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: Inside Higher Ed
Jul 3, 2008
Scholars of the Armenian genocide have long accused Turkey of using its financial support to promote the idea that a genocide didn’t take place or that the jury is still out — views that have little credibility among historians of genocide.
An incident in 2006, only recently being talked about publicly, has some scholars concerned that Turkey and its supporters may be interfering in American scholarship.The chair of the board of the Institute of Turkish Studies,
Source: Washington Times
Jul 3, 2008
Handcuffs used to restrain the man who assassinated President James A. Garfield were found last week when workers were cleaning out a closet at D.C. police headquarters.The handcuffs had been part of an old display that had been left in a dark corner and collected dust during the 1990s, according to Sgt. Breul, the department historian. The artifacts were kept in such poor condition that Sgt. Breul had said he would take the items to the Washington Historical Society.
Source: Tocqueville Connection
Jul 3, 2008
Bells rang out across Canada Thursday to mark the founding of Quebec City, at the exact time that French explorer Samuel de Champlain is thought to have landed on these shores 400 years ago.Rooted in the early days of the fur trade, and once the cradle of French civilization in North America that spanned from Acadia in easternmost Canada to Louisiana in the southern United States, Quebec City is now a bustling metropolis with a population of 700,000.
Its old qua
Source: Press Release
Jul 2, 2008
Members of the list may be interested to hear that a remarkable cache of documents spanning the 1660s through the mid-20th century has been recently uncovered in an old Eastern Shore manor house. Poplar Grove, granted to the Emory family by Lord Baltimore in 1669, and still in the possession of descendants, is a veritable treasure trove of 400 years of American history. The well-connected Emorys played important roles in national and state politics, and served in every major military conflict
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 2, 2008
New light has been shed on the greatest battle in British naval history after a rare eye-witness account by one of its heroes was uncovered.
William Hargood was captain of HMS Belleisle, which was at the heart of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 when Admiral Lord Nelson defeated the Franco-Spanish fleet.
Around a quarter of his vessel's men were killed or injured as they staged an often lone fight against the enemy before finally being "dismasted".
Source: BBC
Jul 2, 2008
When I was growing up they were the two words which could bring a cloud into any conversation.
They were whispered in the back shops of the Scottish Italian community or muttered quickly in the hope that they would never need to be mentioned again.
Arandora Star.
I thought everybody knew the story of the boat which sank off the Irish coast with the loss of nearly 700 lives - the majority of them Italian nationals.
As I got older, however, I realised this w
Source: Daily Mail
Jul 2, 2008
One of Britain's very first shopping centres has been unearthed - a high street that was fashionable 1,800 years ago when togas were still in vogue.
A row of narrow shop buildings uncovered by archaeologists shows that the Romans in Britain had their very own well-heeled fashionistas.
The shop buildings used by the stylish Romans in ancient Britain were uncovered by archaeologists in fields at Monmouthshire, South Wales.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Jul 2, 2008
Robert Venable most likely came to Philadelphia a slave, shipped from Barbados as a little boy and ultimately bought and used by merchant Hugh Donaldson in the late 1740s.
But by the time of the Revolutionary War, when Venable moved into a small house at 79 N. Sixth St., he was a free man, manumitted by Donaldson in an act of generosity Venable would never forget.
His was a momentous move at a momentous time to an extraordinary part of the city - the block where the National
Source: International Herald Tribune
Jul 2, 2008
Among the many once-familiar historical photographs that you won't see in China's official histories are any showing Chairman Mao with his one-time No. 2 man and presumed successor, Lin Biao, the military commander who died in a plane crash in 1971 after an apparent attempt at a coup.
