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: Jerusalem Post
Nov 11, 2005
A very small ceramic shard unearthed by Bar-Ilan University archaeologists digging at Tell es-Safi, the biblical city "Gath of the Philistines," may hold a very large clue into the history of the well-known biblical figure Goliath.
The shard, which contains the earliest known Philistine inscription ever to be discovered, mentions two names that are remarkably similar to the name "Goliath". The discovery is of particular importan
Source: Wa Po
Nov 11, 2005
No one knows exactly how many of America's World War I veterans will celebrate Veterans Day, which marks the armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, that ended what then was considered the Great War. An estimated 2 million Americans served in Europe after the U.S. entered the war in 1917.
Today, the Veterans Affairs Department lists just eight veterans as receiving disability benefits or pension compensation from service in World War I. It says a few dozen other veterans of the war probably are
Source: BBC News
Nov 11, 2005
Britain's oldest war veteran said he would "like to join up again" after attending memorial services in France on Armistice Day.
Henry Allingham, 109, from Eastbourne in East Sussex, was an aircraft engineer in World War I and is the last founder member of the Royal Air Force.
He laid wreaths at memorials in St Omer, near Calais, in honour of his fallen comrades. The last survivor of the Battle of Jutland said: "By coming here
Source: Montreal Gazette
Nov 11, 2005
Canadian students are finishing high school without a basic understanding of their country's history, and schools are ignoring the subject in favour of a new fixation with math and science, says the Dominion Institute.The private, Toronto-based advocacy group says provincial governments could help solve the problem by making Canadian history a mandatory requirement of high school graduation.
The institute's Remembrance Day poll - a national survey conducted last
Source: Herald (UK)
Nov 11, 2005
A leading archaeologist united with environmental campaigners yesterday to demand changes to laws protecting historic sites, amid fears that one of Scotland's most famous battlefields could be defaced by huge electricity pylons.Dr Tony Pollard, of the Two Men In a Trench TV programme, has joined protests over a proposed 160-mile power line which some fear would destroy the site of the battle of Sheriffmuir, which signalled the bloody denouement of the 1715 Jacobite rebellion
Source: Japan Focus
Nov 10, 2005
The granddaughter of Japan’s wartime leader Tojo Hideki has become one of his staunchest public defenders since emerging from obscurity a decade ago.
Ms. Tojo clearly idolizes her grandfather, who was executed as Japan’s top war criminal in 1948: she often comes to interviews with foreign journalists carrying a box of mementos that include nail clippings, a lock of hair, and the butt of the last cigarette the general smoked while awaiting the hangman’s noose in Sugamo Prison.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Nov 10, 2005
The National Park Service has become so scared of what counterproductive thing Congress might do to it next that it has become downright timid. That syndrome might rob Pennsylvania of the museum it needs to complete the narrative of our nation's history. Since 1999, Valley Forge National Historical Park had been working in a public-private partnership to develop the nation's first education center devoted to the American Revolution. Because of unrealistic demands from Congress, that partnership
Source: The Art Newspaper
Nov 10, 2005
American counter-insurgency measures in Samarra in western Iraq have, once again, led to concerns over possible damage to the rich archaeological heritage of the city. On 19 September, the news agency UPI reported that the American battalion stationed in Samarra had begun the construction of a berm or temporary embankment around the city, setting up checkpoints on all the roads to control access. According to Major John Holcomb, the intelligence officer for the First Brigade Combat Team of the T
Source: Deseret News
Nov 10, 2005
The physics of 9/11 — including how fast and symmetrically one of the World Trade Center buildings fell — prove that official explanations of the collapses are wrong, says a Brigham Young University physics professor. In fact, it's likely that there were"pre-positioned explosives" in all three buildings at ground zero, says Steven E. Jones. In a paper posted online Tuesday and accepted for peer-reviewed publication next year, Jones adds his voice to those of previous skeptics, including the auth
Source: Boston Globe
Nov 10, 2005
A tooth, believed to have been extracted from Napoleon's mouth, was sold at auction in London, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005, for 12,939 pounds (19,200 euros, US$22,600). The tooth, part of a small collection of Napoleon Bonaparte items, was bought by a private collector from England who asked to remain anonymous, said Chris Albury from Dominic Winter, an auction house in Swindon, southwest England. Albury said the previous owner, who died recently, was a Napoleonic scholar. The tooth came with papers
Source: NYT
Nov 10, 2005
Bill Clinton took an early stab yesterday at inscribing his place in the history books, opening a three-day conference about his presidency with a heartfelt speech recounting the highs and lows - mostly the highs - of his eight years in office.
