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: Buffalo News (New York)
Oct 29, 2005
It sank during a summer storm in Lake Erie off this Chautauqua County harbor on July 29, 1930, with 21 aboard. The boat took 15 lives with it; just six survived. It was front page news.
After resting undisturbed on the lake bottom for 75 years, the steamboat George J. Whelan came to life Thursday for nine divers, who were clearly excited about their opportunity.
"You can dive a whole lifetime and never be the first one on [a wreck]," said Wayne Rush, who drove
Source: The Boston Globe
Oct 29, 2005
Many South Africans, and especially the nation's young people, know only the outlines of Nelson Mandela's life his early years resisting South Africa's white-minority government, his 27 years in Robben Island prison, and the remarkable freedom he won for himself, and then for his country.
But that could soon change because of comic books.
One million copies of the first of a series of nine comic books on Mandela's life will be distributed Monday in newspapers and to sec
Source: Telegraph (London)
Oct 29, 2005
Switzerland played a key role in developing South Africa's nuclear weapons programme during apartheid, an investigation has revealed.Peter Hug, a historian whose inquiry was sponsored by the Swiss authorities, said his country "was a pillar of support for the apartheid government".
According to his report, which also found evidence of Germany's role in bolstering the white regime, the Swiss government was aware of illegal deals but "tolerated them
Source: NYT
Oct 29, 2005
It is difficult to know precisely how many Hispanics are converting or adopting Jewish religious practices, but accounts of such embraces of Judaism are growing more common in parts of the Southwest.
These conversions are the latest chapter in the story of the crypto-Jews, or hidden Jews, of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, who are thought to be descended from the Sephardic Jews who began fleeing Spain more than 500 years ago. The story is being bolstered by rece
Source: NYT
Oct 29, 2005
Michael Gill, a British television producer and director best known in this country for innovative "authored documentary" series like "Civilisation" (1969), featuring Lord Kenneth Clark, and "America" (1972), with Alistair Cooke, died on Oct. 20 at a London hospital. A London resident, he was 81.
The cause was complications of Alzheimer's disease, said Murray Grigor, a friend and associate.He and the filmmakers Adrian M
Source: NYT
Oct 29, 2005
With rising casualties in Iraq, a widely criticized federal response to Hurricane Katrina, a Supreme Court candidate forced to withdraw her nomination and now the indictment of a powerful administration aide, President Bush's second term may appear to have gotten off to an unusually rocky start.
Historically speaking, however, the administration's struggles since the 2004 election may not be very surprising, given the spotted record of second-term presidencies.
Source: Editor & Publisher
Oct 28, 2005
Watergate legend Carl Bernstein warns that comparisons to the case that made him famous more than 30 years ago must be viewed carefully.
Still, the former Washington Post reporter who shared a Pulitzer Prize for helping to expose the Nixon administration's wrongdoing says some parallels can be drawn between the two investigations, particularly the way both helped uncover extended dishonesty in the White House.
"We are obviously watching and the press is beginning t
Source: BBC News
Oct 28, 2005
Veterans who fought in Malaya in the 1950s are fighting for the right to wear a medal for their service. Fifty years on, the Malaysian Government wants to honour the British servicemen with the medal but military regulations state that the soldiers cannot wear it. It was a war in everything but name. The Malayan Emergency, as it became known, was a bitter conflict fought against hardened ethnic Chinese communists.
Eventually the British, Malayan and
Source: Duke University News Release distributed through AScribe, The Public Interest Newswire
Oct 28, 2005
Today's expected grand jury indictment of vice presidential aide Lewis Libby reflects character flaws in George W. Bush, as well as a chronic pattern of missteps characteristic of recent second-term presidents, Duke University historian William Chafe says.
