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: AP
December 20, 2006
Before the Freedom Riders came to Jackson, nine black students from Tougaloo College entered the city's segregated main library branch and began reading.
After refusing orders by the police chief to leave, the so-called Tougaloo Nine were arrested, charged and convicted of breaching the peace.
Their actions in March 1961 were among the first high-profile efforts to break down a stubborn, long-standing system of segregation in Mississippi.
After that, the
Source: Indo-Asian news service
December 20, 2006
AMRITSAR, INDIA, Dec 20 (IANS) The 18th century Gobindgarh Fort here, once home toGeneral Reginald Dyer who was responsible for the massacre of 2,000 Indians in Jalianwala Bagh, was Wednesday thrown open to the public by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The prime minister handed over the symbolic key of the fort, which was under the Indian Army since October 1948, to the state government, opening up the sprawling 50-acre complex to the public.
The fort was first bui
Source: LAT
December 20, 2006
Dick Cheney will be called to testify at the perjury and obstruction trial of his former chief of staff, in what would be a historic appearance by a vice president in a criminal prosecution, lawyers said Tuesday.
The decision by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's lawyers to call Cheney as a witness in the federal trial scheduled to begin here Jan. 16 ends months of speculation about the role senior White House officials would play.
It also sets the stage for a dramat
Source: Southern Maryland Online
December 19, 2006
Senator Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD) applauded the signing into law today of legislation that would create the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, which would become the first national “Watertrail” in the country. The legislation, which was spearheaded by Senators Paul S. Sarbanes (D-MD) and John Warner (R-VA) and Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis (VA) will trace the route of Captain John Smith’s two-year exploration of the Chesapeake Bay region almost 400 years ago.
In Apri
Source: BBC
December 19, 2006
Historically, Tony Blair has had a closer relationship with a US president than any British prime minister since the Thatcher-Reagan era and, before that, since Harold Macmillan persuaded John Kennedy to give Britain the Polaris nuclear missile. .
Every prime minister faces this problem. All live in the shadow of the great Churchill-Roosevelt duo. They have varied enormously in their response. This has not depended on their political outlook.
The Conservative Ted Heat
Source: Houston Chronicle
December 20, 2006
Robert G. Heft once sat patiently at an autograph signing in Dallas while hundreds of people flocked to NBA legend Michael Jordan to claim one of his $30 signatures.
Standing in Heft's 10-person line, a boy asked his father why they were waiting for the autograph of a man he'd never seen. The father replied that Heft — who designed America's 50-star flag — is a piece of history.
Although he'll grace the pages of history books one day for his accomplishment, Heft, 64, of
Source: Yahoo/AP
December 20, 2006
More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past.
"This is reality-check research," said the study's author, Lawrence Finer. "Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades."
Finer is a research director at the Guttmacher Insti
Source: LAT
December 20, 2006
The FBI agreed Tuesday to make public the final 10 documents about the surveillance of John Lennon that it had withheld for 25 years from a University of California, Irvine historian on the grounds that releasing them could cause "military retaliation against the United States."
Despite the fierce battle the government waged to keep the documents secret, the files contain information that is hardly shocking, just new details about Lennon's ties to New Left leaders and anti
Source: BBC
December 19, 2006
The last British serviceman to serve in both World War I and World War II has died aged 106.
Captain Kenneth Cummins served in the Royal Navy in WWI and in the Merchant Navy in WWII.
Until his death at home in Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire on 10 December, he was one of five WWI veterans living in the UK.
Dennis Goodwin, chairman of the WWI Veterans' Association, said: "Any death of a veteran of WWI means the end of a unique and special generation."
Source: Reuters
December 19, 2006
St. Charles streetcar rumbled and clanked through the Big Easy on Tuesday for the first time since Hurricane Katrina shut down the world's oldest continuously running line 16 months ago.
Operator Clarence Glover, with 25 years on the St. Charles line, pulled out the pine green car built in 1922 with his first post-Katrina passengers, including Mayor Ray Nagin.
