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: http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk
February 15, 2008
The tragic story of a Croydon family who lost four of their sons during World War I has been revealed by a local historian.
In a tale which echoes the storyline of the Hollywood blockbuster film Saving Private Ryan, Brian Roote has unearthed the tragic tale of the brothers who were all killed in action during a two-and-a-half year period in the Great War.
Albert, Stephen, Charles and Frank - the sons of Elijah and Mary Ann French - are all on Croydon's Roll of Honour af
Source: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk
February 16, 2008
A WORLD War One underground shelter built by Scottish troops has been discovered in Ypres, Belgium.
The Vampire Dugout was found by a team of archaeologists on the site of the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele.
Source: AP
February 15, 2008
The Swedish government has launched an online database with more than 1,000 documents on the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg, a diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from Nazi death camps.
The searchable database collects previously published material in one place to make it easier for both government and private researchers to explore Wallenberg's case, said Harald Hamrin, a retired Swedish diplomat who led the initiative.
Wallenberg, who worked as a diplomat in Buda
Source: http://www.iol.co.za
February 15, 2008
French archaeologists in Sudan say they have uncovered the oldest proof of human sacrifice in Africa, hailing the discovery as the biggest Neolithic find on the continent for years.
The tomb of a 5 500-year-old man surrounded by three sacrificed humans, two dogs and exquisite ceramics were exhumed north of Khartoum by Neolithic expert Jacques Reinhold and his 66-year-old Austrian wife.
"This is the oldest proof of human sacrifice in Sudan, in Egypt, in Africa,"
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
February 15, 2008
Eastern Utah's Nine Mile Canyon holds more than 10,000 known American Indian rock-art images. But they may be no match for 800 gas wells.
A Denver-based energy company's proposal to drill at least that many wells on the West Tavaputs Plateau threatens the thousand-year-old Anasazi ruins, where dust and chemicals are already corroding peerless rock art.
Source: http://www.theherald.co.uk/news
February 16, 2008
A rock carving dating back to the bronze age has been uncovered by forestry workers clearing trees which fell during the recent storms.
The mysterious rock art had been hidden by a huge tree in Forestry Commission Scotland's Achnabreac Forest, in West Argyll, until it was blown down around three weeks ago.
Source: BBC
February 17, 2008
A 104-year-old Dutch cabaret singer who once performed in Nazi Germany has given a concert in the Netherlands for the first time in four decades.
There were protests and tight security around the theatre in Amersfoort where Johannes Heesters appeared.
Although Heesters insists he never espoused Nazi politics, he performed for Adolf Hitler and visited the Dachau concentration camp.
Correspondents say many Dutch people have never forgiven him.
"He
Source: http://www.smh.com.au
February 17, 2008
AN AUSTRALIAN payroll plane that went missing at the end of World War II with 19 people on board might have been found in just 20 metres of water in Papua New Guinea.
Divers in Milne Bay have reported seeing the remains of a twin-engined plane in the exact same spot pinpointed by documents that were recently uncovered by an aviation historian in Canberra.
Now a diving boat skipper, who has found other plane wrecks in PNG waters, is planning an expedition to find the mis
Source: http://www.eveningsun.com
February 14, 2008
In time for the upcoming tourist season, Gettysburg officials are on schedule to approve an ordinance that places a 26-person limit for guided walking tours in the borough.
Controversy about a potential limit - which affects the town's many ghost-tour companies - was sparked last summer, when the borough's public safety committee proposed a 15-person cap.
Objections from the owners of ghost-tour companies prompted the committee to increase that number to 26, including t
Source: http://www.wjactv.com
February 15, 2008
It's a mystery going back more than 140 years. Many have searched, but no one has found the millions of dollars in gold lost during the Civil War in Elk County.
Now, one treasure hunting team from Clearfield says it knows where the gold is [but the state of Pennsylvania won't allow him to dig it up.]
