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: CSM
Aug 24, 2007
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln stood here and gave the speech that was to become his most famous. With brevity and eloquence he spoke of the liberty and equality upon which this country was founded. He looked forward to the Union's salvation, the end of slavery – and "a new birth of freedom."
What he couldn't have foreseen delivering the Gettysburg Address that afternoon was that a Southern colonel would one day claim this hallowed ground in the form of a KFC just beyond its gat
Source: chinaview.cn
Aug 24, 2007
Romanian archeologists have found the Capitol of Sarmizegetusa, a temple in the ancient Roman province of Dacia, Rompres news agency reported Thursday.
"We were glad to confirm the suppositions we have been nourishing for 25 years, about the place where the Capitol lies, one of the most important temples of Roman Dacia," said Ioan Piso, an official of Transylvania National History Museum in central Romania.
"This is the temple of Jupiter and the T
Source: AP
Aug 24, 2007
Archaeologists excavating a sprawling prehistoric fortress in southern Greece have discovered a secret underground passage thought to have supplied the site with water in times of danger.
Dating to the mid-13th century B.C., the stone passage passed under the massive walls of the Mycenaean citadel of Midea and probably led to a nearby water source, authorities said Friday.
The passage would allow the people of Midea, about 93 miles south of Athens, safe access to drinka
Source: http://www.boingboing.net
Aug 24, 2007
The University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies has scanned and published a full set of playing cards created in 1945 by an inmate at the Dachau concentration camp. They are the size of normal playing cards.
Source: Yahoo
Aug 24, 2007
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (Reuters) - Time flies in
Samarkand. This weekend the ancient Silk Road city
marks its 2,750th anniversary in grand style, a mere
11 years after celebrating its official 2,500th
anniversary.
That quirk is due to recent archaeological finds that
caused a revision of its age, but the city of mosques,
madrasahs and tombs listed as a U.N. World Heritage
Site is also ageing faster than it should do in the
pres
Source: International Herald Tribune
Aug 24, 2007
The most surprising thing about the possible closure of the shipyard here may be how little popular outcry there has been thus far.
Poland is instead transfixed by the sudden collapse of its government and preoccupied with the departure of a million workers, most of them young, for jobs in Western Europe.
The Gdansk shipyard could go out of business if it is forced to pay back disputed state subsidies deemed illegal by European Union officials. But while the EU may be
Source: http://allafrica.com
Aug 24, 2007
The history of Nigeria's involvement in the slave trade could be used to boost tourism and culture, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the University of Abuja, said yesterday.
They have also asked that August 23, be designated as a special day of remembrance. It is 200 years since the transatlantic slave trade ended.
Source: AP
Aug 24, 2007
The mangled remains of a vessel found in the Bering Sea are likely those of a World War II submarine that disappeared with a crew of 70 off the Aleutian Island of Kiska.
The discovery of the USS Grunion on Wednesday night culminates a five-year search led by the sons of its commander, Mannert Abele, and may finally shine a light on the mysterious last moments of the doomed vessel.
"Obviously, this is a very big thing," the oldest son, Bruce Abele, said Thursd
Source: AP
Aug 24, 2007
The remains of the last czar's hemophiliac son and heir to the Russian throne, missing since the royal family was gunned down nine decades ago by Bolsheviks in a basement room, may have been found, an archaeologist said Thursday.
Bones were found in a burned area in the ground near Yekaterinburg, the city where Czar Nicholas II and his wife and children were held prisoner and then shot in 1918.
A top local archaeologist said the bones belong to a boy and a young woman r
Source: BBC
Aug 24, 2007
Nazi-era board games are being auctioned this week, one with points given for bombing UK cities. But what were British children playing during WWII? It wasn't all hopscotch and conkers, the Brits had their own propaganda games.
Model Spitfires and Hurricanes were commonplace in the toy boxes of the 1940s. The war touched every aspect of life and had a profound effect on childhood.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill demanded that all the country's energies were dedicated t
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 24, 2007
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who may be canonised as a saint by the Vatican later this year, had a deep crisis of faith in God for the last 40 years of her life, according to a new set of her letters.
