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: Network of Concerned Historians
Jan 18, 2006
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) reports once again about death threats against members of a Guatemalan forensic anthropology team. These teams carry out excavations of mass graves to collect historical evidence about past atrocities and are therefore of great concern to historians.FACTS OF THE CASE
The Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG), and in particularly anthropologist Fredy Peccerelli, its executive director, an
Source: AScribe Newswire
Jan 17, 2006
While much of the hoopla over Ben Franklin's birthday will focus on his role as an influential American diplomat, a new book suggests that he deserves considerable recognition for his important but overlooked contributions to medicine. "Franklin played a critical role in development of modern medicine," suggests Stanley Finger, Ph.D., a noted medical historian and professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. "With strong interests in bedsid
Source: News.telegraph
Jan 17, 2006
The great puzzle of what Lady Jane Grey, England's shortest-reigning monarch, looked like has been cracked. A little improbably, the answer may have been sitting in a house in south London for the last 100 years.A likeness of Lady Jane has proved as elusive as a likeness of Shakespeare but Christopher Foley, a prominent London art dealer who has spent months researching the Streatham portrait, said yesterday that he was "very certain" that it was a cont
Source: Guardian
Jan 17, 2006
Spanish investigators believe they may have found proof that neanderthal man reached Europe from Africa not just via the Middle East but by sailing, swimming or floating across the Strait of Gibraltar.Prehistoric remains of hunter-gatherer communities found at a site known as La Cabililla de Benzú, in the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta, are remarkably similar to those found in southern Spain, investigators said.
Stone tools at the site correspond
Source: NYT
Jan 17, 2006
President Bush saluted the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, saying Dr. King, like Rosa Parks, who died last year, "roused the dozing conscience of a complacent nation."
In remarks here to commemorate Dr. King's birthday, Mr. Bush invoked the religious faith held by Dr. King and Mrs. Parks, another symbol of the civil rights movement, in describing freedom not as "a grant of government, but a gift from the author of all life." And he said t
Source: NYT
Jan 17, 2006
Another Oprah book club pick has raised the issue of fact vs. fiction.
Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com both said Tuesday that they were making changes to certify Elie Wiesel's ''Night'' as nonfiction. Barnes & Noble.com is removing the book from its fiction list, while Amazon.com is also changing the categorization of ''Night'' and revising an editorial description to make clear that it does not consider the book a novel.
''We hope to make these changes as qui
Source: NYT
Jan 17, 2006
A prominent Chinese lawyer and collector unveiled an old map on Monday that he and some supporters say should topple one of the central tenets of Western civilization: that Europeans were the first to sail around the world and discover America.
The Chinese map, which was drawn in 1763 but has a note on it saying it is a reproduction of a map dated 1418, presents the world as a globe with all the major continents rendered with an exactitude that European maps did not have for at leas
Source: Independent Online (South Africa)
Jan 17, 2006
Zulu monarch King Goodwill Zwelithini has urged African academics not to withhold information gathered from research, but to rather use it to rewrite history books for the benefit of future generations.
The king was speaking at an event organised to commemorate the Battle of Isandlwana, between the British and the Zulu in 1879. Zulu historians and academics had gathered to discuss the history of Zulu kings and their role in past battles. He said the history now learnt at school was
Source: Wa Po
Jan 17, 2006
At the Smithsonian, a tribute to his statesmanship is planned. In London, an exhibit hails his medical contributions. But at McGillin's Olde Ale House in Philadelphia, they know best how to honor Benjamin Franklin on his 300th birthday: with a celebratory toast.
"He was a very jovial fellow who would meet at the taverns, discussing the latest John Locke book or scientific breakthrough over a nice pint of beer," McGillin's owner Chris Mullins said.
Source: The Herald (Glasgow)
Jan 17, 2006
An Aberdeen historian who is seeking to uncover 165 years of hidden history of Jews in Scotland is appealing for help from the public.