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 18, 2008
A mutilated body found in an abbey graveyard has been identified as that of a notorious medieval villain rumoured to have been the gay lover of Edward II.
The remains, which bear the hallmarks of having been hanged, drawn and quartered, are thought to be those of Sir Hugh Despenser the Younger, who was executed as a traitor in 1326.
Sir Hugh had been favourite of Edward II - who was widely believed to have been homosexual - but was brutally executed before a mob after t
Source: HNN Staff
February 18, 2008
Richard Nixon's partisans always resented the charge that there was a New Nixon, but his supporters at the Nixon Foundation have now started a blog in his name called,"The New Nixon Blog." Perhaps they are showing they have an ironic sense of humor. John Taylor, executive director of the Foundation, explained the purpose of the blog: [T]oday, many years after President Nixon has died, as President Nixon’s library prepares to become fully comparable to the other Presidential libra
Source: AOL
February 17, 2008
Far and away, Abraham Lincoln is ranked by Americans as the nation's greatest president, according to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive and released this week, just ahead of Presidents Day. What's surprising is that President George W. Bush, whose approval rating has plunged to just 30 percent, also sneaks into the top ten list.
The Harris poll points out that recent presidents tend to be listed more often as both the best and the worst. In a separate poll asking Americans to n
Source: IHT
February 18, 2008
France's education minister on Monday softened a proposal by President Nicolas Sarkozy to make French 10-year-olds honor child Holocaust victims, amid heated criticism of the sensitive idea.Education Minister Xavier Darcos said Monday the plan could be adjusted so that an entire class could collectively honor an individual victim.
"Is it necessary to do one by one, for each pupil? Perhaps we could find other solutions," such as choosing one victim per
Source: Telegraph (London)
February 18, 2008
The mystery surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy has taken a dramatic new twist following the discovery of new documents in an old safe at the Dallas County district attorney's office.Most intriguing among the new material is a transcript perportedly recording a conversation between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and his own killer Jack Ruby, in which the two discuss how to eliminate the president.
While the district attorney's office dismissed
Source: BBC
February 18, 2008
Indian archaeologists say they have found remains which point to the existence of a city about 7,000 years old in eastern India.The remains have been discovered at Sisupalgarh near Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern state of Orissa.
Researchers say the items found during the excavation point to a highly developed urban settlement.
The population of the city could have been in the region of 20,000 to 25,000, the archaeologists claim.
Th
Source: Beacon News (Illinois)
February 18, 2008
Historians at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library say they have identified an ax long housed at the Springfield facility as the last one ever used by "The Railsplitter."Illinois State Historian Thomas Schwartz says the ax that's been part of the library's collection since 1955 was wielded by Lincoln on April 8, 1865, while he was visiting wounded Union troops at City Point, Va.
That was just one week before he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
Source: AP
February 16, 2008
An 8-year-old boy and his friend found a live, World War II-era hand grenade while searching for buried treasure with a metal detector.
Sidney Mathis and his friend had found nails, bolts and a toy car by sweeping the detector over a field near their home Thursday. But it was their other find that alarmed Sidney's father, Chris Mathis.
He arrived home Thursday to find the boys about to put the grenade into a bucket of water. Chris Mathis grabbed the grenade and dangled
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
February 17, 2008
Silbertal | The mayor of this tiny Alpine village, where Ernest Hemingway once skied down majestic slopes, has started an unprecedented project that most Austrians would rather forget: confronting the nation's Nazi past.
Mayor Willi Saly is intent on finding out whether there's anything in the historical record that would provide a clue to what drove a village farmer named Josef Vallaster to become one of the most brutal concentration camp guards of World War II. The records, which surfac
Source: Times (UK)
February 15, 2008
It's taken days of number-crunching, nights of scientific analysis and the objective advice of a panel of experts. But Comment Central has finally shortlisted ten of the greatest mistakes in British history.
Now it's over to you. Here are the contenders. Which do you think did the greatest harm to our island nation? Voting will close at midnight on Monday 18 February....
