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: History Today
March 25, 2008
The subspecies of lions kept in the Royal Menagerie are now extinct in the wild, according to new research on skulls found at the Tower of London. Research by scientists from the Natural History Museum and the University of Oxford found the big cats kept since medieval times were Barbary lions. The remains were found in the moat in the 1930s and then stored at the London museum; one dates from between 1280 and 1385. Richard Sabin, curator at the Natural History Museum, stated: ‘We’ve not known u
Source: Interview with George Edwards in Presidential Studies Quarterly
March 1, 2008
PRESIDENT CARTER: Regarding the details, I am still an engineer by thought. You know, when I run my
farm or when I run the Carter Center, I want to know what is going on. When I took on
the personal responsibility, say for the Mideast peace process, I really believed that when
we went to Camp David I knew more about the details than anybody there. I had
mastered the psychological and historical analysis of Begin and Sadat. I knew everything
they had done since they were born that was record
Source: http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk
March 25, 2008
MUNDANE household objects were used by our distant ancestors to honour their dead according to an expert from Chester University.
Combs, tweezers and razors were among the distinctive artefacts used by the Anglo-Saxons.
According to new research conducted by an international expert at the University of Chester, the popular perception that the early Anglo-Saxons would mark death with grandiose gestures is untrue.
Source: BBC
March 25, 2008
A timber circle dating back 4,000 years which was found in the sea off the Norfolk coast is to return to the county in a permanent display.
Seahenge, with 55 oak posts and a central upturned stump dating from the Bronze Age, was found emerging from a beach at Holme-next-the-Sea in 1998.
Timbers were studied at the Bronze Age Centre, Peterborough, then preserved at the Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth.
Next month Seahenge will go on display at the Lynn Museum in
Source: http://www.post-trib.com
March 25, 2008
One of the only vehicles known to have been used by Martin Luther King Jr. will start its journey back home to Memphis, Tenn., today after a long and storied journey to Indiana.
The car, a white 1966 Lincoln Continental with a black top, has been restored so thoroughly that it probably could be driven all the way to the National Civil Rights Museum.
But Rich Fortner, who has spent the last eight months toiling over, cursing at and loving the car, isn't taking any chance
Source: Times (UK)
March 24, 2008
One of the enduring mysteries of world history is whether the Americas had any contact with the Old World before Columbus, apart from the brief Viking settlement in Newfoundland. Many aspects of higher civilisation in the New World, from the invention of pottery to the building of pyramids, have been ascribed to European, Asian or African voyagers, but none has stood up to scrutiny.
The one convincing piece of evidence for pre-Hispanic contact has been the humble sweet potato, which
Source: Science Daily
March 25, 2008
Corn has long been known as the primary food crop in prehistoric North and Central America. Now it appears it may have been an important part of the South American diet for much longer than previously thought, according to new research by University of Calgary archaeologists who are cobbling together the ancient history of plant domestication in the New World.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U of C PhD student Sonia Zarrillo and archaeolo
Source: CNN
March 25, 2008
A Finnish tourist was detained after allegedly stealing a piece of volcanic rock from one of the massive Moai statues on Easter Island.
Marko Kulju, 26, faces seven years in prison and a fine of $19,100 if convicted of stealing pieces of the right earlobe from a Moai, one of numerous statues carved out of volcanic rock between 400 and 1,000 years ago to represent deceased ancestors.
Source: BBC
March 24, 2008
An appeal has been launched to raise £30,000 to restore the memorial and tomb of the Ladies of Llangollen, in a churchyard in the Denbighshire town.
The tomb of the two aristocrats who eloped from Ireland in 1778 and lived together in north Wales for 50 years, has fallen into disrepair.
The Llangollen Historical Society is hoping to raise the money needed through grants and donations.
Source: BBC
March 25, 2008
A Welsh society in America wants a plaque reinstated marking the supposed arrival of a prince in the US three centuries before Columbus.
Some claim Prince Madoc ap Owain was one of the first Europeans on North American soil when he landed at Mobile Bay, Alabama, in around 1170.
A plaque marking the legend that Welsh was passed on to native Americans went up in the 50s but has now been removed.
The Alabama Welsh Society has begun a petition calling for it to
Source: BBC
March 25, 2008
The UK's first dedicated World Heritage Centre has been officially opened in the south Wales valleys.
