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Last Chance to Sign Open Letter to Obama (prominent libertarians, academics, former officials, leftists, etc. already on list)

Ms. Goodman is the Editor/Features Editor at HNN. She has a Masters in Library and Information Studies from McGill University, and has done graduate work in history at Concordia University. Her blog is History Musings

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LADY BIRD JOHNSON (1912-2007):Lady Bird JPG
Lady Bird JPG
Lady Bird JPG
Lady Bird JPG
Lady Bird JPG

  • Lady Bird Johnson Tribute Site
  • PBS NewsHour - Lady Bird Johnson
  • Michael Beschloss: historian Michael Beschloss reflected on her life and legacy on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. (mp3) - PBS NewsHour, 7-13-07
  • Lewis L. Gould: Remembering Lady Bird Johnson First Lady Recalled as Charming, Media Savvy and Deeply Connected to Nature - WaPo, 7-12-07
  • Robert A. Caro:"She conducted herself, often in the most difficult circumstances, with a graciousness and dignity and total devotion to her husband that was heroic."..."She already had this dignity, no matter how he yelled at her, but she transformed herself from the shy young woman afraid of speaking in public into the poised, dignified, gracious first lady the American people would come to admire in later years. It's an act of willpower and heroism that is very thrilling." - WaPo, 7-12-07
  • Gil Troy:"She went one step further than her heroine and role model Eleanor Roosevelt by being more intimately involved in the president's day to day life and political career. If Eleanor Roosevelt showed just how influential a first lady could be in advancing her own concerns, Lady Bird Johnson demonstrated just how influential a first lady could be in shaping and selling the president's agenda.... She pushed him to invoke themes of self-sacrifice and patriotism, to work in references to World War II and to blame Congress squarely for failing to fund the Vietnam war properly. This intervention typified 'Bird's' great influence and her role in protecting Lyndon and trying to position him on the grand historical stage." - NPR, 7-12-07
BIGGEST STORIES:
HNN STATS THIS WEEK:
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

  • 07-16-1790 - The District of Columbia was established as the seat of the United States government.
  • 07-16-1918 - Russia's Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
  • 07-16-1945 - The first atomic bomb was tested in Alamogordo, N.M.
  • 07-16-1951 - J. D. Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye was published.
  • 07-16-1969 - Apollo 11 took off on the first manned flight to the moon.
  • 07-16-1979 - Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq.
  • 07-16-1999 - John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren, died in a plane crash near Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
  • 07-17-1821 - Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
  • 07-17-1898 - Spain surrendered to the United States at Santiago, Cuba, ending the Spanish-American War.
  • 07-17-1917 - The British royal family changed its name from the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor amid anti-German senitment during World War I.
  • 07-17-1945 - President Harry Truman, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet at the opening of the Potsdam Conference.
  • 07-17-1955 - Disneyland opened in Anaheim, Calif.
  • 07-17-1975 - The American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft linked up for the first time.
  • 07-17-1998 - The last Russian Czar Nicholas II was buried 80 years after he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks.
  • 07-18-0064 - A great fire began that ultimately destroyed most of Rome. The emperor Nero blamed it on Christians and began the first Roman persecution of them.
  • 07-18-1936 - The Spanish Civil War began.
  • 07-18-1947 - President Harry S. Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act.
  • 07-19-1848 - The first women's rights convention, called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia C. Mott, was held in Seneca Falls, New York.
  • 07-19-1870 - The Franco-Prussian war began.
  • 07-19-1941 - Winston Churchill was the first to use the two-finger"V is for Victory" sign.
  • 07-19-1984 - Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated for the vice-presidency by a major political party.
  • 07-19-1993 - President Clinton announced the"Don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding gays in the military.
  • 07-20-1810 - Colombia declared independence from Spain.
  • 07-20-1881 - Fugitive Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull surrendered to federal troops.
  • 07-20-1951 - King Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated.
  • 07-20-1960 - Sirima Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) became the world's first woman prime minister.
  • 07-20-1969 - Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon.
  • 07-20-1985 - Treasure hunters found the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank off the coast of Key West, Fla., in 1622 during a hurricane. The ship contained over $400 million in coins and silver ingots.
  • 07-21-1861 - Confederate forces won victory at Bull Run in the first major battle of the Civil War.
  • 07-21-1873 - The first train robbery west of the Mississippi was pulled off by Jesse James and his gang.
  • 07-21-1925 - In the"Monkey Trial," John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee state law by teaching evolution.
  • 07-21-1949 - The U.S. Senate ratified the North Atlantic Treaty.
  • 07-21-1970 - The Aswan High Dam was opened in Egypt.
  • 07-21-1998 - Astronaut Alan Shepard died.
  • 07-21-2002 - WorldCom filed for bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
  • 07-22-1796 - Cleveland, Ohio, was founded by Gen. Moses Cleaveland.
  • 07-22-1933 - Wiley Post became the first person to fly solo around the world.
  • 07-22-1934 - John Dillinger was shot to death outside Chicago's Biograph Theater.
  • 07-22-1937 - Franklin D. Roosevelt's" court packing" scheme was rejected by the U.S. Senate.
  • 07-22-1975 - Congress restored Confederate general Robert E. Lee's U.S. citizenship.
  • 07-22-2003 - Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Ousay, were killed in a firefight.
IN THE NEWS:
REVIEWED AND FIRST CHAPTERS:

  • Carl Bernstein, Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.: Good Hillary, Bad Hillary A WOMAN IN CHARGE The Life of Hillary Rodham ClintonHER WAY The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton. - NYT, 7-15-07
  • Carl Bernstein: A WOMAN IN CHARGE The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Chapter - NYT, 7-15-07
  • Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr.: HER WAY The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Chapter - NYT, 7-15-07
  • Tom Segev: Peace for Land 1967 Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East - NYT, 7-15-07
  • Molly O'Neill, ed: The Gastronomical We - AMERICAN FOOD WRITING An Anthology With Classic Recipes - NYT, 7-15-07
  • Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency (By Nigel Hamilton) The Seat-of-the-Pants Presidency Bill Clinton's first term was a shaky enterprise - WaPo, 7-15-07
  • The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews (By James Reston Jr.) Trial by Television - WaPo, 7-15-07
  • Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful And Controversial Vice President (By Stephen F. Hayes) American Enigma A journalist attempts to plumb the depths of our secretive vice president - WaPo, 7-15-07

  • Tim Weiner: Beschloss says NYT reporter has written solid history of CIA - NYT Book Review, 7-12-07
  • Paul Moon: Historian Wades Into Auckland Treaty Claim Controversy - http://www.scoop.co.nz, 7-10-07
  • John Agresto: Mugged by reality in Iraq - David Forsmark at frontpagemag.com, 7-10-07
  • Oliver Pollak: Collaborates on history of the University of Nebraska - Press Release--UNO, 7-10-07
  • Ian Kershaw: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941 - Max Boot in the NYT Book Review 7-8-07
  • Gunter Grass: Friend John Irving in front page NYT Book Review praises his honesty about Nazi connections - NYT Book Review, 7-8-07
  • Tim Weiner: NYT reporter pens history of CIA - Seattle Times, 7-6-07
OP-ED:
PROFILED:
FEATURE:
INTERVIEWED:
QUOTED:

  • Timothy Naftali:"I'm a historian. I can't sugar-coat things. History is messy, dramatic, exciting. There are good people and bad people and that's what makes it interesting. You have to tell history with the bark off."
  • Linda Colley on"Windows Open on Royal Family’s Wealth":"What is different about Britain, its particular accident, is that it was a winner in the wars and, unlike other European states, it kept its monarchy and kept its residual state of glory and stature, this carapace of splendor. They have not yet become neutered." - NYT, 7-15-07
HONORED, AWARDED, AND APPOINTMENTS:
SPOTTED & SPEAKING EVENTS CALENDAR:
ON TV:

  • C-Span2, Book TV : After Words: Tim Weiner author of"Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA" interviewed by David Ignatius, Sunday, July 15 @ 9:00pm C-Span2, BookTV
  • History Channel:"Gestapo :The Sword Is Forged," Monday, July 16, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Gestapo :The Sword Unsheathed," Monday, July 16, @ 3pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Gestapo :The Sword Is Shattered," Monday, July 16, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :11 - Dracula's Underground," Monday, July 16, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :12 - Secret Pagan Underground" Monday, July 16, @ 9pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Digging For The Truth :Search for King David," Monday, July 16, @ 10pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Mysteries of the Garden of Eden," Monday, July 16, @ 11pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Hell: The Devil's Domain," Tuesday, July 17, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Sharp Shooters," Wednesday, July 18, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Kennedys: The Curse of Power," Thursday, July 19, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"The Other Tragedy at Pearl Harbor," Thursday, July 19, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Modern Marvels :Tunnels of Vietnam," Thursday, July 19, @ 6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Modern Marvels :Cotton," Thursday, July 19, @ 7pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed," Friday, July 20, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Our Generation :Apollo 11: The Moon Landing," Friday, July 20, @ 6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Our Generation :Motown," Friday, July 20, @ 6:30pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Mega Disasters: San Francisco Earthquake," Saturday, July 21, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Decoding The Past :Cults: Dangerous Devotion," Saturday, July 21, @ 10pm ET/PT
SELLING BIG (NYT):

