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: MSNBC
June 14, 2007
When they were told to get off their western Kentucky farmland in 1941 to make room for a sprawling World War II training camp, hundreds of families were given as little as two weeks to get everything out. Over the years, they say, they were cheated out of an agreement to buy back their land after the war and denied a stake in a government windfall: the discovery of massive deposits of gas and oil.
Now, those same families and their heirs are battling the U.S. government for what th
Source: BBC News
June 14, 2007
The Queen, Tony Blair and Baroness Thatcher joined veterans for a remembrance service in the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel in Berkshire.
A service in Stanley, attended by 1982 minister Lord Parkinson and Prince Edward, was among the Falklands events. The war came to an end on 14 June 1982, two-and-half-months after the UK territory was invaded by Argentina.
Some 255 British servicemen, more than 650 Argentines and three islanders were killed in the 74-day conflict.
Source: International Herald Tribune
June 14, 2007
In a neglected vault buried under New York's Rockefeller Center — a hot and musty space with little space between rows of rusted-shut file cabinets — The Associated Press found pieces of history.
The unearthing of thousands of documents, fragments of the 161-year history of the news cooperative, led to the publication of a new history of the AP — the first since the outbreak of World War II.
"Breaking News: How The Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace and Everyt
Source: BBC News
June 14, 2007
The nomination of Charles Darwin's former home in south-east London as a World Heritage Site has been withdrawn. The government took the decision following an evaluation by Unesco advisors, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos).
It said Icomos had failed to recognise the Bromley property's "significance as a site for the heritage of science". Down House at Downe was Darwin's home for 40 years and where he developed his revolutionary theory of evolution
Source: Broadcast Newsroom
June 14, 2007
After months of intensive research, Samuel Huneke from Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas, earned The History Channel(R) Award for "Best Senior Entry for an Individual Documentary" at the National History Day (NHD) ceremonies today for his documentary titled "Democracy in the Heart of Europe: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Czechoslovak Republic."
National History Day, Inc. is a nonprofit education program that presents an annual national history contest. St
Source: CNN
June 14, 2007
Kurt Waldheim, whose legacy as U.N. secretary-general was overshadowed by revelations that he belonged to a German army unit that committed atrocities in the Balkans in World War II, died Thursday. He was 88.Waldheim, who served as U.N. chief from 1972-81, was first confronted with purported evidence of his personal implication in wartime atrocities when he ran for the Austrian presidency in 1986. He consistently denied wrongdoing, defending himself against disclosures made
Source: Truthdig
June 13, 2007
Last Sunday night, as millions of Americans tuned in to the two Tonys—the final episode of “The Sopranos,” to see whether Tony Soprano lived or died, and the Tony Awards, celebrating the best in American theater—actor Stanley Tucci (who played “Nigel” in “The Devil Wears Prada") was in an off-Broadway theater, the Culture Project, watching high school students perform a play about war.
The production, “Voices in Conflict,” moved the audience to tears, ending with a standing ov
Source: Washington Post
June 13, 2007
BAGHDAD, June 13 -- Early morning blasts Wednesday destroyed two minarets at the same Shiite shrine in Samarra where an attack last year demolished the mosque's gilded dome and plunged the country into a wave of deadly sectarian violence.
No one was injured in the 9 a.m. explosions at the revered Askariya shrine in Samarra, about 65 miles north of Baghdad. But officials said it was just the sort of event that could spark a spiral of retaliatory attacks and make it harder to reduce t
Source: Catholic World News
June 13, 2007
At his weekly public audience on Wednesday, June 13, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) spoke about Eusebius of Caesarea, the bishop and scholar whose "Christocentric approach to history" enriched his accounts of the early Church.
Speaking to about 30,000 people in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father said that Eusebius lived in an era of change; his life spanned the time from the last persecutions of Christians by the Roman empire through the Council of Nicea, in which he was
Source: Inside Higher Ed
June 13, 2007
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and higher education as a whole have enjoyed a decidedly un-cozy relationship since the Vietnam War – a fact that many in academe have found to be just fine with them, thanks.