Working from notes and bullet points his aides said he had spent more than a week pulling together, Mr. Clinton spoke for more than an hour at Hofstra University's sports arena before an enthusiastic and near-capacity audience of faculty memb
Source: Newsday
Nov 10, 2005
Hofstra University's 11th Presidential Conference, this one analyzing Bill Clinton's eight years in office, begins today, ushering in what presidential historian Douglas Brinkley called the "opening salvo of scholarship" on the 42nd president.Clinton is scheduled to give a speech at the conference today. About a dozen cabinet members and former staffers will speak at the three-day event.
Among those scheduled for the first day are Madeleine K. Albright
Source: CBS
Nov 10, 2005
Scientists' hopes that DNA testing would identify a nearly 400-year-old skeleton found at Jamestown have been dashed, but they remain confident that the remains are those of an unsung founder of North America's first English settlement.
American and British scientists had hoped DNA they believe to be of Bartholomew Gosnold would match with that of a woman buried in England who they had thought was his sister. Tests, however, found the woman wasn't a blood relative of Gosnold, the no
Source: Rick Shenkman, reporting from Hofstra for HNN
Nov 10, 2005
Speaking at a Hofstra University three-day conference devoted to his presidency, a feisty Bill Clinton tonight implored historians to treat him fairly when they assess his legacy. Earlier in the day historian Douglas Brinkley had told a reporter that Clinton would have been judged a great president but for his impeachment. Clinton, quoting Brinkley by name, said it was a mistake to let his presidency be defined by impeachment since impeachment was wrong. As he has in the past, he charged that
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Nov 10, 2005
A 41 year old engineering graduate student has hired a lawyer to possibly sue history blogger Bitch PhD--an anonymous blogger--for libel. Paul Deignan and Bitch PhD tangled over the question of abortion on their blogs and comment boards. Threats of a lawsuit followed when University of Northern Iowa history professor Wallace Hettle complained to Deignan's advisor about the tenor of his posts on Bitch PhD's blog. Deignan says he is considering suing both Bitch PhD and Hettle.
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists.
Nov 9, 2005
More than 40 years after the JFK assassination, the Central Intelligence Agency is refusing to release certain assassination-related records that it holds."We are asking for discovery of JFK assassination records related to the late George Joannides, chief of the Psychological Warfare Branch of the CIA's Miami Station in 1963," said Jefferson Morley, a researcher and Washington Post writer who is pursuing the CIA records.
"The CIA has acknow
Source: scotsman.com
Nov 9, 2005
A LEADING academic today demands an urgent statement from the Scottish Executive on the future of history in the nation's schools.
Professor Tom Devine, widely viewed as Scotland's top historian, says suggestions by Peter Peacock, the education minister, that the subject may not be offered as a stand-alone part of the curriculum in the first two years of secondary school are "an educational disgrace". Mr Peacock has said the curriculum review bei
Source: Independent (UK)
Nov 9, 2005
The National Museum of Iraq is now a sorry sight. The rusting gates are shut to the public, inside layers of dust lie across the 28 galleries empty of everything except a dozen ancient statues which are just too vast to move.
More than two and half years after the ransacking of the museum by a mob following the 'liberation' of Baghdad by US troops, almost 10,000 items, including some of the most precious treasures of antiquity in the world, are still missing.
Source: Guardian
Nov 9, 2005
The Guardian's "DC Confidential" colunist has recounted that Henry Kissinger at the Bohemian Grove in 2002 laid out 3 conditions for a justified attack on Iraq. None were met.
In July 2002 I was invited to spend a long weekend at something called the Bohemian Grove, an institution that has its origins in the 19th century. It started out as a club in San Francisco for writers, artists and intellectuals. It purchased a large tract of virgin land in n
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Nov 9, 2005
Alistair Horne writes in the Daily Telegraph, "having spent weeks immersed both in the intricacies of Watergate in 1973 and the current scandal that is electrifying Washington, I cannot help but see echoes of the episode that brought down Richard Nixon.... Many of the pundits are in denial about the Watergate parallels. They stress that this President, much as they loathe him, and unless we're missing something, could have no stained cocktail dress hidden away, and - dumb as he is - would n