"It feels great, like I've been away from home for a long time and now I'm back," said Glover, 54.
Source: Reuters
December 19, 2006
The palace of Nero, one of Rome's most popular tourist
sites, will partly reopen to the public in January after being closed for
more than a year for emergency repairs, officials said.
The Domus Aurea, or House of Gold, had attracted an average of 1,000
visitors every day until water leaks last December stoked fears that the
nearly 2,000-year-old palace might collapse.
Source: Breitbart
December 19, 2006
The United States Congress is considering voting in funds next
year to help Vietnam clean areas heavily contaminated by toxic
defoliant Agent Orange, a US official said in Hanoi."We are going to provide assistance to help clean up sites where dioxin
continues to pose serious health threats to people living there," said Tim
Rieser, aide to Democrat senator Patrick Leahy."We also want to look for ways to extend assistance to people with
disabilities," he told journalists in Hanoi.
Source: Reuters
December 19, 2006
Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is to have a
street, square or public space named after him in the district where he
lived during his 1973-1990 rule.
The local council of Las Condes in the Chilean capital Santiago approved a
proposal from the district's right-wing mayor Francisco de la Maza by a
6-2 vote, a council source told Reuters on Tuesday.
The council will now decide where to honor the dictator, who died on
December 10 aged 91.
Source: Tennessean
December 15, 2006
A battle over history and property is developing high up on a ridge in West Meade.
Gene Scott, who owns four acres in the west Nashville neighborhood, brought a bulldozer up to the ridge Dec. 8 and had the driver plow through a long stretch of a stone wall.
Scott, 76, said he owns the land where that section of the wall stood, and he eventually wants to sell it.
But some neighbors and historic preservationists are fuming. They say the 4-foot-high wall wasn'
Source: AFP at Yahoo News
December 17, 2006
Egypt announced the discovery of a carving dating back to the 12th century BC which could hold the key to valuable information on Karnak temple, the largest ancient religious site in the world.
The large quartzite stone, carved with 17 lines of hieroglyphics, highlights the achievements of high priest Bak En Khonso and his contributions to the grand hall at Karnak.
Source: http://www.payvand.com
December 18, 2006
A prehistoric site, almost twice bigger than the Burnt City, has been discovered near the city of Bam, most probably belonging to 5000-6000 years ago. The blade of a bronze axe and statuette of a cow made of burnt brick are among the discoveries in the area.
Source: http://www.clarionledger.com
December 18, 2006
The first round of grants in the federally funded Hurricane Relief Grant Program for Historic Preservation awarded more than $6.4 million to 57 applicants.
The grants, administered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, will be used to repair and restore historically significant publicly and privately owned structures that were hurricane damaged.
The largest is $1 million for the Old Hattiesburg High School. Among other significant awards was $400,000 fo
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 18, 2006
Japanese and Chinese experts will meet in Beijing next week to discuss how to bring their historical understandings more in line, officials said Monday.
Experts from both sides will have their first meeting Dec. 26-27 in Beijing, the Japanese government announced. Each side will have 10 experts on the panel.
The meeting is part of an effort to resolve conflicts between the two nations over the interpretation of Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China before an
Source: AFP at Yahoo News
December 18, 2006
Around 2.7 million visitors -- more than a million more than expected -- attended events and exhibitions in the Netherlands in 2006 marking the 400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt.
"On the cultural level, the Netherlands finds itself in the spotlight this year in a positive way," said Jan Michiel Hessels, head of the "Rembrandt 400" group, the Dutch ANP news agency reported Monday.
Exhibits featuring the work of the 17th century painter attra
Source: Times Online (UK)
December 19, 2006
Sixty-one years ago a U-boat slipped out of the Baltic port of Kiel, sent by Hitler on a secret voyage to Japan in a mission to avert Germany’s looming defeat.
U864 never reached her destination. She was sunk by the British in the only known case of one submarine destroying another while both were submerged. It is a remarkable tale of wartime derring-do — but one with a sting in the tail.
The wreck now lies, in two pieces, 152 metres (500ft) beneath North Sea waters o
