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: Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch
May 14, 2007
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Dana Gadeken, 17, hand-decorated about 20 of the more than 1,000 luminarias that were lined up in neat rows on the vacant lot at the corner of South Washington and Church streets.
The luminarias -- brown lunch bags containing small tea lights held in place in a bed of sand -- were set out Saturday for each man, woman and child believed to have been buried on the grounds, rediscovered in the 1990s as a cemetery.
Those buried there, historians say, were
Source: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK) at Science Daily
May 15, 2007
...Our understanding of what life was like in bygone eras could be boosted, thanks to a new initiative aiming to depict more accurately and realistically how heritage sites may have looked in their heyday.
Computer scientists and cultural heritage researchers are assessing whether today's increasingly sophisticated 3D computer technology can be combined with the most recent historical evidence to produce significantly improved visual reconstructions of churches, palaces and other an
Source: National Geographic News
May 15, 2007
The discovery of a major prehistoric site where experts believe an open-air royal temple once stood has stalled construction of a controversial four-lane highway in Ireland.A large circular enclosure estimated to be at least 2,000 years old was exposed at Lismullin in County Meath, by road-builders working on a 37-mile-long (60-kilometer-long) road northwest of Dublin...just 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) from the Hill of Tara, once the seat of power of Ireland's Celtic kings...
Source: AP
May 14, 2007
SHARPSBURG, Md. -- Buried beneath a sun-dappled corn field in western Maryland lies detritus from the millions of rounds fired during the battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American history.
For an archaeology team from the National Park Service that surveyed a part of the field with metal detectors recently, every spent round they unearth tells a story _ a story of the men who died there and of the ebb and flow of the two vast armies that tore at each other on Sept. 17
Source: Christian Science Monitor
May 11, 2007
LONDON -- On a balmy Friday morning a decade ago, Britain's last and youngest prime minister of the 20th century emerged bleary-eyed into the spring sunshine and promised the country a different society: fair, modern, progressive –- less cynical and divisive. The tune from an all-night victory party still resounded: Things can only get better.
On Thursday, 10 years and eight days from that heady May morning, Tony Blair finally resigned as Labour Party leader, setting his departure f
Source: LiveScience
May 14, 2007
No man is an island, but it turns out all Alexander the Great needed to take over an entire island was a little help from Mother Nature.
A half-mile-long spit of sand once linked the ancient Lebanese island of Tyre to the mainland, according to a new study of the area's geological history. Alexander used the natural sandbar to build a causeway, allowing his army to overwhelm the island stronghold during a siege in 332 BC.Alexander's conquest of Tyre has long bee
Source: DPA (German Press Agency)
May 14, 2007
NEW YORK -- United Nations information officers will be given lessons this week on the history of the Holocaust, it was announced Monday, continuing a trend by the world organization to recognize the mass murder of Jews during World War II.
Employees of the UN's public information department on Monday began a week-long program of discussion with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington under a program known as "Holocaust and UN outreach program."
The s
Source: DPA (German Press Agency)
May 14, 2007
STOCKHOLM -- Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are to visit Sweden between May 21 and 24 as part of the 300th anniversary celebrations of the birth of Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus.
In March, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia made a state visit to Japan and met with the emperor and empress.
Uppsala county governor Anders Bjorck, chairman of the National Linnaeus Commission who also visited Japan, recently told Deutsche Presse-Agentur tha
Source: Hampton Roads (Va.) Daily Press
May 13, 2007
PETERSBURG, Va. -- Twenty-two historic railings that surrounded the Pennsylvania Monument [at Petersburg National Battlefield] were stolen late last week. The railings, which are made of bronze, measure seven to eight feet in length and three to four inches in diameter.
Source: NASA press release
May 14, 2007
WACO, Texas -- On May 21, Charles Lindbergh's grandson Erik will help NASA dedicate a special 747 astronomy aircraft to the trailblazing aviator. May 21 is the 80th anniversary of Lindbergh's historic solo New York-to-Paris flight...
The unique Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, incorporates a 98.4-inch infrared telescope mounted in a highly modified Boeing 747SP aircraft. The airborne observatory is a partnership between NASA and the German Aerospace Center
Source: AP
May 14, 2007
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- This city almost erected a billboard outside Jamestown, Va., to congratulate it on its 400th birthday -- and remind everyone St. Augustine passed that milestone four decades ago.