In fact, China is a strangely inconsistent place. You'll find Lin's image on flea market plates, cups and posters, the newly manufactured "relics" of the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976
Source: National Security Archive
Jul 2, 2008
The National Security Archive launches its new Web page for The Guatemala Project today, with links to information, analysis and declassified documents relating to all the Archive's Guatemala work over the past 14 years. After decades of civil war and genocide, Guatemala has become a virtual laboratory of international and transitional justice, with a genocide case underway in a Spanish court, another about a Guatemalan Army death squad logbook before the Inter-American Commission on Human Right
Source: http://www.arabtimesonline.com
Jul 2, 2008
“A large number of Iraqi artifacts are currently in Kuwait and are known to be in the possession of a famous Kuwaiti businessman,” say sources, adding “the Iraqi Antiquities Department has received information that Uday, son of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, smuggled a large number of ancient relics into Jordan by land and they were later transferred by air to Kuwait, reports Al-Dar daily. Sources say the Iraqi department has documents showing the route of smuggling and has supplied the d
Source: NYT
Jul 2, 2008
The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”
What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many
Source: NYT
Jul 2, 2008
Researchers announced Wednesday that remains excavated in the last three years were those of the long-sought dwelling, on the old family farm in Virginia, 50 miles south of Washington. The house stood on a terrace overlooking the Rappahannock River, where legend has it the boy threw a stone or coin across to Fredericksburg.
On the subject of legend, the archaeologists who made the discovery could no more tell a lie than young George. No, there was not a single cherry tree anywhere a
Source: BBC
Jul 1, 2008
It is headed by Chile's ambassador to the UN, Heraldo Munoz, and includes a former Indonesian attorney general and a former senior Irish police officer.
The inquiry will last six months and investigate the "facts and circumstances" of Ms Bhutto's death.
She was killed in December 2007 as she left a rally of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) supporters in Rawalpindi.
Source: McClatchy
Jul 1, 2008
Notably mild-mannered Republican Sen. Thad Cochran shocked many earlier this year with comments about John McCain's volatile temper, but has since mended fences with the GOP presidential nominee.
But Cochran told the Sun Herald this week that he witnessed a confrontation between McCain and a Sandinista rebel decades ago that shocked him when McCain "got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him."
Elected to the U.S. House of Representative
Source: http://weblog.infoworld.com
Jul 1, 2008
With Bill Gates stepping down from his day-to-day role of running Microsoft, he's been receiving a great number of accolades about the role he played in history of the PC. Much of it is deserved. But some of it definitely ignores the reality of how the PC industry evolved and the effect that Bill Gates and Microsoft had, for good and bad, on technology innovation.
At the Microsoft farewell to Gates last week, successor Steve Ballmer is quoted as saying: "Bill was really there a
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jul 1, 2008
The wreck of a richly-jewelled 17th century ship has been discovered in the English Channel.
Marine archaeologists who explored the 600-ton vessel off Dorset believe it may have been as luxurious in its day as the Titanic.
Among the treasures they have retrieved is a statue of a merman whose eye sockets would have held precious stones.
Source: BBC
Jul 1, 2008
US President George W Bush has signed a bill removing Nelson Mandela and South African leaders from the US terror watch list, officials say.
Mr Mandela and ANC party members will now be able to visit the US without a waiver from the secretary of state.
The African National Congress (ANC) was designated as a terrorist organisation by South Africa's old apartheid regime.
A US senator said the new legislation was a step towards removing the "shame of dishonouri
Source: McClatchy
Jul 1, 2008
The lady carved on the ancient rock is squatting, with frog-like legs sticking out to each side. Her decapitated head is dangling to the right.
That's how she had been, perfectly preserved, for up to 800 years, until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came upon her last year while building a $375 million dam to control flooding in southern Puerto Rico.
She was buried again last week with the hope that some day specialists will study her and Puerto Rican children will visi
Source: CNN
Jul 1, 2008
The search teams comb through the backyards of the half-million-dollar homes with metal detectors, placing red flags on the manicured lawns every time they get a hit. To the shock of residents, they sometimes find live bombs.
The bombs are left over from a 12,000-acre World War II bombing range. The area has become an Orlando neighborhood with thousands of homes.
The Army Corps of Engineers has launched a $10 million cleanup of what used to be the PineCastle Jeep Range,
