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 23, 2008
But the sculpture was created around 1,800 years before 'The King' ever crooned his first song.
The Roman ornament, called an acroterion, is carved in marble on the corner of a sarcophagus dating from the second century AD.
It is among a collection of ancient art owned by the Melbourne-based dealer Graham Geddes, which is estimated to sell for more than £1m.
Mr Geddes' collection, which includes more than 50 classical Greek vases and 30 pieces of marble scu
Source: China Daily
Jul 22, 2008
DALI, Yunnan -- More than 2,000 wooden poles recently unearthed at a site in Jianchuan county, have been found to be more than 3,000 years old.
The poles, still standing, were dug 4.5 m into the ground.
Archaeologists said carbon tests showed the poles were from the Neolithic age, and were probably the foundations for a structure built by a community that existed at the time in southwest China.
Source: BBC
Jul 22, 2008
An 81-year-old former conscript has been awarded a history degree after
studying events he lived first-hand.
Robert Benjamin has graduated from the University of Manchester alongside
classmates up to 60 years younger.
Mr Benjamin was a former Bevin Boy - a group of young men chosen to work
in coal mines during World War II.
He was even interviewed by a fellow student for a dissertation on the
conscripts, who were named after politician Ernest Bevin.
The Bevin Boys
Source: AP
Jul 22, 2008
Charles T. Payne had his first close brush with history at the
end of World War II, when his infantry division liberated Ohrdruf, a
subcamp of the Nazis' Buchenwald concentration camp.
Now 83, Payne is experiencing a second brush as the great-uncle of
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Payne spoke to The Associated Press Tuesday as Obama, on the other side of
the world, prepared to visit the Yad Vashem national Holocaust memorial in
Jerusalem.
In May, Obama
Source: Reuters
Jul 22, 2008
The 1960s may be history, but in American politics that tumultuous decade of social upheaval never gets old.
The presidential race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain already has dredged up some of the decade's most lasting symbols -- from the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War to violent radical groups and Woodstock.
The cultural clashes fostered by the social strife of the '60s have played a role in virtually every U.S. presidential race si
Source: National Security Archive
Jul 22, 2008
Washington D.C., July 22, 2008 - After hearing arguments today, a federal court in New York decided that the government must release most of the sealed grand jury records from the 1951 indictment of alleged Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. In response to a petition filed by the National Security Archive and others, the government conceded in a June filing that the Rosenberg case is of “significant historical importance” and therefore said it would not contest the release of testimony of
Source: NYT
Jul 22, 2008
The observance lasted but a few minutes. For that brief ritual, the visitors had traveled nearly 7,000 miles — from Shimoda, Japan, to Brooklyn, U.S.A. It might seem a long way to go to lay flowers on the grave of someone who has been dead these last 130 years. Not if you’re from Shimoda, though. Not if the grave is that of a New Yorker named Townsend Harris.
Many of you may now be wondering, Townsend Who?...
But in Shimoda, on the Izu Peninsula about 85 miles southwest
Source: NYT
Jul 22, 2008
A New Jersey paralegal with a longstanding interest in government corruption filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department and the F.B.I. on Monday, seeking the release of the full case file on a murderous Brooklyn Mafia informant — papers she believes may shed light on the possible involvement of a dead New Orleans crime boss in the killing of President John F. Kennedy.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington by the paralegal, Angela Clemente, asks the Federal B
Source: History Today
Jul 22, 2008
A ten-year project to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution is to be launched this week. A major new study of Russia’s involvement in the First World War and 1917 Revolution will be announced at a symposium at the University of Aberdeen from July 22nd-24th. Experts from across the world will agree to publish at least six new books by 2017, covering the military struggle, international relations, the home front and culture. Dr Tony Heywood, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the
Source: BBC
Jul 22, 2008
The arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his expected
transfer to The Hague throws a renewed spotlight on the prosecution of war
crimes.
But what exactly are war crimes? What body of laws do they refer to and
who has the right to try a suspect for such crimes?
Radovan Karadzic is set to follow Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague
The concept of war crimes is a recent one. Before World War II, it was
generally accepted that the horrors of war were in the nature of war.
