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: Reuters
Jun 22, 2007
Lawmakers from Japan's southern island of Okinawa, site of one of World War Two's bloodiest battles, blasted a government decision to tone down textbook accounts of soldiers ordering civilians to commit suicide.Friday's resolution urging the government to scrap the textbook revision comes a day before the anniversary of the end of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, a "Typhoon of Steel" that left some 200,000 dead -- soldiers, civilians, Japanese and Americans.
Source: AP
Jun 22, 2007
The Connecticut tribe has reclaimed the Mohegan Royal Burial Ground and is restoring it to pay homage to its famed Chief Uncas and his descendants, who were mythologized in James Fenimore Cooper's 1826 work.The Mohegans operate one of the world's most successful casinos and are among about 50 tribes in the U.S. that have managed to reclaim burial grounds or other sacred sites, said Suzan Harjo, president of the Morning Star Institute, an Indian rights organization in Washing
Source: IHT
Jun 22, 2007
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that ties with the United States would not be hurt if a U.S. congressional committee passes a resolution urging Japan to officially acknowledge and apologize for wartime sexual slavery."I am confident that our bilateral relations are unshakable," Abe said in an interview with Japanese media. "We have confirmed that Japan-U.S. relations are irreplaceable and unshakable."
Abe was responding to a qu
Source: Syndey Morning Herald
Jun 22, 2007
Nearly 200 professors, artists and others from universities around the world have signed a petition protesting at France's new Ministry of Immigration and National Identity.They are demanding the ministry's name - which they say sends a signal immigration is a "problem" - be changed and its extensive powers cut.
The petition, published in the left-wing daily Liberation, was signed by some of France's most illustrious historians as well as professors fr
Source: Armenian News Network
Jun 22, 2007
Professor Taner Akcam, a Turkish scholar and Visiting Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, filed an application before the European Court of Human Rights against the
Republic of Turkey, independent correspondent Jean Eckian informs.The complaint is based on the criminal investigation launched against him earlier this year under Turkish Penal Code Article 301, for
insulting "Turkishness" by having publicly used the term "
Source: NYT (subscribers only)
Jun 22, 2007
THE White House visit today by President Nguyen Minh Triet of Vietnam will take place just a few miles from the resting place of some of his countrymen. When American G.I.’s returned from the Vietnam War, some tried to smuggle home the skulls of Vietcong and North Vietnamese soldiers. The graffiti-covered skulls served as ashtrays, candle holders and trophies. Six skulls were seized by the Customs Service. They remain in limbo, relegated to a drawer on the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical
Source: NYT
Jun 22, 2007
For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office’s handling of classified information, and when the National Archives unit that monitors classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president’s office suggested abolishing the oversight unit, according to documents released yesterday by a Democratic congressman.
The Information Security Oversight Office, a unit of the National Archives, appealed the issue to the Justice Department,
Source: Press Release--Austin Aslan, Community Organizer, Sacramento ACT
Jun 21, 2007
The SCUSD school board voted tonight to rename the former Goethe Middle School officially as Rosa Parks Middle School....
The vote was 5 in favor, with one abstention and 1 no vote. Member Michael Navarrete voted no on the grounds that he wanted a person with local roots to be put on the middle school. 13 year old Michael Zamora, who introduced himself to the board tonight as "a leader from the last graduating class of Goethe Middle School" brought to the
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
Jun 21, 2007
On June 21, the Senate Appropriations’ Committee approved the Labor, Health & Human Services and Education Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 appropriations bill. The Committee provided $120 million for the Teaching American History Grants program at the U.S. Department of Education. This is $210,000 more than last year’s budget and $70 million more than the President’s request.
The House Labor, HHS & Education Appropriations Subcommittee also provided $120 million for Teaching American
Source: NYT
Jun 21, 2007
The Central Intelligence Agency will make public next week a collection of long-secret documents compiled in 1974 that detail domestic spying, assassination plots and other C.I.A. misdeeds in the 1960s and early 1970s, the agency’s director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, said yesterday.
