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: NYT
Oct 27, 2008
LANDORF, Germany — Seventy years ago next month, rioters wreaked havoc on their Jewish neighbors, destroying and burning thousands of synagogues, businesses and homes across the nation.
W. Michael Blumenthal, the former United States treasury secretary who now is the director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, was 12 then, but still has sharp memories of the night of Nov. 9, 1938. Looters destroyed his parents’ store in Berlin, and his father was among the 30,000 men from 16 to 60 roun
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Oct 27, 2008
Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the economic research institute Ifo, urged Germans not to search for "scapegoats" amid the current financial crisis, which he said was the result of "an anonymous system error."
Referring to the dire financial crisis of the 1930`s, which Hitler blamed on the Jews, he added;"At the time the search for scapegoats focused on the Jews; today it is the managers.
His comments immediately sparked an uproar. The secretary gen
Source: KOMO
Oct 27, 2008
Spend a few minutes talking with Jim Shipman and it's obvious that he is passionate about history.
So, when he retired five years ago he started to research Civil War veterans buried here at Evergreen Cemetery.
He easily points out markers for those who fought in the war, and other local historical figures such as Emma Yule, the first school principal in Everett.
Then a fellow researcher gave him a name: Rachel Wolfley.
"I had a name, I
Source: FoxNews.com
Oct 27, 2008
Barack Obama may be on the receiving end of some vicious attacks, according to his running mate — but he's in select company.
Speaking to 1,500 at Eastern Carolina University, Biden compared the negative campaign against Obama to those waged against great presidents from Jefferson to JFK.
"Let me share a little bit of history with you," said the Delaware senator. "The defenders of the status quo, have always tried to tear down those who would change our n
Source: AP
Oct 27, 2008
Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.
In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of th
Source: L.A. Times
Oct 27, 2008
A massive copper smelting plant in the biblical land of Edom is at least three centuries older than researchers previously believed, placing it firmly in the biblical timeline of King Solomon, the first ruler of a united Israel 3,000 years ago, researchers reported Monday.
The existence of Solomon has been questioned by some scholars over the last two decades because of the paucity of archaeological evidence supporting the biblical record and the belief that there were no complex so
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Oct 27, 2008
The horn-handled knife with a 4in blade has one side of the blade engraved with the signature of Himmler, and an engraved 'SS' device on the other.
It belonged to Himmler, who one of the most feared men in Nazi Germany, but was given away to his friend Herman Barth - who was responsible for the SS Education School in Berlin during the Second World War.
Barth once left the knife behind at the SS Headquarters after a hunting trip and Himmler returned it with a letter whic
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Oct 27, 2008
The correspondence to the young prince reflects the full gamut of parental emotions - including as certain amount anticipation and pride in his son but also considerable disappointment and anger at his profligacy, poor manners and ill-chosen company.
On joining the Prince George as a 13 year old midshipman in 1779, William is advised: "You are now launching into a scene of life where you either prove an Honour, or a Disgrace to your Family; it would be very unwelcoming of the
Source: Sky News
Oct 27, 2008
How could you resist voting for a Presidential candidate who has the slogan 'It's Time To Party Like It's 1773', and who in 2004 chose a 1970's porn star as his Vice Presidential pick?
Charles Jay of the Boston Tea Party (BTP) is a former boxing manager now punching way below his weight with another shot at the White House.
In 2004 he and Marilyn Chambers, star of epics such as 'Still Insatiable', were on the ballot in the state of Utah. This year he aims to triple his
Source: Bernard Cornwell in the Daily Mail (UK)
Oct 27, 2008
Legend says the Battle of Agincourt was won by stalwart English archers. It was not. In the end it was won by men using lead-weighted hammers, poleaxes, mauls and falcon-beaks, the ghastly paraphernalia of medieval hand-to-hand fighting. It was fought on a field knee-deep in mud and it was more of a massacre than a battle.
Laurence Olivier's film of Shakespeare's Henry V shows French knights charging on horseback, but very few men were mounted at Agincourt.
The French
Source: Bloomberg News
Oct 27, 2008
On the night of Nov. 4, either Barack Obama or John McCain will be celebrating his election as president. It may be a short party.
