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: BBC News
May 19, 2011
A US governor has signed a bill requiring a French railway company to disclose its role in the Holocaust if it is to win state contracts.Martin O'Malley of Maryland signed a bill aimed at Keolis, a Paris company owned by French national railways SNCF.The company had bid to operate commuter trains in the state of Maryland.Historians say SNCF moved 76,000 Jews to Nazi camps during the Holocaust. The laws' supporters say it will force disclosure of war records.Online availability
Source: Fox News
May 19, 2011
Maryland passed legislation Thursday that requires a French rail company, as a condition for receiving a rail contract from the state, to disclose its role in transporting 76,000 people loaded in 76 cattle cars to their death in Nazi camps.
Source: NYT
May 19, 2011
WASHINGTON — After six months of struggle inside the White House to reconcile American interests in the Arab uprisings with American values, President Obama on Thursday sought to portray the region’s revolt in the historical tradition of the American Revolution and the civil rights movement....
Source: NYT
May 19, 2011
Almost since the moment the ink dried on the Book of Revelation, seers and scriptural interpreters have been announcing the precise date and time at which the faithful would be whisked off to heaven and those left behind abandoned to immediate and unpleasant annihilation.
Source: NYT
May 19, 2011
In the early 1960s the Beatles posed for hours for the German photographer Astrid Kirchherr, even before the roster of four band members was finalized. She met them when they first played in her native Hamburg and encouraged them to imitate her bowl-cut hair and collarless jackets.She was briefly engaged to the bass player Stuart Sutcliffe, who died of a brain hemorrhage in 1962, at 21. She later tried to branch out as a photojournalist, but potential clients always asked, “Where are the Beatles pictures?”
Source: University of Chicago Press
May 19, 2011
Archaeologists have discovered a 12,000-year-old iron oxide mine in Chile that marks the oldest evidence of organized mining ever found in the Americas, according to a report in the June issue of Current Anthropology.A team of researchers led by Diego Salazar of the Universidad de Chile found the 40-meter trench near the coastal town of Taltal in northern Chile. It was dug by the Huentelauquen people—the first settlers in the region—who used iron oxide as pigment for painted stone and bone instruments, and probably also for clothing and body paint, the researchers say.
Source: WallStreet Journal
May 19, 2011
An outbreak of smallpox was the furthest thing from historian Dr. Paul Levengood's mind when his staff at the Virginia Historical Society put together an exhibit of "bizarre bits" that were added to the society's collection since its founding in 1831, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.There was Confederate president Jefferson Davis's cigar, confiscated by Union troops. There was a fungus carving of Robert E. Lee on his horse, Traveller, and a wreath made of human hair.
Source: BBC News
May 19, 2011
The US killer known as the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, has been asked to supply a DNA sample to police investigating the Tylenol poisoning which killed seven people in 1982.The 68-year-old was jailed for life in 1998 after killing three people and wounding 23 others in a string of bombings over 18 years.Chicago FBI said that a "re-examination of the evidence" had prompted the move.Pain relief pills Tylenol were laced with cyanide, prompting a huge scare.There was a huge recall of capsules from the shelves of pharmacies across the US.
Source: BBC News
May 19, 2011
A cigar box once owned by the captain of the Titanic has been sold for £25,000 at an auction in Liverpool.The walnut humidor was discovered gathering dust on a bedroom cabinet in the Merseyside home of Hilary Mee.It was spotted by auctioneer John Crane when he was invited to value a number of antiques.Ms Mee said she had no idea the item was connected to the ill-fated vessel, even though it had been lying around her home for 20 years.Finest smokes
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
May 19, 2011
A 'highly significant' collection of unseen documents exposing the Nazi-sympathiser cousin of Sir Winston Churchill's wife have been unearthed in a loft.The never-before-seen letters and photographs revealing the extent of George Pitt-Rivers' views and his descent into Nazism were discovered in Dorset.Pitt-Rivers, the cousin of Clementine Churchill, earned fame as a respected anthropologist after fighting as a captain in World War I.