Dr Nathan Abrams, history lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, has already begun to map the history of a number of small but resilient Jewish communities which have existed in various areas from the late 1800s to the present day.He said: "Despite the information I have already been able to glean, I believe there is
Source: Chicago Sun Times
Jan 17, 2006
Today, America celebrates the 300th birthday of the Founding Father who called himself Benjamin Franklin, printer.
Ben Franklin was much more than that, of course. Take your choice: scientist, diplomat, inventor, civic booster, publishing magnate, politician, writer, celebrity, ladies' man and the most famous kite flier in history.
[See Roundup: Talking About History for more.]
Source: NYT
Jan 17, 2006
A prominent Chinese lawyer and collector unveiled an old map on Monday that he and some supporters say should topple one of the central tenets of Western civilization: that Europeans were the first to sail around the world and discover America.
The Chinese map, which was drawn in 1763 but has a note on it saying it is a reproduction of a map dated 1418, presents the world as a globe with all the major continents rendered with an exactitude that European maps did not have for at leas
Source: NYT
Jan 16, 2006
It is clear to anyone attending a convention or visiting historic sites here that Ben Franklin is not only alive 300 years after he was born but that he has also been cloned. Several times.
Franklin has always had a big presence in Philadelphia. Mayor John F. Street and others have recently endorsed renaming the 30th Street train station in his honor. And the city's yearlong celebration of his 300th birthday has created a huge demand for the small cadre of people who portray him.
Source: NYT
Jan 16, 2006
"François Mitterrand was the last king of France," said Jacques Attali, one of his closest advisers and author of a best-selling biography about him. "France today is no longer a truly independent nation, but not yet part of a global European nation. We're in a no man's land. There is a longing for a monarch and a request for a stronger president."In his 14-year reign, Mitterrand hid his cancer from the public. He tried to prevent the reunification
Source: scotsman.com
Jan 16, 2006
More than 250 years later, the site of the last pitched conflict on British soil and where thousands died in an hour of fighting, continues to shed more secrets for experts to examine. Some 600 musket and artillery balls, the lid of a canister of shot, pieces of firearms – even a Celtic cross – have recently been uncovered by a team directed by Dr Tony Pollard, an internationally recognised expert in battlefield archaeology.
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
Jan 16, 2006
Now 61, Julian Houston has more than four decades up North behind him, first as one of a handful of minorities in a Connecticut boarding school, now as an associate justice of the Middlesex Superior Court. But it's his Southern past that Houston recalls in his book, "New Boy," released for young adults late last year. The book is a fictional account of the life of a black boarding school student in the 1950s, but it's drawn from his experiences.Houston,
Source: BBC News
Jan 16, 2006
A US Marine who absconded from his base more than 36 years ago as a protest against the Vietnam war has been arrested and may face a court martial.
Ernest Johnson Jr, 55, fled his camp in North Carolina in 1969 after becoming disenchanted with the war in Vietnam.
Using the surname McQueen, he spent the next three decades in a number of states as a regular husband and father.
Mr Johnson, who suffers from prostate cancer, could face a jail sentence and a mandato
Source: Oregonian
Jan 16, 2006
Hurdle-Toomey, 73, is among the last known children of former U.S. slaves. Although the Forest Grove woman didn't really know her father -- he died at about 90 years old when Hurdle-Toomey was 3 -- she says she has tried to live her life by valuing the same things he did: education, faith and honest labor.
Source: Press Release -- Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Jan 16, 2006
New York, NY. Several chapters of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) announced today, Monday, January 16, 2006, their intent to form a national organization and hold the first SDS national convention since 1969. "It seemed appropriate to make this announcement today, on the observed Martin Luther King day", said SDS regional organizer Thomas Good. "We have an anti-war movement that is addressing the issue of stopping the bloodletting in Iraq but the civil rights issue remain
Source: Guardian (UK)
Jan 16, 2006
Iran announced yesterday it would stage a conference to question the authenticity of the Holocaust, a move certain to stir international anger.
The statement follows a series of inflammatory remarks by Iran's hawkish president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has described the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis in the second world war as a myth and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map". He has also suggested an alternative Jewish state should be set up in Europe or Ala
