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: New Orleans Times-Picayune
April 29, 2007
Hurricane Katrina may have largely spared the French Quarter, but the catastrophic storm is destined to be memorialized there in powerful detail in a major exhibition the Louisiana State Museum plans to open next year in the historic Presbytere on Jackson Square.
Artifacts -- everything from a blue tarp to a Coast Guard helicopter rescue basket to Fats Domino's flood-damaged piano -- will tell some of the story. In addition to photographs and audio-visual presentations, the museum a
Source: Times (of London)
April 30, 2007
PORTSMOUTH, England -- Rare photographs that show African slaves being freed by the Royal Navy have gone on display for the first time, as part of an exhibition to mark the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade.
The photographs, which are being shown at the Royal Naval Museum, show a sailor removing a manacle from a slave, as well as Marines with slave traders, in about 1907. They were donated by Samuel Chidwick, 74, of Dover, whose father, Able Seaman Joseph Chidwick, too
Source: Telegraph
April 30, 2007
It has been captured in song, celebrated in literature and attracts 250,000 visitors a year but, despite all that, this week the Scottish island of Skye will officially disappear.
Highland Council has decided that the island, immortalised in the Skye Boat Song about Bonnie Prince Charlie's flight, should drop its "Anglicised slave name" in favour of its Gaelic nickname, Eilean a' Cheo.
The new name, which means Island of Mist and is pronounced "ellan-uh-c
Source: Canadian Press
April 28, 2007
MONTREAL -- They were created by North American aboriginals, ended up in the collections of kings and aristocrats in France, and are now returning to this side of the Atlantic to be put on display at Montreal's Pointe-a-Calliere museum.
Horned headdresses, painted bags with porcupine quill fringes, shell necklaces and fish-skin quivers are among the items in "First Nations, French Royal Collections."
The exhibition, which runs June 5 to Oct. 14, features 85 ar
Source: Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News/PennLive
April 29, 2007
FREDERICKSBURG, Pa. -- Stefan Wentling said most people know what it means to be made a scapegoat, but he wonders how many know the term comes from the Bible.
The term comes from the book of Leviticus, where it refers to a goat that was to bear the sins of the children of Israel into the wilderness.
He aims to share such knowledge with Northern Lebanon High School students in his proposed course, "Bible in History and Literature," which he hopes to teach next
Source: Lisa Gray, Houston Chronicle
April 29, 2007
In Houston, money has always mattered more than history. So it came as a surprise last summer that the city showed a sudden interest in its past, and in the special places that show its imprint.
Too many of them are already gone. The Shamrock Hotel made mythic by Giant? Leveled to make way for a parking lot. The Fourth Ward that gave us Lightnin' Hopkins and Arnett Cobb? Buried under Midtown, with "historic district" signs denoting nothing much but irony. The 1930s Jeff Da
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
April 29, 2007
PHNOM PENH -- The first time Prum Son married her husband, in August 1977, she was not a willing bride. But she knew that refusal would mean her execution.
The five-minute ceremony was held late at night, without notice, after a day of backbreaking work digging irrigation canals, followed by a routine, hours-long indoctrination session at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
With 21 of her female friends, all in soiled work clothes, she was summoned to a bare room lit by a sin
Source: Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
April 29, 2007
LAS VEGAS —- Probably the most overlooked tourist site in Las Vegas is also its lowliest in terms of glamor, glitz, size and neon. However, the Old Las Vegas-Mormon Fort State Historic Park is worth a visit for a priceless lesson in pioneer history and as a contrast to the modern Las Vegas.
Located on the extreme north end of Las Vegas Boulevard, at Washington Avenue —- in downtown Las Vegas —- this is where the settlement of Vegas began. If you blink, you might miss this corner of
Source: New York Times
April 29, 2007
Among the things New York City does exceedingly well is erase its own past, even the more durable parts, like the old Pennsylvania Station or the Third Avenue El. So when it comes to a more fleeting kind of history, a lot of imagination is necessary to pay homage.
Standing in front of an expensive-looking apartment loft building in TriBeCa the other day, Ethan Andrews, who works for the public-art organization Creative Time, was trying to conjure up the late 1970s, when the building
Source: DPA (German Press Agency)
April 28, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a series of apologies this week over the use of Asian women as sex slaves during World War II, but that has not stopped US lawmakers from complaining that he has not gone far enough to acknowledge his country's responsibility...