Source: ABC (Australia)
May 18, 2011
Heavy rainfall earlier this year has helped to uncover an Aboriginal burial site believed to be more than 25 thousand years old.An Aboriginal burial site near Condobolin could be more than 25 thousand years old.The remains of an aboriginal man were found on a private property, around 50 kilometres from the town earlier this year.An archaeologist with the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage Phil Purcell says the fossilisation of the bones dates them as being around 10 thousand years old.
Source: BBC News
May 18, 2011
An Olympic torch relay will run for 70 days ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games. So what is this relay, and why all the fuss?"It is an utterly thrilling thing to do," says Philip Barker.The Olympic historian and author has a lump in the throat just at the memory of running, torch clasped in his hand, high in the Taygetos mountains above Sparta, Greece.He was a part of the torch relay, the human-powered running feat that bore the flame on its journey from its source, Olympia, to the Atlanta Games in 1996....
Source: History.com
May 18, 2011
The daughter of Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao II and the brother of Pharaoh Kamose, the Egyptian princess Ahmose-Meryet-Amon lived in Thebes—now Luxor—between 1540 and 1550 B.C. When she died in her 40s, the royal mummy-to-be may have been suffering from heart disease so severe that today’s doctors would have performed bypass surgery.
Source: NYT
May 18, 2011
For those on a genealogy quest, large or small, these are exciting times.Amateur family sleuths are taking advantage of the vast and growing trove of digitized records on sites like Ancestry.com, FamilyLink.com and Geni.com. More often these days, researchers are turning to social networks for help in discovering connections to the dead, and to the living.
Source: NYT
May 18, 2011
LONDON — On the second day of a visit to the Irish Republic, Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday visited the site of a massacre more than 90 years ago that still evokes memories of fierce hostilities between
Source: CNN
May 18, 2011
Israeli authorities arrested a retired American university lecturer this week on suspicion of selling ancient artifacts illegally to U.S. tourists, they said Wednesday.The suspect, a tour guide, is accused of selling ancient coins and 1,500-year-old clay lamps, and pocketing the equivalent of $20,000.He admitted attempting to smuggle antiquities, selling suspected stolen antiques and trafficking in antiquities without a permit, the authorities said.
Source: Edinburgh News
May 18, 2011
THE hands of time are stuck at 5.40, the leather strap is long gone and the watch Dr Tom Renouf keeps tucked inside a small brown box lined with cream satin appears just an unremarkable, old, broken timepiece.It hasn't worked since 1946. "I used to wear it," he says with a shrug of indifference. "Then I dropped it on a marble floor. Took it to a couple of local watchmakers for repair but they didn't have the spare parts. Shame. The Germans made very good watches."
Source: AP
May 18, 2011
United Airlines is apologizing for briefly restarting use of flight numbers of two planes that crashed after being hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001.United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson says the airline regrets the recent use of flight numbers 93 and 175, and has taken steps to remove the numbers from the airline’s computer system.Johnson says the flight numbers probably went back into use just in the past few days, and he attributes it to a technical error.
Source: Irish Times
May 18, 2011
THE VISIT of Queen Elizabeth II to Trinity College Dublin yesterday reflected a a strong historical and symbolic connection between the royal family and the university that extends back over 400 years to Queen Elizabeth I.In 1592, Queen Elizabeth I provided the legal charter to establish the university. Yesterday, the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, viewed the original charter in the college’s Long Room.
Source: CNN
May 18, 2011
It looked like two two-by-fours nailed together.But it had nails sticking out of it, and Gary Wright, standing in the parking lot of his Salt Lake City computer company, thought he should move it. When he picked it up, it exploded.It was February 20, 1987, when Wright, then 25, became a member of a dubious club: victims of the so-called "Unabomber."Wright's secretary helped police put together a composite sketch of the suspect -- a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and aviator sunglasses -- that was distributed nationwide.