In an address to a group of historians who have long pressed for greater disclosure of C.I.A. archives, General Hayden described the documents, known as the “family jewels,” as “a glimpse of a very differe
Source: CBS News Philadelphia
Jun 21, 2007
The archaeological dig at Independence Mall has uncovered another historical treasure. Archaeologists have been working furiously in Old City for the past couple months, revealing the foundation of George Washington’s former office.
“We could never have expected to find a find like this. Things that have such cultural value,” said Ed Lawler of the Independence Mall Association. A foundation fragment from the first president’s office can now be seen protruding from the ground.
Source: Birmingham News
Jun 21, 2007
Jack Bergstresser looked at a handful of small artifacts spread out on a table Wednesday at Tannehill Ironworks and Historical State Park. "It's not a lot of stuff, but every piece has a really profound story," he said. "These were not people who had a lot of possessions."
The artifacts were found in a dig at what archaeologists are convinced is a former slave quarters at the park. Bergstresser, resident archaeologist and director of Tannehill's Iron and Steel M
Source: Al-Ahram Weekly
Jun 21, 2007
Archaeologists from the Katholicke Universiteit Leuven working at the Middle-Kingdom (2066-1650 BC) tomb of Uky, a top government official, have discovered an intact tomb chamber, complete with funerary goods.
While removing the debris out of a rock-cut shaft found inside the chamber of Uky's tomb, the archaeologists came across a huge limestone block indicating that a major find was imminent, in line with the ancient Egyptian custom of blocking their burial chambers with such a bar
Source: Charleston Post and Courier
Jun 21, 2007
Anyone visiting the two sites where the Civil War began couldn't find the contrast more jarring. Fort Sumter — on which the Confederacy opened fire on federal troops on April 12, 1861 — is a national historic monument, maintained by the federal government with the goal of interpreting the Civil War.
But Fort Johnson, from which those shots were fired, is another story. Today, most of that property is owned by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, which isn't in the history busin
Source: International Herald Tribune
Jun 21, 2007
Photos of fresh-faced privates, wizened U.S. generals and the largest amphibious military operation in history. Dented army canteens that once dotted killing fields in France. The booming sounds of gunships echoing over the waves in Normandy — this time, on video.
The Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, best known for its sober rows of white grave markers honoring fallen U.S. troops in World War II, has at last gotten a visitor's center.
Nearly a million
Source: Montreal Gazette
Jun 21, 2007
Two of Canada's oldest archival treasures will join the Gutenberg Bible, France's famed Bayeux Tapestry and more than 150 other globally significant cultural artifacts as part of a United Nations listing of the world's most precious documentary "monuments." A 340-year-old collection of records detailing the operation of the Hudson's Bay Company - spearhead of British claims in the future Canada - and the even older archive of New France's earliest Catholic seminary are the first Canadi
Source: Telegraph
Jun 21, 2007
With Lord Nelson's relationship with his mistress threatening his popularity in early 19th century England, it would have been wise to keep his wife financially happy.
A previously unseen copy of a bank statement suggests that is what he did. The document shows Lord Nelson wanted to maintain his wife in reasonable style, possibly to keep her quiet.The two-page statement sent by the bankers Messers Marsh and Creed in the last quarter of 1802, shows th
Source: CBS3 Philadelphia
Jun 20, 2007
The archaeological dig at Independence Mall has uncovered another historical treasure. Archaeologists have been working furiously in Old City for the past couple months, revealing the foundation of George Washington’s former office.The uncovered office is where Washington met with his Cabinet, and generals discussed military strategy.
“Now we have the artifact of the office of the president. We have the underground passage that was used by the servants, in
Source: Telegraph
Jun 20, 2007
An archaeologist has sparked a Da Vinci Code-style hunt for the Holy Grail after claiming ancient records show it is buried under a 6th century church in Rome.
The cup - said to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper - is the focus of countless legends and has been sought for centuries.
Alfredo Barbagallo, an Italian archaeologist, claims that it is buried in a chapel-like room underneath the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, one of the seven churches which
Source: BBC News
Jun 20, 2007
Three men have been convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone's decade-long war. These were the first verdicts of Sierra Leone's UN-backed war crimes tribunal.
Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu were senior members of an armed faction that toppled the government in 1997. They were found guilty of 11 of the 14 charges, but acquitted of alleged sexual slavery and other inhuman acts. The men will be se