But if the FBI and higher education still aren’t the best of friends, they appear to be interacting a lot more. Reports this week about a nationwide FBI outreach program in which agents set up meetings with college leaders to discuss strategies for safeguarding academic rese
Source: PR Newswire
June 13, 2007
On June 28, 2007, Profiles in History lives up to its name and reputation as the nation's leading dealer of guaranteed-authentic original historical documents by presenting for auction two of the most rare and historic documents that have ever been made available for purchase. The first document is a proclamation signed on July 4, 1876 by President Ulysses S. Grant, his entire cabinet, all members of both Houses of Congress along with all members of the United States Supreme Court, commemorating
Source: BBC News
June 13, 2007
The Elizabethan map, dating back to about 1587, was found at the National Archives at Kew in London.
It was drawn by Ralph Treswell, a renowned surveyor and cartographer, who was among the first in England to produce scaled plans of estates.The document shows evidence of a 12th century church, a water mill and visitor or pilgrims' accommodation.
It also reveals the abbey drew water, not just from the nearby lake as previously thought, but fr
Source: The Independent
June 13, 2007
Five hundred pages of files kept by the Polish police on Lech Walesa when he was leader of the striking Gdansk shipyard workers in the early 1980s have just gone up on the internet. Walesa - who went on to become president of Poland - put them there himself to confound those who have spread rumours that he was a police informer in the old days before Communism collapsed in Poland in 1989.
"I got sick and tired of the constant accusations, doubts and insinuations being peddled b
Source: The Telegraph
June 13, 2007
Baroness Thatcher drew parallels between the Falklands conflict and British deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan today during an emotional broadcast to mark the 25th anniversary of the conflict.
In the radio message recorded for the British Forces Broadcasting Service, she said the battle to reclaim the Falkland Islands was a "just" cause.
She added that the struggle against "tyranny and violence" continued today, and that serving troops could draw &q
Source: The Telegraph
June 13, 2007
A Jewish peer has warned that anti-Semitism is at its worst level in Britain since he fled here from Germany in 1936. Lord Moser said he was particularly concerned about anti-Jewish feeling in Britain's universities.
Addressing a House of Lords debate on anti-Semitism on university campuses, the crossbench peer said: "It is just over 70 years since I came to this country and I have to say that I've never been more concerned about the rising tide of anti-Semitism throughout Euro
Source: The Boston Globe
June 13, 2007
It is called the Lodge, and for 105 years it has been the first stop for any school group, tourist, or history buff visiting the Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Entering the mausoleum-like structure at the base of the famous obelisk, visitors dutifully passed a marble statue of an imposing Revolutionary War general and three dioramas from the 1970s with tiny figurines doing battle on a faux-grass hill. Created as a majestic gateway, the Lodge had become a cramped, overheated choke point, wo
Source: 24 Hour Museum
June 13, 2007
Extensive archaeological remains of an old guard house dating to the Tudor and Jacobean periods have been uncovered at the Tower of London.
Staff were relaying a cobblestone path across Tower Green to conform with disability regulations when they found evidence of walls, which turned out to be the remains of a substantial building.“The work we were doing was resurfacing for compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act,” explained Jane Spooner, Histor
Source: Deutsche Welle
June 13, 2007
A controversial conference with former top level East German spies has been cancelled in Berlin. Organizer Thomas Wegener Friis said the event was to focus on the so-called HVA, the foreign intelligence branch of the secret police Stasi in the former East Germany (GDR)."Espionage was an important part of the Cold War and we need to understand foreign intelligence in order to understand this period in history," said Friis, an assistant professor at the Center for Co
Source: CBC
June 13, 2007
Veterans who claim a display at the Canadian War Museum makes them look like war criminals have misinterpreted it, but the panel should be changed anyway, says a Senate subcommittee on veterans affairs.The panel on the allied bombing raids in Germany during World War II titled Enduring Controversy questions the morality and value of the raids, which it says killed 600,000 Germans and left millions homeless while providing the allies with little strategic advantage.
Source: NYT
June 12, 2007
When President Bush goes to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to push for revival of a comprehensive immigration bill, he will have to wrestle with the ghost of a 1986 law that promised to solve the problem of illegal immigration.
That law prohibited the hiring of illegal immigrants, provided new resources for enforcement along the Mexican border and offered legal status, or amnesty, to several million illegal immigrants. In the current debate, which stalled last week when the latest legislat
