This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 3, 2008
FIA president Max Mosley has escalated the "sick Nazi orgy" row threatening to engulf Formula One by alluding to the links between BMW and Mercedes and Adolf Hitler's regime in a response to criticism from carmakers.
Mosley, 67, who has come under fire following revelations in the News of the World at the weekend, issued a swift response to earlier statements this morning from four car manufacturers that refers to the history of the two German companies, "particularly
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 2, 2008
The Royal Mint has unveiled the biggest changes to Britain's coinage in 40 years to a chorus of disapproval.
Historians, designers, and MPs have criticised the changes which show elements of the Queen's coat of arms on the reverse of seven coins from the penny to the pound.
In pictures: The designs which will feature on the reverse of seven British coins
The six designs on the 1p through to the 50p coins can be pieced together to form a complete image of the roya
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 2, 2008
The term "listed building" is to be scrapped, in England at least.
Those who live in or own one of the 370,000 properties protected for their historical or archaeological merit will have to get used to living in a "registered heritage asset."
The changes are proposed in the draft Heritage Bill which will also enable landscapes, for example Capability Brown parkland or farmed landscapes in national parks, to be registered as "heritage assets"
Source: AP
April 3, 2008
Abraham Lincoln's heartfelt letter to youngsters who asked him to free America's "little slave children" was sold at auction Thursday for $3.4 million.
The 1864 letter set a record for a Lincoln manuscript, as well as for any presidential and American manuscript, Sotheby's said.
It was purchased by an anonymous American private collector bidding by telephone.
Lincoln's hand-penned reply was contained in a letter to a woman who had mailed the child
Source: Justin Ewers in US News & World Report
April 3, 2008
Five years into the war in Iraq, military history seems to be experiencing a golden age. Hollywood has been cranking out war movies. Publishers have been lining bookstore shelves with new battle tomes, which consumers are eagerly lapping up. Even the critics have been enjoying themselves. Two of the last five Pulitzer Prizes in history were awarded to books about the American military. Four of the five Oscar nominees for best documentary this year were about warfare. Business, for military histo
Source: BBC
March 31, 2008
A medieval game that is almost exclusively played in the South East has been recognised as a sport.
The Sports Council agreed that Stoolball, which is played by up to 4,000 people in Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire, met its criteria.
A round willow bat and wickets made of wooden boards on stakes are used to play the game which has links to the development of cricket.
The National Stoolball Association hopes its profile will now be raised.
Source: ABC News
March 27, 2008
Two forensic scientists have added their names to the list of people who don't believe Sirhan Sirhan acted alone when he shot Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
Kennedy was gunned down on June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. A gunman identified as Sirhan Sirhan was wrestled to the ground and later convicted as the man solely responsible for Kennedy's murder.
But doubts lingered and conspiracy theories took root that perhaps oth
Source: http://www.radio.cz
April 1, 2008
The Lidice museum, which stands on the site of the Czech village that was infamously razed to the ground by the Nazis in 1942, opened a new education centre on Monday. Among other things, this facility will give visitors and scholars access to a detailed historical archive of material about what is considered to be one of the most notorious Nazi atrocities of the Second World War.
The burning village of LidiceThe German massacre of the Czech village of Lidice in retaliation for th
Source: Hartford Courant
April 2, 2008
Russian movie director Sergei Eisenstein was in Mexico in the early 1930s, making his first American, socialist-backed film, when he seriously miscalculated his relationship with Joseph Stalin.
Eisentein, who was working on the film with U.S. novelist and social activist Upton Sinclair, ignored a telegram from Stalin saying that his prolonged absence from the USSR was unacceptable and that he should return immediately.
When that didn't occur, Stalin's security officials
Source: Globalist
March 31, 2008
Over the past twenty years, Ireland has undergone a massive transformation — both economically and socially. Llewellyn King explains in his essay how the only thing that stood between Ireland and its future was its bitter history and how that is slowly changing to give way to a new future.