The correspondence, which spans most of Mother Teresa's life, shows that she felt alone and in a state of spiritual pain from around 1949, roughly the time when she started taking care of the poor and dying in Calcutta.
Although she publicly proclaimed that her heart belonged"entirely to
Source: NYT
Aug 24, 2007
CALCUTTA— Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan voiced admiration on Thursday for two Indians who stood up to Britain, the country’s colonial ruler, during World War II and sided with Japan.
Mr. Abe came here to meet relatives of the two, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a nationalist leader who advocated armed resistance to the British, and Radhabinod Pal, the sole judge who dissented at the Allied tribunal that condemned to death war-time Japanese leaders.
“Many Japanese have
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Aug 24, 2007
Gettysburg, PA. - In 1863, Abraham Lincoln stood here and gave the speech that was to become his most famous. With brevity and eloquence he spoke of the liberty and equality upon which this country was founded. He looked forward to the Union's salvation, the end of slavery – and "a new birth of freedom."
What he couldn't have foreseen delivering the Gettysburg Address that afternoon was that a Southern colonel would one day claim this hallowed ground in the form of a KFC j
Source: Earth Times
Aug 23, 2007
New Zealand's Hell pizza chain, which is known for its wacky advertising campaigns, has scrapped billboards showing Hitler saluting with a slice of pizza after complaints from the Jewish community, a newspaper reported on Friday. The Nazi leader was shown giving a Heil Hitler salute with pizza in his hand and the quote: "It is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell."
Kirk MacGibbon, of the Cinderella advertising agency that devised the billboard, told The Press new
Source: AP
Aug 23, 2007
Spanish police on Thursday arrested a right-wing writer and publisher wanted in his home country of Austria for repeatedly denying the existence of the Jewish Holocaust and the use of gas chambers, officials said.
Gerd Honsik was arrested in the southern city of Malaga, a police spokeswoman said. No more details on his arrest were immediately available.
Honsik had fled to Spain after being convicted in 1992 in Austria of neo-Nazi activities and sentenced to 1 1/2 years
Source: LiveScience
Aug 23, 2007
Archaeologists have uncovered a footprint made by a
sandal-clad Roman soldier in a wall surrounding an
ancient city in Israel that Jesus might have visited.
The print was made by a strappy, leather sandal of a
type worn by the Roman military. Called caliga, the
sandals of this time had iron hobnails hammered into
their soles, which provided durability and traction as
well as a weapon when kicking.
Source: Daily Tarheel
Aug 23, 2007
State-sponsored divers kicked off an intensive underwater search for booty Wednesday, more than a decade after shipwreck researchers discovered the ruins of Blackbeard's flagship off the N.C. coast.
Mike Daniel, leader of the crew that found Queen Anne's Revenge, said the pace of the excavation is only now picking up despite his years of pressuring the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources to do what he called "serious expeditions."
"It's been 10 years si
Source: History Today
Aug 23, 2007
Throughout time, physicians have made their mark on history. Think of such luminaries as Hippocrates, Alexander Fleming and his invention of penicillin, Edward Jenner and small pox vaccination, Louis Pasteur and microbiology, Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis. All of whom arguably had a profound effect on the course of history.
Now Blackwell, in celebration of the opening of its new flagship medical bookstore, is launching a search for unsung medical heroes, those physicians who never recei
Source: Chicago Tribune
Aug 23, 2007
... "This was history written by speechwriters without regard to history," said military analyst Anthony Cordesman. "And I think most military historians will find it painful ... because in basic historical terms the president misstated what happened in Vietnam."
Indeed, the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam did not create a domino effect of spreading communism, as was feared. Instead Vietnam went to war against two neighboring communist states, Cambodia and China. No
Source: Mercury News
Aug 23, 2007
History San Jose, Silicon Valley's largest historical organization, is almost out of money - and without a quick subsidy advance from the city, its leaders say, it will be forced next month to cut back or eliminate programs for South Bay students and other functions.
"We're sort of hanging on by our toenails here," History San Jose President Alida Bray said Wednesday after pleading the organization's case for an advance on its quarterly city subsidy of more than $140,000.
