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: NBC
May 28, 2007
Born on his father's farm in Missouri in 1901 during the presidency of William McKinley, young Frank [Buckles] had a thirst for history. He was particularly interested in the exploits of Gen. John Joseph Pershing and tales from the Spanish-American War. When the war in Europe broke out, Buckles scoured the newspapers, trying to follow the action thousands of miles away. Lying about his age, he enlisted in the U.S. Army at 15. "If anybody asked how old I was, I told them it wasn't any of the
Source: NYT
May 28, 2007
Often the writing and photography that win Pulitzer Prizes require heroic efforts on the part of journalists. For one recipient this year, the process of receiving the award also took an enormous effort.
In 1979, a photographer stood nearby as executioners shot Kurdish prisoners in Sanandaj, Iran. A picture he took for an Iranian newspaper was picked up by United Press International and published worldwide. To protect the photographer, his name was not printed.
But the
Source: NYT
May 28, 2007
For a manuscript written 1,200 years ago and revered as a wonder of the Western world practically ever since, little is known about the Book of Kells and its splendidly illustrated Gospels in Latin. But the book may be about to surrender a few of its many secrets.
Experts at Trinity College in Dublin, where the Book of Kells has resided for the past 346 years, are allowing a two-year laser analysis of the treasure, which is one of Ireland’s great tourist draws.
The 21
Source: NYT
May 28, 2007
Conrad Joachim, a German immigrant, marched off to war from his home on Greenwich Street in Manhattan on May 13, 1862, enlisting as an assistant surgeon in the 15th New York Heavy Artillery. Charles Joachim, whom historians believe to be his son, had already joined the same unit.
Four months later, Conrad was dead; and in another year, so was Charles, at about the age of 20. They were buried in the same grave at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, beneath a marble headstone that is an
Source: AP
May 27, 2007
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Tour guides will show you this historic city on foot, trolley or double-decker bus, in a horse-drawn carriage, while riding a Segway or even as you blow a kazoo on a boat with wheels.
But can you believe what they say?
That's a concern of some Philadelphia hospitality officials, who worry the city's most valuable asset — its history — is being tarnished by unreliable tour guides who mix up dates and spice up biographies of famous founders like Benjam
Source: http://www.azzaman.com
May 26, 2007
A political faction has occupied the premises of Basra Museum which used to house thousands of archaeological relics.
The Basra Museum was looted shortly after U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003. The British troops who occupied Basra did nothing to protect the museum.
The museum’s collection of magnificent and priceless artifacts was stolen or broken and homeless families moved into its premises.
A statement by The Antiquities Department faxed to the
Source: AP
May 27, 2007
ROSKILDE, Denmark - On the skipper's command, deckhands haul in tarred ropes to lower the flax sail. Oars splash into the water. The crew, grimacing with strain, pull with steady strokes sending the sleek Viking longship gliding through the fjord.
A thousand years ago, the curved-prow warship might have spewed out hordes of bloodthirsty Norsemen ready to pillage and burn.
This time, the spoils are adventure rather than plunder.
The Sea Stallion of Glendalou
Source: NYT
May 26, 2007
wept into office in 2000 in Mexico’s first real democratic election, former President Vicente Fox is breaking ground again, this time on a library devoted to his often stormy tenure.
Mr. Fox, who left office last year, envisions the library and museum, rising from the dust on his family’s ranch here, as a scholarly refuge devoted to the study of his place in history. There will be an academic center dedicated to democratization across the world, a collection of Mr. Fox’s presidentia
Source: NYT
May 26, 2007
Democrats on a deeply divided Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday accused the Bush administration of ignoring preinvasion warnings from the nation’s spy agencies that a war in Iraq could be followed by violence and division and that it could strengthen the hands of Al Qaeda and of Iran.
“Sadly, the administration’s refusal to heed these dire warnings, and worse, to plan for them, has led to tragic consequences for which our nation is paying a terrible price,” said Senator John D
Source: Advertiser (Australia)
May 25, 2007
HUDDLED around a campfire in a community deemed unworthy of inclusion on Australia's official maps, Aboriginal elder Dick Brown reflects on a vote that ended the practice of counting his people among Australia's flora and fauna.
