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: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 10, 2009
The son of Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, the commander of British forces on the Western Front in the First World War, died on Friday.
George Haig, the 2nd Earl Haig, passed away at Borders General Hospital in Melrose, the Royal British Legion Scotland announced.
His father was commander of the British forces at the Somme and Ypres and his role has made him one of the most controversial military figures of the last century. Earl Haig, who
Source: Times Online (UK)
Jul 10, 2009
Tomorrow marks 150 years since Big Ben first rang out across London.
The bell, which hangs in St Stephen’s Tower in the palace of Westminster, first struck the hour on July 11, 1859. It has continued to chime every 15 minutes since, with only occasional stoppages for repairs and bad weather.
To celebrate the anniversary the message “Happy Birthday Big Ben, 150 years, 1859 – 2009” will be projected onto the 96-metre tower, which is an icon on the London skyline.
Source: Foxnews
Jul 10, 2009
Watergate figure John Dean, who once spent eight years embroiled in a libel suit against a publishing house, is now threatening to sue a college history professor for posting audio tapes online that suggest the Nixon confidant-turned-government witness is covering up the details of his role in the most infamous political scandal in American history.
Dean, the former White House counsel whose damning testimony led to President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974, is continuing what c
Source: CNN
Jul 10, 2009
Authorities revealed more disturbing discoveries Friday at an Illinois cemetery where hundreds of burial plots were allegedly dug up and resold, including more emptied graves and the discarded casket of a civil rights icon.
Till, 14, was brutally killed in August 1955 in Mississippi after he reportedly whistled at a white woman. Despite the gruesome condition of his corpse, his mother insisted on a public funeral and open casket in an effort to draw attention to the ferocity of her
Source: CNN
Jul 10, 2009
Anita Davenport's curiosity about her family's past began with the
photographs that surrounded her. She said she wanted to know the
stories behind the images of her parents and uncles.
The stories she found -- and shared during several phone conversations
from her home in Culver City, California -- parallel the
African-American journey during the past century.
The search took her to 1894, when her grandfather, Walter, was born in
Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Source: AP
Jul 10, 2009
Iraq's U.S.-led invaders inflicted serious damage on Babylon, driving heavy machinery over sacred paths, bulldozing hilltops and digging trenches through one of the world's greatest archaeological sites, said experts for UNESCO.
"The use of Babylon as a military base was a grave encroachment on this internationally known archaeological site," said a report which the U.N. cultural agency presented Thursday in Paris.
UNESCO officials stressed that the damage did
Source: Dallas News
Jul 9, 2009
Civil rights leaders César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall – whose names appear on schools, libraries, streets and parks across the U.S. – are given too much attention in Texas social studies classes, conservatives advising the state on curriculum standards say.
"To have César Chávez listed next to Ben Franklin" – as in the current standards – "is ludicrous," wrote evangelical minister Peter Marshall, one of six experts advising the state as it develops new curricul
Source: Discovery.com
Jul 9, 2009
Nicolaus Copernicus, the father of modern astronomy, gazed at the sky through bright blue eyes, according to genetic research that has identified the scientist's remains.
Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research -- announced last November -- details the identification of the remains, while also suggesting that Copernicus most likely had blue eyes, fair skin and light hair color.
"This is the end of a search that has l
Source: Honolulu Advertiser
Jul 9, 2009
A Kaua'i landowner's decision to proceed with building a house on top of ancient Native Hawaiian burials calls into question the authority of the state to assure appropriate handling of such burials.
Not since the Honokahua cemetery was unearthed on Maui in 1987 has there been such concern about the legal protection of iwi kupuna, or ancestral bones, Native Hawaiian rights advocates say.
Source: EurekAlert
Jul 9, 2009
Where the first Americans came from, when they arrived and how they got here is as lively a debate as ever, only most of the research to date has focused on dry land excavations. But, last summer's pivotal underwater exploration in the Gulf of Mexico led by Mercyhurst College archaeologist Dr. James Adovasio yielded evidence of inundated terrestrial sites that may well have supported human occupation more than 12,000 years ago, and paved the way for another expedition this July.
