Photo Credit: www.chicagomag.com

The only King buried in the United States has been returned to Europe.

The remains of King Peter II of Yugoslavia has been removed from the Chicago suburb where they’ve been resting for the last 40 years.

The remains arrived in Belgrade, Serbia on Jan. 22, much to the delight of Crown Prince Alexander, who has wanted to bring his father home for years.

Peter II took the throne in 1934, when he was 11, after his father’s assassination.  He tried to hold back the Nazis during his reign, but was forced to flee the country after his government surrendered.  He died at 47 in Denver, and was unable to be buried in his then-communist country.  Peter II selected a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Libertyville for his tomb, where he stayed until now.

A formal state funeral will be held in Belgrade in May.

Photo Credit: www.foxnews.com

British scientists have confirmed through DNA results that the human remains found under a parking lot in Leicester five months are those of King Richard III.

“We’re certain now, as certain as you can be of anything in life,” said Richard Taylor, the University of Leicester registrar who coordinated the team of archaeologists, historians, genealogists and geneticists who set out to identify the remains.

King Richard III is one of the most reviled monarchs in history.  He’s infamous for his scheming, murders, and physical deformity.  Most people know of his two year reign through Shakespeare’s play.  Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 by two severe blows to the head.  He was 33.

Richard, who suffered curvature of the spine, was also buried with his hands tied.

The DNA tests that were conducted on the skeleton mostly came from Michael Ibsen, a Canadian who is a direct descendent of Richard’s sister Anne of York.

Next for Richard will be a reburial, this time at Leicester Cathedral, early in 2014.

Photo credit: minnesota.publicradio.org

Earlier this week, the National Christmas Tree was lit by the first family following a 90 year holiday tradition. The president led the crowd of 17,000 by saying, “In times of war and peace, triumph and tragedy, we’ve always come together to rejoice in the Christmas miracle”.

The giant blue spruce that is now illuminated in bright green lights and ornaments is the third National Christmas Tree. The long-standing tree was knocked down by a storm in the previous year. It was quickly replaced, but that tree did not last. President Obama joked, “It just goes to show, nobody’s job is safe here in Washington,” “But I feel good about this one. It was planted just days before Hurricane Sandy, and it made it through the storm in one piece.”

A tribute was held to honor those who were affected by Hurricane Sandy. There were performances by Jason Mraz, James Taylor, Colbie Caillat, The Fray and many others.

Read more at ABC News

Photo Credit: www.hollywoodreporter.com

An elderly woman’s restoration attempt has ruined a 19th Century Fresco.

The one-of-a-kind 19th century fresco, entitled “Ecce Homo,” by the Spanish painter Elias Garcia Martinez has since been ruined.

The elderly woman is a member of the Santuario de Misericodia church in Borja, located in northeastern Spain.  Her restoration attempt was discovered when the painter’s granddaughter donated the work to a religious paintings archive in Borja.

When center officials went to examine the work a couple weeks ago, they were all shocked to see how it now looked.

The last photo of the painting, prior to the damage, was taken in 2010, and showed the face of Jesus.  The latest photo, taken in July, shows a painting with missing details.

The church and center have stated that the restoration attempt by the woman, who is in her 80s, was not one of malice, but rather she was just misguided.

Now both entities are attempting to assess the damage of the paiting and determine whether Martinez’s work can be restored.

Photo Credit: www.theaustralian.com

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom has been monarch for 60 years.

Over the weekend of June 2-5, celebrations in honor of the Queen have been taking place.  On June 2, the Epsom Derby was held, while on June 3, a river pageant on the Thames took place.  The Queen and the rest of the royal family, including Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, were in attendance.  June 4 will see a Royal Concert take place, with attendance and performances by Elton John and Paul McCartney.  The final day, June 5, will commence with a Thanksgiving dinner and a carriage procession.

In preparation for her Diamond Jubilee, the Queen visited various towns all across the United Kingdom.

In the United Kingdom, the Diamond Jubilee is celebrated at the mark of the monarch’s 60th year of rule.  Aside from Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria is the only other British monarch to reach 60 years.

Queen Elizabeth II was born on April 21, 1926 and ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952.  She has been married to Prince Phillip since 1947, and has two children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

The last major Royal event was the wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011.

Photo Credit: www.greatdreams.com

Archaeologists have discovered a 1,200 year old Mayan mural in a site in Guatemala that predicts the end of the world will not come in 2012.

The markings on the painting show the end of the world not being for thousands of years from now, instead of in 2012. One Mayan calender discovered earlier shows the world starting over in 2012, which led to the current myth.

In 2010, Boston University student and Ph.D. student Franco Rossi discovered the hidden area, which was fully excavated in 2011. Researchers believe the tunnel-like area was used by a record-keeper of Xultun, which is a well-known Mayan city. This was the first major excavation of a part of Xultun.

The painting, which was found in this record room, depicts the calculations along with a picture of a Mayan dwelling. To date, this is the only known mural that shows the home of this ancient group of people.

To read more about the discovery, click here.

photo credit http://news.nationalgeographic.com

New evidence about the remains of a behemoth crocodile discovered in the 1960s, in the Lake Turkana Basin in Kenya, have come to light paleontologists say.

Study leader Christopher Brochu cites this croc to be the largest known true crocodile that ever lived.  Other giant crocodyliforms may have grown up to 40-foot-long, but this fossil, a direct ancestor of the modern Nile croc could have reached lengths of 27-foot.

The scientists hypothesize that one of Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni’s main food sources was early man.  Smaller than modern man, our four-foot-tall ancestors would easily have been swallowed whole by these river monsters.

Crocodiles now and then have incredible digestive systems that would have devoured every bit of a skeleton leaving no fossils.  Alex Hastings, of the University of Florida, who discovered a prehistoric crocodile species in 2011, speculates that these crocs may have been apex predators.  And man was not always the most powerful animal in the jungle.

Brochu hopes, above all else, that evidence such as this new crocodile, puts the final bucket of water on a wicked witch of an idea that crocodiles are living fossils.  That somewhere they have escaped the usual evolutionary trail is simply not true.  Crocodile’s “evolution is just as complex and rich as [that of] any other group,” Brochu said.

For more information click here

Photo Credit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47011937/ns/technology_and_science-science/

After two unsuccessful missions to find where Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan crashed in 1937, Jon Thompson, 72, thinks that 2012 could finally be the year.

He believes that with the technology and minds that will be employed, they will be able to find the trail. Along with a team from the deep-sea exploration company Nauticos, they will be taking a two-month excursion to the ocean about 20 miles from Howard Island, and searching an area of 400- to 600-square miles.

In March, the International Group for Historic Aircraft, lead by Ric Gillespie, has said that a U.S. State Department has an image of what could be aircraft landing gear found on an island in the Pacific now known as Kiribati, and back then was called Nikumaroro. Gillespie’s team will return there in July for two weeks for a search.

Thompson, meanwhile, will be a sonar operator on a ship captained by David Jourdan, who used high-tech equipment in 1999 to find the Israeli submarine the Dakar, which had gone missing in 1968. They believe the Earhart and Noonan crashed in the ocean, which is why all past attempts have failed.

Thompson, who in the fall will be undergoing proton therapy for prostate cancer, has already planned out the exhibit for the artifacts that they will hopefully find, which could include Earhart’s jewelry, helmet, and leather jacket.