"We thought that it would change for the better,'' Brown says without rancour when asked about the 40th anniversary of a landmark vote that recognised Aborigines as full Australian citizens for the first time.
He is speaking from one of the
Source: WaPo
May 27, 2007
As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) campaigned across Iowa this weekend, she was asked about the war in Iraq, illegal immigration and even whether her husband, former president Bill Clinton, might serve as secretary of state if she makes it to the White House.
But at no time during events in Algona, Mason City, Charles City or Emmetsburg was she asked for her reaction to a pair of soon-to-be-released books that portray her and her husband in an unflattering light and that recoun
Source: WaPo
May 27, 2007
On May 15, acting on a request from council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), the D.C. Council voted to delete $500,000 in fiscal 2008 funding sought by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to support the programs of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. This unexpected and unfortunate action raises the question: Does D.C. history matter?For the answer, look no further than the response to the devastating fires at Eastern Market and the Georgetown public library. The peo
Source: WaPo
May 27, 2007
The single-engine Cessna aircraft, flying just 10 yards off the ground, buzzed Red Square three times as the pilot looked for a place to land. But too many people were on the square that May evening. So the plane pulled up and circled the Kremlin walls before setting down on the nearby Moskvoretsky Bridge and taxiing to St. Basil's Cathedral to park.
Twenty years ago, Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old dreamer from West Germany, pierced the Soviet Union's air defenses on what seemed like a
Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com
May 27, 2007
`The Island of Seven Cities,' written by the Toronto architect, has sparked a heated debate on whether the Chinese were the first foreigners to settle in Canada.
This book follows in the wake of Gavin Menzies' 1421 [reviewed in Taipei Times Jan. 19, 2003]. Whereas Menzies, together with many other claims, speculated that a Chinese fleet reached North America in that year, Paul Chiasson points to an actual Canadian site that, he believes, contains the remains of a Chinese settlement.
Source: Arizona Republic
May 25, 2007
A new U.S. history curriculum for Mesa Public Schools' fifth-graders has led to criticism from one teacher concerned about what the textbook is leaving out while perhaps shedding light on the growing pains of incorporating technology into classroom instruction.
When fifth-graders open their history book, History Alive! America's Past, this fall they may not find some notable events, or noteworthy people, you'd expect to be there.
"Give me liberty or give me death&
Source: http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews
May 24, 2007
The last time anyone from Alabama saw the flag of the 1st Alabama Infantry was when its own Confederate troops woke up for morning muster on a Mississippi River island off the Missouri shore on April 8, 1862.
In that day's surrender, Brig. Gen. Elazer Arthur Paine confiscated the 7-foot, red, white and blue banner as a trophy, and decades later, a Civil War historian would speculate only that the flag was still somewhere up North.
On Wednesday, Alabama got it back.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 27, 2007
A battle of the bells has broken out in Italy as churches face a wave of complaints from locals fed up with endless ringing.
The chimes that for centuries have marked the hours, half-hours and quarter-hours of Italian life are under threat from "noise pollution" orders now being enforced in several towns.
The complaints have alarmed officials at the powerful Italian Bishops Conference, who oversee the running of the nation's churches. They have hired lawyers t
Source: AP
May 27, 2007
The Riviera Courts motel [on Route 66] is crumbling away, and nobody seems to care....
Owners who inherited these historical footnotes have no use for them and would rather sell the properties to a developer if the price was right.
Today, many structures that made the road what it was -- the diners, family owned service stations, barbecue joints -- have fallen apart. With efforts to fix up these architectural landmarks scarce, time has become the road's worst enemy.
Source: WSJ
May 26, 2007
1. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway (Scribner, 1940).
2. "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon (1776-88).
3. "This Kind of War" by T.R. Fehrenbach (Macmillan, 1963).
4. "Hell in a Very Small Place" by Bernard B. Fall (Lippincott, 1966).
5. "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque (Little, Brown, 1929).
Source: NYT
May 20, 2007
Ossining IN the time it has taken for the proposed Sing Sing Historic Prison Museum to get off the drawing board, you could have served a sentence for a violent felony inside the prison’s walls. It has been more than a decade since the idea was first floated to build a museum inside this town’s most infamous institution.
Since then, there have been multiple market studies, grant applications, meetings, news releases and a foundation established to raise money for the proposed museum