It would have said, ''Happy birthday to our younger brother,'' former Mayor George Gardner said.
Jamestown is celebrating the anniversary of its founding on May 14, 1607, making it the oldest English settlement in the nation. Queen Elizabeth paid a visit, greeted by Vice
Source: International Herald Tribune
May 14, 2007
NEW YORK -- Anyone who watched Rudolph Giuliani preside over ground zero in the days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, glimpsed elements of his strength -- decisiveness, determination, self-confidence.
Those qualities were also on display over the months he directed the cleanup of the collapsed World Trade Center. But today, with evidence that thousands of people who worked at ground zero have become sick, many regard Giuliani's triumph of leadership as New York's mayor
Source: Discovery News
May 14, 2007
The earliest known dental prosthesis from ancient Rome may not have been very functional, but it gave its wealthy wearer a million dollar smile.The gleaming grin resulted from multi-karat gold wire, which was used to string together "artificial teeth," according to the team of Italian researchers who analyzed the ancient bridgework.
They found the object, which dates from the 1st to the 2nd century A.D., in the mouth of an unidentified woman who was bu
Source: AP
May 14, 2007
MOSCOW -- Russian and foreign preservationists expressed alarm Monday at the destruction of Moscow's historic and architecturally significant buildings as the Russian capital undergoes massive development fueled by the country's economic boom.
''We have come into the phase of continual and daily changing of the city environment,'' Marina Khurstaleva of the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society told a news conference. ''It's really a very critical situation.''
A repor
Source: AP
May 14, 2007
ST. AUGUSTINE - This city almost erected a billboard outside Jamestown, Va., to congratulate it on its 400th birthday - and remind everyone St. Augustine passed that milestone four decades ago.
It would have said, "Happy birthday to our younger brother,'' former Mayor George Gardner said.
Jamestown is celebrating the anniversary of its founding on May 14, 1607, making it the oldest English settlement in the nation. Queen Elizabeth paid a visit, greeted by Vice Pres
Source: Independent (UK)
May 12, 2007
For 44 years, the assassination of John F Kennedy has been the favourite subject of bar stool commentators, private investigators and, latterly, internet conspiracy theorists.
But a book out this week threatens to torpedo the most popular parlour game of them all by providing the definitive proof that Lee Harvey Oswald killed the 35th president with no help from anyone else.Vincent Bugliosi, one of America's leading prosecutors, has spent 21 years writing the 1,
Source: Focus Information Agency
May 13, 2007
SOFIA -- “A large share of the Bulgarians know about their historical heroes”, director of the National Museum of History, Prof. Bozhidar Dimitrov told Focus News Agency. He was asked to comment on the words of EU Commissioner Meglena Kuneva, who expressed her concern over the fact that Bulgarian children don’t know who Gotse Delchev is.
“Meglena Kuneva was just unlucky to meet children who don’t know about historical heroes. Still, I’m shocked that there are children from the town
Source: Washington Times
May 14, 2007
Kurdish authorities have removed hundreds of families, cleaned up their trash and have begun development in an ancient citadel, which they say is the site of the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the world.
Their plans -- to establish a cultural centerpiece in northern Iraq that will attract tourists and archaeologists from around the globe -- extend well beyond the fortress itself.
Source: Times (of London)
May 14, 2007
A historic diary written by a prominent Jacobite as he plotted the 1715 rebellion has been severely damaged while in the care of the British Library, The Times has learnt.
Its private owner, a descendant of Thomas Tyldesley, the diary’s author, has described how he “wanted to weep” when he collected the 96-page manuscript last week and discovered that someone had spilt oil across its pages –- staining them and making some of them completely illegible. Its original leather front cove
Source: Times (of London)
May 14, 2007
They were unnamed and forgotten: soldiers who gave their lives for their country but whose last resting place could not be identified.
But for one man’s vision 90 years ago, 1,700,000 dead or missing soldiers from both world wars would have faded into history with nothing to mark their sacrifice.
Major-General Sir Fabian Ware was the driving force behind the establishment of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which is about to celebrate its 90th anniversary. It rec