First Minister Rhodri Morgan opened the £2.7m visitors' centre on the site of a once rundown school in Blaenavon.
The former ironworks town in Torfaen won world heritage status in 2000 and the council estimates £40m has since been spent on regenerating the town.
The town has been transformed and Mr Morgan said the special status had proved a catalyst for regenera
Source: AP
March 25, 2008
Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said she "misspoke" last week when saying she had landed under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia as first lady in March 1996. She later characterized the episode as a "misstatement" and a "minor blip."
The Obama campaign suggested the statement was a deliberate exaggeration by Clinton, who often cites the goodwill trip with her daughter and several celebrities as an example of her foreign policy experience.
Source: International Herald Tribune
March 24, 2008
Two dangling strands of barbed wire have haunted Olaf Hetze for more than a quarter-century, since his failed attempt to escape from the Communist bloc, not by going over the Berlin Wall but around it, by a little-known route through Bulgaria.
Thanks to the work of a German researcher, the full extent of the escape attempts through Bulgaria - and the dangers - is just now coming to light.
At least 4,500 people from various Communist countries tried to flee to the West o
Source: BBC
March 25, 2008
An attempt to persuade Lerwick Sheriff Court that the Shetland Islands are not legally part of Scotland has been postponed until next month.
Stuart Hill, 65, planned to argue that the islands were only passed from Denmark to the Scots crown in the 15th-century as security for a debt.
Mr Hill is the defender in a civil action but will argue that Scots law has no jurisdiction over him.
He believes Shetland was only on long-term loan to Scotland.
Source: Jerusalem Post
March 23, 2008
In an effort to connect high school students with Israeli history, the Defense Ministry plans to inaugurate a new project on Monday aimed at renovating all of the IDF memorials and monuments erected over the years for soldiers who fell during the 1948 War of Independence.
According to Defense Ministry records, 140 monuments throughout the country commemorate soldiers and units who fought in the 1948 war. At least 60 are in dire need of renovations. The project, which is being overse
Source: BBC
March 23, 2008
Nationalists and republicans have been staging Easter Rising commemorations. Thousands of people lined Dublin's O'Connell Street for a military parade, including an Irish Air Corps fly-past.
The ceremony was attended by Irish President Mary McAleese and taoiseach Bertie Ahern, along with Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
The events mark the attempt in 1916 to seize Dublin from British imperial forces. The rebellion was put down with many ringleaders captured and
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 25, 2008
Restrictions on public buildings flying the Union flag are to be lifted under Gordon Brown's plans to boost Britishness.
Ministers are expected to publish a white paper which will include proposals to allow schools, hospitals and council buildings to fly the flag all year round.
Legislation dating from 1924 means public buildings can only fly the Union flag 18 days a year, including the Queen's birthday and Remembrance Day.
The white paper proposes to allow
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 25, 2008
Nicolas Sarkozy will address a rare joint gathering of MPs and peers in Parliament this week surrounded by dramatic images of two of France's greatest military defeats at the hands of the British.
The French president, who is visiting London on Wednesday, will speak in the Royal Gallery. The room is dominated by two large frescoes that stretch along opposite walls, one of Trafalgar, the other of Waterloo.
While not expected to embarrass the president, photographs of his
Source: AP
March 23, 2008
Merle Brandell and his black lab Slapsey were beachcombing along the Bering Sea when he spied a plastic bottle among the Japanese glass floats he often finds along the shore of his tiny Alaskan fishing village.
He walked over and saw an envelope tucked inside. After slicing the bottle open, Brandell found a message from an elementary school student in a suburb of Seattle. The fact that the letter traveled 1,735 miles without any help from the U.S. postal service is unusual, but that
Source: http://www.columbusdispatch.com
March 18, 2008
New technologies seem to make almost everyone's job easier, and archaeology is no exception. One of the newest and most exciting tools in the archaeologist's kit is aerial laser scanning, sometimes referred to as Light Detection And Ranging, or LiDAR. It works a bit like radar, but instead of using radio waves, it uses infrared laser pulses. The echoes can "see" through trees and shrubs, revealing the precise contours of the ground surface.
In the April issue of the Journa