Whoever wins will come under intense, immediate pressure -- unmatched since Franklin D. Roosevelt's election in 1932 -- to begin participating in policy making over which he'll have no formal control for 2 1/2 months. Within days, the winner's economic advisers may be heading to the U.S. Treasury to help tackle the nation's worst financial crisis in more
Source: Time Mag.
Oct 27, 2008
TIME recently gathered four presidential historians--George Mason University's Richard Norton Smith, Yale University's Beverly Gage, and Russell Riley and David Coleman of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia--to discuss presidential temperament: what it is, who had it and how much it matters in the White House. An excerpt of their conversation:
Gage: What people are trying to get at when they use the word temperament is something along the lines of inst
Source: AFP
Oct 26, 2008
"Historic" might be the most overused word of the White House race, yet the spellbinding plot twists of 2008 have undeniably made this campaign one for the ages.
Conventional wisdom lies in tatters after a race which shattered glass ceilings of race and gender, obliterated fundraising records and stretched the electoral calendar to hitherto undreamed of lengths.
When voters write the final chapter of a compelling political year on November 4, either Barack Ob
Source: International Herald Tribune
Oct 26, 2008
"I haven't forgotten history," says Gert Heinz, a tax adviser in Munich. "If you depend on paper money you can lose everything. We've learned that the hard way after two world wars."
So when Chancellor Angela Merkel went on television recently to tell Germans that their bank accounts were safe, Heinz, who at 68 still remembers the rows of canned food that his mother hoarded in the attic, decided he would rather be safe than sorry.
He converted anothe
Source: Yahoo
Oct 26, 2008
A new study shows that humans had the ability to make fire nearly 790,000 years ago, a skill that helped them migrate from Africa to Europe.
By analyzing flints at an archaeological site on the bank of the river Jordan, researchers at Israel's Hebrew University discovered that early civilizations had learned to light fires, a turning point that allowed them to venture into unknown lands.
A previous study of the site published in 2004 showed that man had been able to con
Source: The Observer (UK)
Oct 26, 2008
On a chilly October night in 1964, the shipping forecast warned of fog on the Thames. Just after midnight, an East German freighter, the MV Magdeburg, slipped out of her Dagenham dock and headed slowly down river. On deck were 42 Leyland buses bound for Cuba.
Coming the other way was the Yamashiro Maru, a Japanese ship, sailing empty. The ships met at 1:52am. The Magdeburg was making the tight turn around Broadness Point when the Yamashiro Maru ploughed into her starboard side at mo
Source: National parks traveler Online
Oct 26, 2008
When Ellis Island became part of Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, its more than 30 buildings were in terrible condition. The north side's Main Building and some supporting buildings were restored by 1990, but that left 29 buildings on the south side and a major structure (the Baggage and Dormitory Building) on the north side still badly in need of restoration. Save Ellis Island, Inc. was formed in 2000 to work with the National Park Service, the State of New Jersey, and other partner
Source: NYT
Oct 25, 2008
JOE SITT received a degree in business at New York University in the 1980s, which helped him become a real estate powerhouse. But he also took courses in history, and that subject, he said, has had an influence on how he sees his work as a developer.
“One of my philosophies is that what ‘once was’ can be again,” he said.
In New York, where Mr. Sitt owns 11 waterfront acres of Coney Island, he is having a hard time proving the point. (His plans for hotels and condominium
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Oct 25, 2008
A TV show re-creating Adolf Hitler's favourite meal has come under fire from Jewish and political prisoner organisations.
In a programme for the Belgian series 'Plat Prefere', or 'Favourite Dish', cook Jeroen Meus goes to Hitler's haunts in southern Germany to prepare trout with butter sauce, 'a succulent festive meal'. It is due to be shown next week.
Criticism was led yesterday by Michael Freilich, the editor of Joods Actueel magazine, who said it was worrying that
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 25, 2008
'Don't even dare think about it – and don't dare say it out loud. But if it happens, pinch yourself." Those were the words of an African-American friend last week about the prospect of an Obama victory.
Still, Barack Obama has defied all efforts to slow the momentum of his campaign. When a family illness removed him to Hawaii, Michelle, his smart and sassy wife, effortlessly took over.
But this past week a new kind of headline has followed her: the question of her
