One of the great wonders of the Natural World - the Niagra falls between Canada and US was first sketched today by a Franciscan explorer

Described as one of the most expansive audio experiences in the classical world - Berlioz's Requiem was commissioned in memory of French Soldiers who died in Algeria

Today we remember how a fire melted metal onto a large piece of linen that was reputed to be the burial cloth of Christ.  When an Italian photographer processed the first negative image of the cloth it wowed the world

Guy Fawkes was from York and to commemorate his failure to blow up the House of Lords a special light show was projected onto the beautiful and famous York Minster. Today we look at both the story of Guy Fawkes and the beautiful York Cathedral and its links to the Emperor Constantine 

The Lord of the Rings has been hugely successful as a book and a film series,  all over the world, We look at the theology that underpins J R R Tolkien's Middle- Earth that has been popular all over the world 

Coventry Cathedral was rebuilt after being bombed in WW2, with its shell left standing next to the new cathedral a symbol of Resurrection and Reconciliation.  It commissioned a War Requiem from Benjamin Britten which incorporated Wilfred Owen's poetry with a Latin Requiem Mass Setting

The most exciting discovery of modern Archaeology in a cave by the shore of the Dead Sea.  The Dead Sea Scrolls is a huge discovery of nearly 900 manuscripts. Where did they come from and what do they tell us? 

The 5th conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM) was in the Mexican shrine of Aparecida. Did this mark a decisive shift to Latin America as a Source Church for the Global Church.  An Argentinian Jesuit, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio oversaw the final report.  He would become Pope Francis 

On May 30 the confessing church in German finished its first synod and issued the Barmen Declaration. Bravely denouncing the Nazification of the Evangelical Church. They were inspired by Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller

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Today in 1598 the Italian Astronomer Giovani Battista Ricciolo was born.  He became a Jesuit Priest and published the most important book on astrology of the time for use in schools. He was also the first to map the moon, classify Mizar as a double star and his scientific companion Fr Grimaldi discovered refraction of light.