"Political debacles like this can be traced back to personality traits of presidents," said Chafe, the author of "Private Lives/Public Consequences." "Two traits d
Source: Jewish Telegraph Agency
Oct 28, 2005
With the school year back in full swing, do you know what your children are learning? In thousands of public school districts across the United States, without ever knowing it, taxpayers pay to disseminate pro-Islamic materials that are anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish, according to this article by JTA.Often bypassing school boards and nudging aside approved curricula, teaching programs funded by Saudi Arabia make their way into elementary and secondary
Source: Inside Higher Education
Oct 28, 2005
How should a university commemorate the civil rights movement, and its painful but pivotal role in it? Until this month, most people at the University of Mississippi thought the university had the answer nailed down. In the summer of 2002, five professional artists invited students, administrators, and local residents – some who had witnessed violence at Ole Miss in the 1960s – to share their thoughts as the artists waded through submissions for a memorial on campus. But now the winning design h
Source: Press Release
Oct 28, 2005
Award winning documentary film-maker Ric Burns pays homage to the New York Historical Society, The New-York Historical Society: A Celebration, which premiers Wednesday, November 2 at 9 pm, over NYC TV. (60 minutes long.)A Celebration features interviews with those who know the New-York Historical Society and its resources well--Martin Scorsese, David McCullough, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Professor James Horton, Chief Historian of the current Slavery in New Yo
Source: Boston Globe
Oct 28, 2005
For 14 years in the late 18th century Vermont was neither a British colony nor one of the original 13 states but was an independent republic. Texas gets more notice as a Lone Star State, but Vermont shares with it the distinction of having gone it alone for a while. Now some want to return Vermont to the state of an independent republic.
Source: AHA Perspectives
Oct 28, 2005
In June 2005, Dwight T. Pitcaithley retired as chief historian of the National Park Service (NPS), after a distinguished career that began in 1976. Janet Snyder Matthews, the National Park Service’s associate director for cultural resources, will soon begin a national search for his replacement.Finding the next chief historian is an important step for the National Park Service. It comes at a time when the NPS is more conscious than ever of the need to pursue its educational
Source: Press Release from the American Historical Association
Oct 28, 2005
As many of you know, the American Historical Association's web site ( www.historians.org) went off line on Monday, October 24th. By the evening of Tuesday the 25th we were back online with a temporary homepage. The web site has now been completely restored and all of its regular features are again accessible.
The web site's technical difficulties were directly related to Hurricane Wilma. Our web hosting company, Advances.com, is located in For
Source: AP
Oct 28, 2005
Rosa Parks, the seamstress whose act of defiance on a public bus a half-century ago helped spark the modern U.S. civil rights movement, will join presidents and war heroes who have been honored in death with a public viewing in the Capitol Rotunda.
Parks would be the first woman and second black American to receive the accolade. Jacob J. Chestnut, one of two Capitol police officers fatally shot in 1998, was the first black American to lie in honor, said Senate historian Richard Bake
Source: The Guardian (London)
Oct 28, 2005
America's art museums are poised to put up for auction huge amounts of artwork by some of the world's most revered painters next week, prompting accusations from critics that they are neglecting their role as cultural custodians in search of short-term financial gains.
Paintings by Picasso, Chagall and Modigliani will be sold by a variety of prestigious institutions, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (Moma), the Art Institute of Chicago and th
Source: The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo)
Oct 28, 2005
Visiting South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon on Thursday protested Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine this month, saying it would be difficult for the South Korean president to visit Tokyo by the end of the year.During a meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo with Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, Ban said: "[South Korean] people are disappointed. They feel offended and the visit isn't internationally understood.&quo
Source: Boston Globe
Oct 28, 2005
A high school senior and two teachers have become unlikely allies with a group of Turkish Americans in a federal lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Education over its curriculum on the Armenian genocide.
The student and teachers said yesterday that they don't necessarily agree with a small group of historians who contend that the slaughter of more than a million Armenians by Turks during World War I wasn't genocide.
The case is about censorship, they say, a
Source: BBC News
Oct 28, 2005
A portrait widely thought to be William Shakespeare is not the playwright, the National Portrait Gallery has revealed. The Grafton Portrait has been used on the covers of many books on the Bard. But nine months of research and restoration work have failed to reveal any evidence to support the view that it is a portrait of Shakespeare. The gallery said it dates back to 1588 when Shakespeare was 24, but at that stage he was unlikely to have been able to afford the style of dress seen.
