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
June 6, 2011
World War II veterans and Sen. John Kerry commemorated the D-Day landings in Normandy at an iconic and eroding cliff, one of several events along the coast Monday marking 67 years since Allied forces landed on a swath of beaches in Nazi-occupied France. The June, 6, 1944, invasion and ensuing battle for Normandy helped change the course of the war....
Source: AP
May 31, 2011
A team of Egyptian and European archaeologists has unearthed a statue of the ancient Egyptian king Amenhotep III at his funerary temple in Luxor.The 2.5-meter alabaster head of the 18th dynastic king remains intact, Zahi Hawass, antiquities minister, said in a statement Tuesday. Amenhotep III ruled from 1390-1352 B.C.Hawass described the statue’s face as a masterpiece of royal portraiture. It has almond shaped eyes outlined with cosmetic bands, a short nose and a large mouth with wide lips....
Source: Livescience
May 31, 2011
Incan fortresses built some 500 years ago have been discovered along an extinct volcano in northern Ecuador, revealing evidence of a war fought by the Inca just before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Andes."We're seeing evidence for a pre-Columbian frontier, or borderline, that we think existed between Inca fortresses and Ecuadorian people's fortresses," project director Samuel Connell, of Foothill College in California, told LiveScience.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
June 6, 2011
Sixty-seven years ago, American soldier Walter Ehlers landed on a Normandy beach in France, leading a squad of 12 men on D-Day who had no battle experience and had spent their Army tours entertaining the troops.Ehlers's squad scrambled up the beach under heavy fire, and all his men survived that historic turning point of June 6, 1944.
Source: B92 (Serbia)
June 6, 2011
A WW2 Croatian Catholic archbishop and cardinal, put on trial by the post-war Yugoslav authorities, was praised by Pope Benedict XVI.Alojzije Stepinac was found guilty by the communist authorities of Yugoslavia for collaboration with the Ustasha regime of the pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia (NDH).
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 6, 2011
It is rare for a surveyor’s report not to pick at least a few holes in whatever property you are buying. That said, even the most gimlet-eyed inspector would find it hard to question the structural soundness of the building Trevor Lethbridge and Derek Brooking are selling.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
June 6, 2011
Supporters of Sarah Palin have attempted to edit the Wikipedia page on Paul Revere, the War of Independence hero, after glaring historical errors the White House hopeful made during her tour to Boston last week.Changes they made to an entry on Wikipedia were deleted after an uproar among contributors to and editors of the online encyclopedia.The former vice-presidential candidate's original gaffe came towards the end of a tour of historical monuments that was designed to boost her profile as a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate.
Source: LA Times
June 6, 2011
Was Pablo Neruda poisoned?A judge in Chile has opened an investigation into the death four decades ago of the Nobel Prize-winning poet in response to allegations by his former driver that Neruda was poisoned by agents acting for Gen. Agustin Pinochet. The general led the military junta and coup that toppled President Salvador Allende in September 1973.
Source: CNN
June 6, 2011
On June 6th, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops poured onto the heavily fortified beaches of Normandy, France, in one of the most decisive battles of World War II. The D-Day invasion marked a beginning of the end of the war and the defeat of the Nazi regime in Europe. This particular operation was at a high cost to the Allied forces, with nearly 10,000 troops killed or wounded. Today marks the 67th anniversary of that pivotal operation.
Source: BBC News
June 3, 2011
Jack Kevorkian, the man known as "Dr Death", for helping the terminally ill end their lives, has died in the US aged of 83, his lawyer has said.Mayer Morganroth told the Associated Press news agency Kevorkian died on Friday at Michigan's Beaumont Hospital.Kevorkian died after a blood clot from his leg broke free and lodged in his heart, the Detroit Free Press reported.He was believed to have assisted in 130 suicides and was released from prison in 2007, after serving eight years....
Source: BBC News
June 6, 2011
Carl Gustav Jung died 50 years ago today. Alongside Sigmund Freud, he is arguably one of the two people of the 20th century who most shaped the way we think about who we are. But what would he make of the 21st century so far, asks Mark Vernon.Have you ever discussed whether you were introverted or extroverted? Undergone a personality test on a training course? Wondered what lurks in the shadow side of your character? Carl Jung is the person to thank.
Source: Indianapolis Star
June 6, 2011
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- In later years, they were dubbed the Greatest Generation, but on June 6, 1944, they were merely young soldiers, sailors and airmen carrying out their duties.They made their way across the choppy waters of the English Channel, each one weighted down with an impossible load of weapons and provisions, to face a battle-hardened army of German soldiers.They clambered out of landing ships, some of them sinking under the weight of their backpacks, crawled onto the beaches and scaled the cliffs, all the while facing a constant barrage of enemy fire.
Source: Huffington Post
June 3, 2011
Smurf Village or Hitler's Berlin? Same thing, posits one new book.French sociologist and author Antoine Buéno asserts in "Le Petit Livre Bleu," or, "The Little Blue Book," that the seemingly friendly little blue creatures living a mostly idyllic existence are actually packed with racial propaganda and are, "the embodiment of a totalitarian utopia, steeped in Stalinism and Nazism".
Source: WaPo
June 2, 2011
The Republican Party once had a home for the thinking of Tom Coburn, Mike Crapo and Saxby Chambliss. But that party is long gone.The three U.S. senators banded together a few months ago in support of higher tax revenue as a means of balancing the federal budget. Even with drastic spending cuts, they concluded, Washington could not vanquish its soaring $14.3 trillion debt without additional income.
Source: LA Times
June 5, 2011
The U.S. has a tradition of being suspicious, and the Internet is feeding that skepticism. As of late, there are tales spinning about Osama bin Laden and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Osama bin Laden is alive and well.
Source: 6-5-11
BBC
About 25,000 Sikhs from across the UK attended a rally in Trafalgar Square to mark an attack on their holiest shrine in India, organisers have said.
Earlier Sikhs marched from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square to commemorate the 1984 attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, north India.
Indian armed forces stormed the holiest Sikh shrine 27 years ago to flush out militants from the temple premises.
Sikh leaders called for the right to self-determination at the rally.
The Sikh Federation UK, which organised the event
Source: CNN
June 3, 2011
When the last emperor of China fled Beijing's Forbidden City in 1924, the doors closed on one of its greatest treasures: the Qianlong Garden.
A secluded compound of pavilions and gardens built in the 1770s for the retirement of the Qianlong Emperor, it housed some of the most extravagant interiors found anywhere in the imperial palace complex.
As other areas were opened up to tourists, the garden remained mothballed for almost 100 years, its exquisite design and decorative treasures staying relatively unaltered since the 18th century.
Now some of those treasures are
Source: NYT
June 4, 2011
Sarah Palin defended her historical account of Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride of 1775 on Sunday, telling an interviewer “I know my American history.”Ms. Palin, the onetime Republican vice-presidential nominee and maybe, possibly a candidate for president in 2012, drew guffaws and head scratches last week when she made an appearance in Boston and described Paul Revere’s ride this way:
Source: LA Times
June 5, 2011
The name "Shep Mallory" carved in the brick on the side of St. John's Church is understated, but it is believed to point to a momentous act that changed the course of American history.
Source: CNN
June 5, 2011
NFL legend Mike Ditka was giving a news conference one day after being fired as the coach of the Chicago Bears when he decided to quote the Bible.
“Scripture tells you that all things shall pass,” a choked-up Ditka said after leading his team to only five wins during the previous season. “This, too, shall pass.”
Ditka fumbled his biblical citation, though. The phrase “This, too, shall pass” doesn’t appear in the Bible.
