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: History Today
Feb 23, 2012
Over 300 people gathered in Madrid last weekend for a series of events to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Jarama when, inadequately armed and in filthy weather, hundreds of volunteers to the XV International Brigade lost their lives in their efforts to defend the city against Franco’s fascist forces.Unlike in February 1937 the sun shone and the smell of wild thyme filled the air as Irish and English visitors joined Spanish comrades for the 5th annual Jarama memorial walk. The three-hour procession, through olive groves and across scrubby terrain a few miles south-east of Madrid, halted at key spots close to Suicide Hill and the Sunken Road where over 150 members of the British Battalion were killed. Poems were recited and songs sung. The walk concluded at the ‘clenched hands’ monument to the International Brigades by one of Spain’s leading artists, Martin Chirino. A wreath was laid and two minute’s silence was held, broken by a rallying chorus of the Internationale.
Source: ABC News
Feb 23, 2012
More than a millennium ago in Central America, the great Maya civilization grew, flourished, built beautiful temples -- and then slowly but inexorably collapsed.What happened? A lot of things, but two scientists now say a key factor may have been nothing more than what they call a "modest reduction in precipitation."Drought and changing climate have been suggested before as factors that ended the Mayan era, but Martin Medina-Elizalde and Eelco Rohling, a team from the University of Southampton in England, went to the Yucatan Peninsula and figured out ways actually to measure long-ago rainfall. They measured oxygen isotopes in a stalagmite -- a pillar of sediment created by dripping water in a local cave -- and concluded that rainfall in the area probably dropped by about 40 percent between A.D. 800 and 1000.Forty percent is bad, but modern societies, able to pump up groundwater or build dams, would probably get by. The Maya could not....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Feb 23, 2012
Students of economic history are in for a treat. An official studying deep in the bowels of the US Treasury library has recently uncovered a prize of truly startling proportions – an 800 page plus transcript of the Bretton Woods conference in July 1944, the meeting of nations which established the foundations of today's international monetary system.Bizarrely, this extraordiary manuscript has never before come to light. Professor Steve Hanke of John Hopkins University, whose former student it was who discovered the document, is now dashing to publish it in full in conjunction with his friend, Jacque de Larosiere. The first stage of the process, transcribing the type-written document into digital form is now complete, though it is not yet available. It's hoped eventually to produce a hard copy, book version.All previous accounts of Bretton Woods have been second hand, with historians apparently completely unaware that a full, and one must presume faithful, transcript of proceedings, had been taken....
Source: NYT
Feb 23, 2012
The Chinese city of Nanjing has suspended its sister-city relationship with Nagoya, Japan, after Nagoya’s mayor expressed doubts that the Japanese Army’s 1937 Nanjing Massacre actually took place, the Nagoya City Hall said Wednesday.The falling out began Monday, when Nagoya’s mayor, Takashi Kawamura, told a visiting delegation of Chinese Communist Party officials from Nanjing that he doubted that Japanese troops had massacred Chinese civilians. Most historians say that at a minimum, tens of thousands of civilians were slaughtered in Nanjing in one of the most infamous atrocities of Japan’s military expansion across Asia in the early 20th century.The falling out underscored how differing views of history remain a problem in Japan’s ties with the nations that it once conquered. While such denials are common by Japanese conservatives like Mr. Kawamura, they are rarely raised in such a public manner, or directly to Chinese officials. But there is also a widely shared perception in Japan that China’s government plays up the massacre for its own propaganda purposes....
Source: Discovery News
Feb 22, 2012
Pre-Columbian star war stories have emerged from 23 stone carvings unearthed near the Great Temple in Tenochtitlan, the ancient Aztec center that became Mexico City after the Spanish invasion in 1521.Providing unique iconographic evidence for Aztec myths, the bas-relief sculptures lay embedded in a strip of floor in front of the Templo Mayor complex, Tenochtitlan's holiest shrine.Far from being purely decorative, the artistic carvings show symbols of death and crude representations in line with the Aztecs' bloody rituals....
Source: CBS News
Feb 22, 2012
Black History Month was marked in a very special way Wednesday. The president and the first lady attended the ground breaking for the National Museum of African-American History and Culture on the National Mall, where Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech still echoes.
Source: LiveScience
Feb 22, 2012
Even with cranes, helicopters, tractors and trucks at our disposal, it would be tough to construct the Great Pyramid of Giza today. Its construction 4,500 years ago is so astounding in some people's eyes that they invoke mystical or even alien involvement. But the current theory of the building of the Great Pyramid — the notion that it was assembled from the inside out, via a spiraling internal ramp — is probably still the best construction plan.Following that plan, we could replicate the Wonder of the Ancient World for a cool $5 billion.First, let's look at the blueprint: The pyramid is 756 feet long on each side, 481 feet high, and composed of 2.3 million stones weighing nearly 3 tons each for a total mass of 6.5 million tons. Legend has it that the structure was erected in just 20 years' time, meaning that a block had to have been moved into place about every 5 minutes of each day and night. That pace would have required the (slave) labor of thousands. While traditional theories hold that the pyramid was built via a long external ramp, such a ramp would have had to wind around for more than a mile to be shallow enough to drag stones up, and it would have had a stone volume twice that of the pyramid itself....