Source: http://www.int.iol.co.za
April 1, 2008
Egypt's renowned pharaoh Tutankhamun most likely played marble games, Leiden University in the Netherlands said in a statement on Tuesday.
Pieter Lus, a student at Leiden's Egyptology department, recently discovered what he said was a unique papyrus manuscript at a Cairo market.
The painting shows children playing with marbles. One of them is most likely young Tutankhamun, who became Egypt's ruler as a 9-year-old.
"We already knew that marble games ori
Source: CNN
April 2, 2008
Editor's note: Former Associated Press reporter Kathryn Johnson is writing a memoir titled "Let Kathryn In," which includes stories about the civil rights movement.
***
It was eerie. Just hours after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated, I was in his home with his widow and eldest child, watching TV coverage of his death in awed silence.
I felt a strong sense of unreality, being inside the home of the world-renowned civil rights l
Source: World Science
March 31, 2008
Does the human species have mammoth blood on its hands?
Source: PRnewswire
March 30, 2008
From a meeting at the storied bar of the Willard Hotel, through speeches from presidents and other world leaders, to battles over the admission of women and blacks, the National Press Club has been a Washington institution since its founding in 1908.
Beginning March 31, the Club will celebrate its 100 years of history with events that culminate with a gala on April 5.
The NPC compiled an array of historic moments in the Club's life to assist reporters and editors workin
Source: Montpelier Press Release
April 1, 2008
Since 2003 scores of skilled craftsmen and artisans from across the country have diligently worked at James Madison’s Montpelier to return the last unrestored home of a founding father to the American people.
Now in its final stretch, the $24 million restoration project is garnering the attention of history buffs and preservationists alike. Year-to-date figures show visitation to the Madison home is more than 50 percent over 2007. Since January, more than 6,500 tourists have visi
Source: NYT
April 1, 2008
President Jimmy Carter and Senator Edward M. Kennedy had been sharp adversaries with a bad history, and in the 1980 presidential campaign they let it bleed into a bitter nomination fight. The Carter administration challenged Mr. Kennedy’s patriotism and refused to debate, while Mr. Kennedy dragged out their fight for nine months, all the way to the Democratic convention. A weakened Mr. Carter prevailed and won the nomination, but he went on to lose in November.
Convention fights oft
Source: http://www.azzaman.com
March 27, 2008
The government has reduced allocations earmarked for the Antiquities Department and currently hundreds of significant sites are
without proper protection, said Ali Kadhem.
Kadhem is a senior antiquities official in southern Iraq where most valuable Mesopotamian treasures are situated.
He is currently in charge of antiquities in the southern Province of Nasiriya, the birth place of the Sumerian civilization, which
flourished there some 5,000 years ago.
The government has ear
Source: NYT
April 1, 2008
The passionate battles surrounding the birth of New York’s preservation movement nearly a half-century ago seem like distant memories now. For some New Yorkers the main threat to architecture in the city is no longer the demolition of its great landmarks, but a trite nostalgia that disdains the new.
Well, think again. Over the last few years the growing clout of developers has gradually chipped away at the city’s resolve to protect its architectural legacy. The agency most responsib
Source: AFP
March 31, 2008
A major excavation at Britain's prehistoric Stonehenge standing stones started Monday as archaeologists try to work out exactly when and why the first boulders were placed at the site.
Experts are focusing on the Double Bluestone Circle, which is located inside the iconic giant pillars on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, southwest England.
The circle, thought to date from around 2,550 BC, consists of stones which came from the Preseli Hills in west Wales -- 250 kilometres
Source: BBC
April 1, 2008
As the Territorial Army turns 100, what is its modern role and who would join now you can expect to be sent to war?
Nearly 15,000 Territorials have served alongside the regular Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. The TA is being relied upon more heavily than at anytime since World War II.
The TA now runs the only field hospital in Afghanistan and provides about 10% of British forces. Since 2003, seven TA soldiers have been killed.
Yet despite the need for TA sold
