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: CNN
Jun 14, 2007
A jury on Thursday convicted reputed Klansman James Ford Seale of kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi, grisly drownings that went unpunished before federal prosecutors re-examined the forgotten case. Seale, 71, faces life in prison in the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. The 19-year-olds disappeared from Franklin County on May 2, 1964, and their bodies were found later in the Mississippi River.
Seale
Source: International Herald Tribune
Jun 14, 2007
In recent years, the Bush administration has recast the federal government's role in civil rights by aggressively pursuing religion-oriented cases while significantly diminishing its involvement in the traditional area of race.
Paralleling concerns of many conservative groups, the Justice Department has argued successfully in a number of cases that government agencies, employers or private organizations have improperly suppressed religious expression in situations that the Constitu
Source: The Telegraph
Jun 14, 2007
One of the Roman Catholic Church's holiest relics, which contains the steps believed to have been climbed by Jesus on his way to trial before Pontius Pilate, has been restored to its former glory.
The Santa Scala, or Holy Stairs, were brought to Rome from Jerusalem in the fourth century AD and placed in the former papal palace opposite the basilica of St John Lateran.However, restorers found that the sanctity of the staircase had not had an effect on
Source: Thanhnien News
Jun 14, 2007
Residents of the central Binh Dinh Province have recently unearthed the top of a tower dating back to the Cham Civilization over ten centuries ago, said vice director of a local museum Thursday.
Dr. Dinh Ba Hoa, Vice director of the Binh Dinh Museum, said that while collecting stones on Xuan My Mountain, residents of Phuoc Hiep Commune, Tuy Phuoc District, discovered the top of the tower. The top of the tower is 1.8m-high, made of stones, and decorated with lotus petal-shaped patte
Source: Sawf News
Jun 14, 2007
More than 200 ancient items and 300 paintings were found inside sealed containers in a royal stable and in the basement of the main residence at Tatoi, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) northwest of the Greek capital, culture ministry officials said during a media tour of the site on Tuesday.
"It's a real treasure hunt, we are in the process of removing these marvellous items from boxes stacked in disorderly heaps," restoration supervisor Nikos Minos told AFP.
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Source: BBC News
Jun 14, 2007
Archaeologists have discovered a series of mosaics they believe formed part of ancient pleasure gardens built in Rome in the 1st Century BC. The mosaics, in turquoise, gold and bright blue tones, were found nine metres (30ft) beneath street level.
Scholars say the images, which include Cupid riding a dolphin, probably lined a large nymphaeum (grotto).
Source: BBC News
Jun 14, 2007
Jewish groups and Italian politicians have expressed anger at the decision to grant day release to a convicted Nazi criminal under house arrest in Rome. Erich Priebke, 93, is serving a life sentence for the murder of 335 people at the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome.
The 1944 massacre was a reprisal ordered by Adolf Hitler after partisans killed a patrol of 33 German soldiers. The judge's decision also outraged the capital's mayor who said the city wou
Source: MSNBC
Jun 14, 2007
When they were told to get off their western Kentucky farmland in 1941 to make room for a sprawling World War II training camp, hundreds of families were given as little as two weeks to get everything out. Over the years, they say, they were cheated out of an agreement to buy back their land after the war and denied a stake in a government windfall: the discovery of massive deposits of gas and oil.
Now, those same families and their heirs are battling the U.S. government for what th
Source: BBC News
Jun 14, 2007
The Queen, Tony Blair and Baroness Thatcher joined veterans for a remembrance service in the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel in Berkshire.
A service in Stanley, attended by 1982 minister Lord Parkinson and Prince Edward, was among the Falklands events. The war came to an end on 14 June 1982, two-and-half-months after the UK territory was invaded by Argentina.
Some 255 British servicemen, more than 650 Argentines and three islanders were killed in the 74-day conflict.
Source: International Herald Tribune
Jun 14, 2007
In a neglected vault buried under New York's Rockefeller Center — a hot and musty space with little space between rows of rusted-shut file cabinets — The Associated Press found pieces of history.
The unearthing of thousands of documents, fragments of the 161-year history of the news cooperative, led to the publication of a new history of the AP — the first since the outbreak of World War II.