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
Feb 22, 2012
ACTIVISTS loyal to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe have visited the grave of colonialist Cecil Rhodes to demand permission to exhume his remains and return them to Britain.A group of Zanu-PF supporters and veterans from the country's liberation war travelled to the remote site last week to express their anger at the continued presence of the Oxford-educated mining magnate's body in Zimbabwe.The fresh call to exhume Rhodes' remains comes nearly 110 years after the colonial pioneer was laid to rest in 1902 in the Matopos hills outside the country's second city of Bulawayo.At the time, the land lay inside Rhodesia, a British territory established in his own name by the millionaire businessman and politician.However groups loyal to Mugabe have repeatedly called for Rhodes' grave to be removed since the country gained its independence in 1980....
Source: NYT
Feb 21, 2012
WASHINGTON — Something resembling a “fog of war” prevailed at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s headquarters in the first hours and days after the Fukushima accident began last March, the N.R.C.’s chairman said Tuesday, as the agency released a cache of transcripts of internal conference calls beginning hours after the earthquake.The N.R.C. got some of its information from the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, the utility whose Fukushima Daiichi reactors were stricken by the tsunami after the quake, but a great deal of the information came from news accounts, according to various officials whose contemporaneous assessments were captured in the transcripts.For example, on the second day of the crisis, one official referred to “unconfirmed reports of boiling” in spent fuel pools, but the reports did not say which of the six reactors were involved, a maddening ambiguity for officials who oversaw similar reactors in the United States....
Source: BBC News
Feb 21, 2012
Malcolm X has been honoured with a plaque in Smethwick almost 50 years after he visited the West Midlands town during heightened racial tensions.The civil rights campaigner gave interviews in 1965 in Marshall Street where white householders were lobbying the council to buy up houses to prevent black or Asian families moving in.The father-of-six was assassinated nine days later in New York.A blue plaque has been unveiled on the side of a house in Marshall Street....
Source: Fox News
Feb 21, 2012
The transfer of 17 tons of shipwreck treasure wrested away from deep-sea explorers by the Spanish government will be made later this week from a U.S. Air Force base in Florida, officials confirmed Tuesday night.MacDill Air Force Base said in a statement that it is cooperating with Spanish government officials in the transfer of the 594,000 silver coins and other artifacts that were brought to the surface off the Portuguese coast and flown back to Tampa by Odyssey Marine Exploration in May 2007."The U.S. Air Force has an excellent relationship with the Spanish Air Force and we are working closely with them to ensure a safe and secure mission," said the brief statement, which added that Spain is sending two C-130 transport planes to haul the cargo....
Source: Focus Taiwan
Feb 21, 2012
Former Premier Hau Pei-tsun, a four-star general-turned- politician, has expressed concern that school textbook accounts of the history and geography of the Republic of China might be misleading the younger generation as to their knowledge about their country.In a letter to the editor of the United Daily News (UDN), Hau, who was premier from 1990-1993, voiced his worry about how his granddaughter's history and geography textbooks ambiguously describe the country's recent history and geography.In the letter, Hau questioned why the textbooks constantly use the term "Taiwan area," which he said confuses students about where their country -- the Republic of China -- lies. "It that a geographic term or a political term?" he asked....
Source: Heritage Collectors' Society
Feb 20, 2012
DOYLESTOWN, Pa., Feb. 20, 2012--A detailed ink drawing of a clipper ship signed by George Washington has been discovered by Tom Lingenfelter of the Heritage Collectors' Society. One of America's most successful history detectives, who recently revealed what is now known to be the only True Copy of the Original Declaration of Independence, Lingenfelter has now unearthed a schoolboy drawing signed by a 10-year-old Washington who would later become the first president of the United States and is referred to as the "Father of Our Country."The wonderfully preserved drawing is signed "March 12th, 1742, Geo. Washington." And like the image of the ship above it, the signature displays a careful and deliberate self-consciousness. While clearly revealing hints of the grace that, years later, would characterize Washington's mature autograph it is a fascinating item direct from the juvenile pen of one of America's most important historic icons.
Source: Discovery News
Feb 20, 2012
When John Glenn blasted off inside his Mercury capsule 50 years ago on Monday to become the first American in orbit, not everyone breathed a sigh of relief that the country had finally matched the Soviet Union's technology.Doctors were worried that Glenn, a 40-year-old Marine Corps pilot, might not be able to see in space."The doctors were literally concerned that your eyes might change shape and your vision might change enough that you couldn't even see the instrument panel," Glenn told reporters at the Kennedy Space Center last week during a series of commemorations to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight."They were enough concerned about it we actually put a little miniaturized eye chart on the top of instrument panel," he said....