Source: Andrew Hoyem, Los Angeles Times
April 28, 2007
Andrew Hoyem is the publisher of Arion Press in San Francisco, specializing in limited-edition books.
We love to celebrate anniversaries. Two years ago, it was the centenary of the theory of relativity, and Albert Einstein was the honoree. Last year it was Samuel Beckett's 100th birthday, and performances of "Waiting for Godot" abounded. In 2007, it's the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's novel "On the Road" — and the 50th anniversary of a typeface called
Source: Times (of London)
April 29, 2007
The Queen is being urged to apologise for the slaughter of American Indians and the introduction of slavery when she visits Virginia this week as guest of honour to mark the 400th anniversary of the first English settlement in the New World at Jamestown.
She will be landing in the middle of a row over political correctness after officials in Virginia banned the use of the word “celebration” for the anniversary. It is being called a “commemoration” out of respect for the suffering of
Source: BBC News
April 29, 2007
A half-sized replica of the biblical Noah's Ark has been built by a Dutch man, complete with model animals.
Dutch creationist Johan Huibers built the ark as testament to his literal belief in the Bible.
The ark, in the town of Schagen, is 150 cubits [225 feet] long -- half the length of Noah's -- and three storeys high...
Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras and bison are included in the ark's interior.
The Bible's
Source: UPI
April 29, 2007
CINCINNATI -- Only one monument in the United States solely honors the 4,000 dogs that served in the Vietnam War.
The Vietnam Dogs of War monument, which stands in the shadow of a retired helicopter in Cincinnati's Veteran's Memorial Park, has gained attention as a result of the Cincinnati Enquirer's effort to put together a list of all war monuments in the area in time for Memorial Day.
The monument, bearing the silhouette of a German shepherd, honors the 4,000 dogs th
Source: AP
April 29, 2007
SAND CREEK MASSACRE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, Colo. —- More than 142 years after a band of state militia volunteers massacred 160 Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians in a misdirected act of vengeance, a memorial was officially dedicated Saturday.
The [site,] 160 miles southeast of Denver on Big Sandy Creek in Kiowa County, pays tribute to those killed in the attack of Nov. 29, 1864.
Seeking revenge for the killings of several settlers by Indians, 700 volunteers who had
Source: AP
April 29, 2007
CAIRO -- Egypt said Sunday it would seek the temporary return of some of its most precious artifacts from museums abroad, including the Rosetta Stone and a bust of Nefertiti.
The country's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, said the Foreign Ministry would send letters this week to France, Germany, the United States and Great Britain requesting that the ancient artifacts be loaned to Egypt.
Hawass has previously demanded the permanent return of many of the artifacts, clai
Source: AFP
April 29, 2007
TALLINN, Estonia -- The Estonian government has speeded up plans to rehouse a Soviet-era war memorial in a bid to defuse tensions over its removal that erupted into deadly riots, officials said Sunday.
"The Estonian government will begin preparatory works today (Sunday) at the military cemetery in central Tallinn to relocate the Bronze Soldier," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The 2.5-metre (eight-feet) high statue was removed early Friday from the s
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
April 28, 2007
LONDON -- Tasmanian Aborigines are preparing to take on Britain's two most famous universities and a national museum as they continue a fight to bring their ancestors' remains home for burial.
Representatives of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, Greg Brown and Caroline Spotswood, arrived in London yesterday to mediate with the Natural History Museum in London, to stop it scientifically testing the remains of 13 Tasmanian Aborigines before they are returned to Tasmania after 200 years
Source: Detroit Free Press
April 27, 2007
The Tuskegee Airmen, the World War II soldiers whose heroics have gone largely unheralded for more than 60 years, revealed to the Free Press on Thursday plans for a $32-million national museum in Detroit, to be built with corporation donations and the unique strategy of asking every African American for an $8 contribution.
The campaign will involve a marketing blitz next year that will spread the word through public service announcements on radio stations, notices in black publicati
Source: Washington Post
April 27, 2007
No trip to Jamestown would be complete without a visit to the actual remains of the original James Fort, located on a 1,500-acre island park adjacent to the Jamestown Settlement reconstruction. Now partially swamped by the James River at one corner, the vestiges of the triangular fort are the heart of Historic Jamestowne, which has more to set it apart from its neighbor than the addition of an old-timey "e."
Jointly administered by the National Park Service and the Associa