As
Source: Copenhagen Post
Jul 9, 2009
There was a sensational find when Århus archaeology students uncovered the bones of around 200 bodies dating from the Iron Age
What was supposed to be a simple three week long research exercise for archaeology students at the University of Aarhus developed into a unique excavation project.
Remains of more than 200 bodies have been found at the dig site near Skanderborg in Jutland dating from around 2,000 years ago.
The Illerup River Valley was a deep lake measuri
Source: BBC
Jul 9, 2009
American troops and contractors caused substantial damage to the archaelogical site at Babylon in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, a new UN report says.
The report says key structures were harmed and the site was subjected to "digging, cutting and levelling".
But UN cultural officials stress the damage did not begin when the Americans arrived, or end when they left.
The US says looting while Babylon was under their control would have been worse had
Source: NYT
Jul 9, 2009
Two economists with longstanding ties to the Federal Reserve warned Congress on Thursday that it would be a mistake to make the Fed a super-regulator in charge of reining in “systemic risk” and financial institutions considered “too big to fail.”
In what is shaping up as a political battle over a crucial part of President Obama’s plan to overhaul financial regulation, the economists told a House panel that the Fed had consistently failed to recognize financial catastrophes until th
Source: NYT
Jul 9, 2009
The so-called enfants de Boches — roughly, children of the Huns — born during the war to French women and German soldiers, are seeking to fill a hole in their lives, hunting for long-lost German fathers they never knew and speaking openly of the maltreatment they suffered from their French neighbors. It is estimated that 200,000 children were born of these wartime love affairs.
Photos of the time depict young women, their heads shorn in shame, being hounded through villages, clutchi
Source: Swiss Info
Jul 9, 2009
Archaeologists from Geneva University have discovered what they claim is Africa's oldest ceramic, dated at around 9,400BC, in eastern Mali.
"It's a tiny, ornate fragment that was made with great skill and the use of fire," said ethno-archaeologist Anne Mayor in Bamako, the Malian capital.
Source: Deutsche Welle
Jul 9, 2009
"We consider unacceptable the fact that in the OSCE's parliamentary assembly resolution there is an attempt to distort history with political goals," said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko on Thursday. "This does not contribute to creating an atmosphere of trust and cooperation between the member states of this body," he added.
Earlier this week lawmakers from Russia's two chambers of parliament said in a statement that the OSCE resolution was
Source: AP
Jul 9, 2009
The Dutch government has turned over dozens of antiquities stolen from
Iraq to Baghdad's ambassador.
The 69 pieces include cylindrical stone seals older than 2000 B.C. and a terra-cotta relief
depicting a bearded man praying.
Dutch Education, Culture and Science Minister Ronald Plasterk said Thursday the ancient artifacts
were surrendered by Dutch traders after police informed them they were stolen.
Source: http://www.gazette.net (Maryland)
Jul 9, 2009
If local history buff Dick Charlton wants to retrace the steps of American Marines who shot at invading British forces in the Battle of Bladensburg during the War of 1812, he has to drive up a busy road surrounded by tire shops and fast food restaurants.
"Most are not aware of it all," Chartlon, 77, of Beltsville, said of the battlefield.
"It's almost a forgotten war, and it's one that we won," he added. "It was a foreign country on our territor
Source: Spiegel Online
Jul 9, 2009
Tens of thousands of former Stasi employees are still working for the German civil service, a respected newspaper has revealed. Experts say that background checks on civil servants were often cursory, while civil rights activists are calling for the ex-secret police to be dismissed.
The issue of former members of the East German secret police, the Stasi, occupying positions in German public life has long been a hot topic in post-Cold War Germany. Now it turns out that the civil serv
Source: Politico.com
Jul 9, 2009
Presiding over a store opening as the youthful Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton sees a greeting card he likes, slips it in his pocket and saunters out.
It’s one of the glimpses of Arkansas history overflowing from a trove of 26,000 videocassettes that the Allbritton family — owner of KATV Channel 7, the ABC station in Little Rock — donated Wednesday to the University of Arkansas.
About 200 people, including the entire Arkansas congressional delegation, turned out Wednesd