"Breaking News: How The Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace and Everyt
Source: BBC News
Jun 14, 2007
The nomination of Charles Darwin's former home in south-east London as a World Heritage Site has been withdrawn. The government took the decision following an evaluation by Unesco advisors, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos).
It said Icomos had failed to recognise the Bromley property's "significance as a site for the heritage of science". Down House at Downe was Darwin's home for 40 years and where he developed his revolutionary theory of evolution
Source: Broadcast Newsroom
Jun 14, 2007
After months of intensive research, Samuel Huneke from Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas, earned The History Channel(R) Award for "Best Senior Entry for an Individual Documentary" at the National History Day (NHD) ceremonies today for his documentary titled "Democracy in the Heart of Europe: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Czechoslovak Republic."
National History Day, Inc. is a nonprofit education program that presents an annual national history contest. St
Source: Independent (South Africa)
Jun 14, 2007
Austria's foreign minister on Monday asked the United States to remove former president Kurt Waldheim from the "watch list" of people barred from US soil because CIA files opened on April 27 had no proof he was a war criminal who helped persecute Adolf Hitler's victims."Nothing against him has been found and I think for that reason it was a question of national respect to raise this here. Secretary Powell agreed to a review and that is what I could have expect
Source: CNN
Jun 14, 2007
Kurt Waldheim, whose legacy as U.N. secretary-general was overshadowed by revelations that he belonged to a German army unit that committed atrocities in the Balkans in World War II, died Thursday. He was 88.Waldheim, who served as U.N. chief from 1972-81, was first confronted with purported evidence of his personal implication in wartime atrocities when he ran for the Austrian presidency in 1986. He consistently denied wrongdoing, defending himself against disclosures made
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History
Jun 13, 2007
On June 13, 2007, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, by voice vote, approved (H.R. 1255) and a companion bill (S. 886), the “Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007.” The bills are now ready for consideration on the Senate floor. However, we have learned that a temporary hold has been put on the bill to allow concerns expressed by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) and some other Republicans to be addressed before proceeding with floor action.
On March 14, 2007, by
Source: Truthdig
Jun 13, 2007
Last Sunday night, as millions of Americans tuned in to the two Tonys—the final episode of “The Sopranos,” to see whether Tony Soprano lived or died, and the Tony Awards, celebrating the best in American theater—actor Stanley Tucci (who played “Nigel” in “The Devil Wears Prada") was in an off-Broadway theater, the Culture Project, watching high school students perform a play about war.
The production, “Voices in Conflict,” moved the audience to tears, ending with a standing ov
Source: Washington Post
Jun 13, 2007
BAGHDAD, June 13 -- Early morning blasts Wednesday destroyed two minarets at the same Shiite shrine in Samarra where an attack last year demolished the mosque's gilded dome and plunged the country into a wave of deadly sectarian violence.
No one was injured in the 9 a.m. explosions at the revered Askariya shrine in Samarra, about 65 miles north of Baghdad. But officials said it was just the sort of event that could spark a spiral of retaliatory attacks and make it harder to reduce t
Source: Catholic World News
Jun 13, 2007
At his weekly public audience on Wednesday, June 13, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) spoke about Eusebius of Caesarea, the bishop and scholar whose "Christocentric approach to history" enriched his accounts of the early Church.
Speaking to about 30,000 people in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father said that Eusebius lived in an era of change; his life spanned the time from the last persecutions of Christians by the Roman empire through the Council of Nicea, in which he was
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Jun 13, 2007
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and higher education as a whole have enjoyed a decidedly un-cozy relationship since the Vietnam War – a fact that many in academe have found to be just fine with them, thanks.
But if the FBI and higher education still aren’t the best of friends, they appear to be interacting a lot more. Reports this week about a nationwide FBI outreach program in which agents set up meetings with college leaders to discuss strategies for safeguarding academic rese
Source: PR Newswire
Jun 13, 2007
On June 28, 2007, Profiles in History lives up to its name and reputation as the nation's leading dealer of guaranteed-authentic original historical documents by presenting for auction two of the most rare and historic documents that have ever been made available for purchase. The first document is a proclamation signed on July 4, 1876 by President Ulysses S. Grant, his entire cabinet, all members of both Houses of Congress along with all members of the United States Supreme Court, commemorating