Source: Daily Pleasantville
Feb 20, 2012
NORTH WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Gen. George Washington established several headquarters in the Hudson River Valley during the Revolutionary War, but one such historic location in Westchester’s North White Plains has been left to wither away over the decades.In past years, Westchester County officials have considered preserving the Elijah Miller House in North White Plains, where North Castle historians say Washington established a headquarters during the Battle of White Plains in 1776. Although the house, which the county opened to the public in 1918 and deemed a National Historic Site in 1976, is decrepit and quickly deteriorating, two local residents said they would like to see it saved.“I’d love to see it restored, but I don’t think the county has the funds,” said Steve Puchir, operations manager of Wallauer’s in North White Plains. “I think it might be a good project for somebody like a Boy Scout troop or a Girl Scout troop to undertake.” He added that such a project wouldn’t be the best undertaking for the county, given the current state of the economy and that fact that it probably wouldn’t be “a money-maker.”...
Source: NYT
Feb 20, 2012
WARSAW — For all that Poland has accomplished since the fall of the Iron Curtain, it has long resisted fully coming to terms with its Communist past — the oppression, the spying, even the massacres. Society preferred to forget, to move on.So it may come as a surprise that Poland and many of its neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe have decided the time is right to deal with the unfinished business. Suddenly there is a wave of accounting in the form of government actions and cultural explorations, some seeking closure, others payback.A court in Poland last month found that the Communist leaders behind the imposition of martial law in December 1981 were part of a “criminal group.” Bulgaria’s president is trying to purge ambassadors who served as security agents. The Macedonian government is busy hunting for collaborators, and Hungary’s new Constitution allows legal action against former Communists....
Source: CBS News
Feb 20, 2012
John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, creating one of the most historic events in modern history. Now, 50 years later, Glenn celebrates the occasion by looking to the future of space exploration.(video)
Source: Today's Zaman
Feb 20, 2012
A historic monastery where an apostle of Jesus Christ is said to have performed miracles is close to caving in and needs immediate repairs, the leader of Greek Cyprus' Orthodox Christian Church said Monday.Archbishop Chrysostomos II urged Greek Cypriot pilgrims not to travel to the Apostolos Andreas - or Saint Andrew - monastery in Turkish Cyprus for fear it could collapse. He said if Turkish Cypriot authorities didn't act fast, he would dispatch restoration crews to prop up the monastery's crumbling central archway, possibly stoking tensions on the divided island. Chrysostomos account was immediately disputed by Turkish Cypriot officials, who say authorities are keen to protect the island's cultural heritage and a restoration program is already under way....
Source: NYT
Feb 20, 2012
Living plants have been generated from the fruit of a little arctic flower, the narrow-leafed campion, that died 32,000 years ago, a team of Russian scientists reports. The fruit was stored by an arctic ground squirrel in its burrow on the tundra of northeastern Siberia and lay permanently frozen until excavated by scientists a few years ago.This would be the oldest plant by far that has ever been grown from ancient tissue. The present record is held by a date palm grown from a seed some 2,000 years old that was recovered from the ancient fortress of Masada in Israel.Seeds and certain cells can last a long term under the right conditions, but many claims of extreme longevity have failed on closer examination, and biologists are likely to greet this claim too with reserve until it can be independently confirmed. Tales of wheat grown from seeds in the tombs of the pharaohs have long been discredited. Lupins were germinated from seeds in a 10,000-year-old lemming burrow found by a gold miner in the Yukon. But the seeds, when later dated by the radiocarbon method, turned out to be modern contaminants.
Source: Minnesota Public Radio
Feb 19, 2012
ST. PAUL, Minn. — This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Dakota war in Minnesota. Over the next nine months we'll hear more about what led to the conflict that ended in December 1862, when 38 Dakota Indians were hanged in Mankato. It was the largest mass execution in U.S. history.As we head into the somber commemoration of the Dakota War this year, we thought it appropriate to call in historian Annette Atkins to help us learn more about Minnesota's first governor, Henry Sibley, his times, and the events that laid the groundwork for the war.Atkins said the "really painful" chapter in Minnesota history began with two treaties drawn up in 1851 between the government and the Dakota in what the Dakota erroneously assumed to be good faith land-for-money swaps."Those treaties in 1851 were really a disaster, from so many points of view. One outrage of those treaties was that, at the concludion of the signing of those treaties, the Indians were led from one signing table to another signing table," Atkins said. "And at that table, where many of them thought were just another set of treaty papers, were in fact what have come to be called the traitor papers, in which they were pretty effectively swindled out of much of the money they had agreed to receive."...
