could be tried, sentenced and burned.


Powis Castle in Welshpool is haunted by a lady in black, the sound of a ghostly piano and the figure of a man in a gold-laced sui


* Ten places to spot ghosts this Hallowe’en - Paranormal historian Paul Adams on the creepiest haunted castles, churches and theatres in the UK.

 


Sir Nicholas Winton, centre, receives the Order of the White Lion from Czech President Milos Zeman in Prague


* Sir Nicholas Winton, 'Britain's Schindler', 105, this week he recieved the Czech Republic's highest honour at a ceremony in Prague for saving hundreds of children from the Nazis.

 

 

* See Here: when Sir Nicholas Winton was reunited with a woman he saved 


Charles Coward, Princess Alice and Sofka Skipworth 

* The other 'British Schindlers'  - Yad Vashem the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, recognises 21 British men and women on its list of the “righteous” - non-Jews whose heroic efforts helped ameliorate the suffering of Jews during the holocaust. 


A copy of Mein Kampf found in Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment in 1945


*Adolf Hitler's personal copy of Mein Kampf expected to fetch £62,000 as it goes under the hammer - the book was liberated from Hitler's personal Munich library by a US soldier in 1945.


One of the world's most famous self-portraits, the 500-year-old, fragile, fading red chalk drawing of Leonardo da Vinci.


The Leonardo hidden from Hitler in case it gave him magic powers - There is a myth that the gaze of Leonardo da Vinci in this self-portrait is so intense that those who observe it are imbued with great strength.


The ceiling of a 17th Century wooden synagogue from Gwozdziec was painstakingly reconstructed


Polish museum celebrates 1,000 years of Jewish life - Jews first settled in Poland in the early Middle Ages. From about the 17th Century until the beginning of the 20th Century, the country was the global centre of Jewish life.


Bill Betts at Bovington tank museum. Photograph: Nicholas Wilton


A tank veteran on Fury:  Bill Betts, now 91, was a radio operator on Sherman tanks during the second world war. He talks about the memories reignited by Fury, which stars Brad Pitt as a Sherman tank commander leading his team through Germany in 1945.


 She-soldiers fought alongside men and challenged social expectations


 * Viewpoint: Why are so few WW1 heroines remembered? - Their heroism was praised during the war but they were not always remembered in a positive light afterwards, says Prof Alison Fell.

 

 
* Walk the War - Britain’s famed Blue Badge tourist guides are now bringing the Home Front alive with guided walks all over the country.

 Ben McBean runs 31 miles in the shape of a giant poppy to raise more money for the Royal British Legion


 * Ex-Royal Marine runs through London in the shape of a giant poppyBen McBean was 20 when he was badly injured in a landmine blast, now he runs 31 miles to raise money for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal.


 

 

Have there been lions in London since 1210? - London Zoo's three lionesses, Ruby, Heidi and Indi, will in November leave London until 2016, while a new home is built for them. It may mark the first time the capital has been without lions since the 13th Century.

 

 Displaying the Shroud in Turin, 1613. Engraving by Antonio Tempesta. AKG Images / De Agostini Picture Library

 

 * The Origins of the Shroud of Turin - There is enough uncertainty about the Shroud’s origins to convince some that it is the actual burial shroud of Christ.


 A plague doctor wearing his 'beak mask'. This mask would have been filled with lavender or other strong smelling substances which were thought to protect him from disease.

 

* The Reputed Plague Pits in London - Overcrowded, dirty and  awash with sewage... it's hardly surprising that the bubonic plaugue flourished in the crowded streets of London. 


 'Shoulder to Shoulder': Siân Phillips plays Emmeline Pankhurst in the BBC drama

 

The March of the Women - A BBC drama from 1974 highlights the tensions in writing feminist history.


Painting, c. 1485. An artist's interpretation, since the only known direct portrait has not survived. (Centre Historique des Archives Nationales, Paris, AE II 2490)

 

Joan of Arc: New Visions or Old? - Helen Castor asks if a medical diagnosis for Joan of Arc’s ‘visions’, first proposed in History Today in 1958, neglects the role of religion, all pervasive in the enchanted world of the Middle Ages.

 

 An 1882 print shows an Amazon, perhaps Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, about to spear a panther.

 

Amazon Warriors Did Indeed Fight and Die Like Men - Archaeology shows that these fierce women also smoked pot, got tattoos, killed—and loved—men.



* Bookseller Digital Census: fears over future-proofing - Only one in seven people think the industry is ready for the next stage in the digital revolution.
 
 

  Which history and publishing stories have you enjoyed reading this week?


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 750

Trending Articles