Source: http://www.courier-journal.com
Jul 22, 2008
An Ohio historian is expected to turn himself in to authorities Thursday
on charges that he illegally removed an 8-ton boulder from the Kentucky
side of the Ohio River.
Steven Shaffer of Ironton, Ohio, has been in contact with authorities in
Kentucky and indicated he will appear for his arraignment in Greenup
Circuit Court, said Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Duvall.
He faces a charge of removing an object of antiquity, a Class D felony
that carries a penalty of one to five yea
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 22, 2008
The Edinburgh Dungeon said the one-day event is in revenge for the Battle of Falkirk, fought 710 years ago July 21st, at which more than 2,000 Scots were slaughtered by the Auld Enemy.
English visitors will only be allowed entry if they sign a scroll swearing allegiance to Scotland, while those from other countries will be encouraged to bring in items deemed 'typically English’ to be smashed.
The attraction, which is visited by 200,000 people per year insisted the mea
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 22, 2008
Political leaders in Europe and the US have congratulated the Serbian government on managing to detain Karadzic after 13 years on the run.
Richard Holbrooke, the US diplomat who brokered the Dayton Peace Agreement for Bosnia in 1995, described his arrest as "a historic day".
He said: "One of the worst men in the world, the Osama bin Laden of Europe, has finally been captured.
"A major, major thug has been removed from the public scene
Source: Guardian (UK)
Jul 22, 2008
A lifetime of memories is wrapped up inside the rickety wooden house that Necati Celik, 76, has called home since he was five. It is where he lived with his wife and brought up his children.
But Celik is unlikely to fulfil his wish of seeing out the rest of his days tending his flowers outside the 100-year-old listed building - a classic late Ottoman structure in Sulukule, Istanbul. He cannot afford the extensive renovations that local officials are demanding as part of a controver
Source: Charlotte Observer
Jul 21, 2008
Wary Clyburn, the Confederate army veteran, puts a new face on an old standard for which we can measure our character. He was brave and loyal.
Clyburn was a slave.
He was born about 1841 in Lancaster County, S.C., records show. He died in 1930 in Union County, where he moved after the war.
He was honored as a Civil War hero Friday during a ceremony at Hillcrest Cemetery in Monroe. Members of N.C. Sons of Confederate Veterans sponsored the event, along with
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Jul 21, 2008
The theory is as wild as it is controversial: that a comet, which left no crater, exploded over Canada almost 13,000 years ago, wiped out the woolly mammoth and other land giants and nearly decimated the first known human culture in North America.
"I thought that was a bunch of nonsense," said Kenneth Tankersley, a University of Cincinnati anthropologist.
But by the end of June, Tankersley was a convert.
Now he says that he not only believes the scienti
Source: BBC
Jul 21, 2008
The village of Madar is perhaps an unlikely setting for a major scientific discovery that has been hailed as a 'new frontier' for the Middle East.
Tucked away in the heart of rural Yemen, Madar now finds itself in the limelight after a series of dinosaur prints were discovered in the village - the first such discovery on the Arabian Peninsula.
The dinosaur tracks have been lying exposed, above ground, for centuries, but scientists only recently stumbled across them foll
Source: http://en.epochtimes.com
Jul 21, 2008
With cooperation from the Ukrainian government,
archeologists are trying to reconstruct a Ukrainian town destroyed by the
Russian army during the 18th century.
At present Baturyn is a small town, but in the 18th century it was home
for Ivan Mazepa, a legendary commander or “ghetman” in Ukrainian."Under the patronage of President Victor Yuschenko the revival of
ghetman’s capital is happening in the city of Baturyn,” said Vladimir
Prihodko, a local administrator.
During the N
Source: BBC
Jul 21, 2008
Parts of one of Scotland's most influential religious and historic
buildings have been uncovered for the first time in centuries.
Archaeologists have been digging at Scone Palace and believe they have
found the walls of the lost abbey.
Despite the site's significance, there is very little sign of the 12th
century building above ground.
Source: http://www.terradaily.com
Jul 21, 2008
The contradictions in Europe's economies are becoming stark. In Britain, the government has resorted to its highest level of borrowing since the public finance records first began in 1946. It borrowed $49 billion in the last three months, an annual rate of $200 billion, which is close to 10 percent of GDP.