  • Ronald Reagan. Edited by Douglas Brinkley: THE REAGAN DIARIES #7 (7 weeks on list) - 7-22-07

  • Walter Isaacson: EINSTEIN HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE #8 (13 weeks on list) - 7-22-07
  • Michael Beschloss: PRESIDENTIAL COURAGE, #13 (9 weeks on list) - 7-22-07
  • Carl Bernstein: A WOMAN IN CHARGE: THE LIFE OF HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, #17 - 7-22-07
FUTURE RELEASES:

  • Kathryn C. Statler: Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam, (University Press of Kentucky) July 28, 2007
  • Richard B. Frank, MacArthur: A Biography, (Palgrave Macmillan), July 28, 2007
  • Woody Holton: Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, (Hill and Wang, August 7, 2007)
  • David Halberstam: Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, (Hyperion, September 2007)
  • John Kelin, Praise From a Future Generation: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the First Generation Critics of the Warren Report, (Wings Press TX), September 28, 2007
  • Maureen Waller: Sovereign Ladies: The Six Reigning Queens of England, (St. Martin's Press, September 28, 2007)
  • Rick Atkinson: Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, (Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated, October 2, 2007)
  • Benjamin J. Kaplan: Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe, (Harvard University Press, October 15, 2007)
  • Richard Avedon, The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family, (HarperCollins Publishers), October 23, 2007
  • M. Stanton Evans: Blacklisted by History: The Real Story of Joseph McCarthy and His Fight against America's Enemies, (Crown Publishing Group, November 6, 2007)
DEPARTED:

Sunday, July 22, 2007 - 18:14

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 2008 WATCH:

  • Martin Kramer: Joins Giuliani Campaign - Sandstorm, the blog of Martin Kramer, 7-17-07
  • Carl Sferrazza Anthony: A historian of America's first ladies, believes that without anyone paying much attention, Bill Clinton has been playing such a role in public and providing insight into what his potential tenure as"First Gent" would be like. Anthony points out that, while the U.S. has yet to elect a woman president, other countries have had women presidents and prime ministers. But the men who have pioneered the first spouse role were not themselves former presidents. - AP, 7-20-07
BIGGEST STORIES:
HNN STATS THIS WEEK:
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:This Week in History:

  • 07-23-1829 - William Burt patented a forerunner of the typewriter.
  • 07-23-1885 - Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, died at Mount McGregor, N.Y., at age 63.
  • 07-23-1914 - Austria and Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, precipitating World War I.
  • 07-23-1945 - Vichy government leader Marshal Henri Petain went on trial for treason.
  • 07-23-1952 - Revolution erupted in Egypt as the military took power in a bloodless coup. The following year the monarchy was abolished and, for the first time since the pharaohs, Egypt was again ruled by Egyptians.
  • 07-24-1847 - Brigham Young and the first members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) arrived at the Great Salt Lake.
  • 07-24-1862 - Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, died in Kinderhook, N.Y.
  • 07-24-1866 - Tennessee became the first Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.
  • 07-24-1937 - Charges against five black men accused of raping two white women in the Scottsboro case were dropped.
  • 07-24-1974 - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon had to turn over White House tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.
  • 07-25-1946 - The United States tested the first underwater atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll.
  • 07-25-1952 - Puerto Rico became a commonwealth of the United States.
  • 07-25-1978 - The world's first test-tube baby, Louise Joy Brown, was born in Lancashire, England.
  • 07-25-1984 - Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space.
  • 07-26-1788 - New York became the 11th state in the United States.
  • 07-26-1847 - Liberia became Africa's first republic.
  • 07-26-1908 - The Office of the Chief Examiner, which in 1935 became the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was created.
  • 07-26-1947 - President Harry S Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
  • 07-26-1952 - Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron, died in Buenos Aires at age 33.
  • 07-26-1952 - King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated after a coup led by Gamal Abdal Nasser.
  • 07-26-1953 - Fidel Castro was among a group of rebelling anti-Batistas who unsuccessfully attacked an army barracks.
  • 07-27-1861 - Union general George B. McClellan was put in command of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War.
  • 07-27-1953 - An armistice was signed ending the Korean War.
  • 07-27-1974 - The House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Richard Nixon for obstructing justice in the Watergate case.
  • 07-27-1995 - The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.
  • 07-27-1996 - A pipe bomb exploded in an Atlanta park during the Olympic Games.
  • 07-28-1540 - King Henry VIII of England's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was executed and Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.
  • 07-28-1750 - The great baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach died.
  • 07-28-1794 - Robespierre, one of the leading figures of the French Revolution, was sent to the guillotine.
  • 07-28-1821 - Peru declared its independence from Spain.
  • 07-28-1868 - The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which established the citizenship of African Americans and guaranteed due process of law, was ratified.
  • 07-28-1914 - Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, precipitating the start of World War I.
  • 07-28-1932 - Herbert Hoover ordered Douglas MacArthur to evict the Bonus Marchers from their camps.
  • 07-28-2002 - Nine Pennsylvania coal miners were rescued after 77 hours of being trapped in a mine shaft.
  • 07-29-1890 - Artist Vincent van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France.
  • 07-29-1958 - President Eisenhower signed the congressional act that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was authorized by Congress.
IN THE NEWS:
REVIEWED AND FIRST CHAPTERS:

  • Tim Weiner: Counter Intelligence LEGACY OF ASHES The History of the CIA - NYT, 7-22-07
  • Tim Weiner: LEGACY OF ASHES The History of the CIA, First Chapter - NYT, 7-22-07
  • David Wise on Tim Weiner: Covert Action Has the CIA ever been good at intelligence gathering? LEGACY OF ASHES The History of the CIA - WaPo, 7-22-07
  • Frederick Taylor: What Goes Up . . . How a notorious symbol divided a city and its residents THE BERLIN WALL A World Divided, 1961-1989 - WaPo, 7-22-07
  • Robert Dallek: How he handles Nixon in Nixon and Kissinger book - Michael Nelson in the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE), 7-20-07
  • Tom Segev: Six-Day War, in Revisionist History, Was Provoked by Israelis - Bloomberg News, 7-19-07
  • Jeffrey Wasserstrom: New Essay Collection Takes a Nuanced Look at Modern China - Ascribe, 7-17-07
  • Eric Arnesen on Jack Beatty: Revising the revisionists Re-examining political and economic corruption during the Gilded Age Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900 - Chicago Tribune, 7-14-07
OP-ED:
PROFILED:

  • Saul Friedlander: Holocaust historian seeks the whole story - LAT, 7-15-07
FEATURE:
INTERVIEWED:
QUOTED:

  • Robert Allen on"Bill would make site of WWII explosion into a national park":"Anyone who was close enough to see what happened didn't survive. It was the worst home-front tragedy of World War II." - AP, 7-20-07
  • Neville Kidd: Memorial a betrayal of Anzacs, says historian:"It is a travesty to the memory of nearly 2000 soldiers killed at Fromelles.... such a disgrace that the NSW Government is not prepared to add the name of our worst battle where so many Australians were slaughtered by a top German force.... Waves of soldiers mown down by machine-guns have been betrayed by bureaucrats who can't be bothered making a simple change to the memorial." - Sydney Morning Herald, 7-19-07
  • David Bercuson on"Homefront has more angst than usual":"I think they're out of step, generally speaking, when it comes to foreign-policy questions, out of step in the sense that they tend to be more cautious, they tend to come down more on the side of not using military forces. Part of it is that as a minority in this country that feels it has been burned in the past on major questions of national defence, it's not in its own interest to support a vigorous, proactive military policy." - National Post, Canada, 7-16-07
HONORED, AWARDED, AND APPOINTMENTS:
SPOTTED & SPEAKING EVENTS CALENDAR:
EXHIBITIONS:

  • Paul Hutton: Billy the Kid Still Rides in New Mexico - VOA, 7-14-07
ON TV:History Listings This Week:

  • C-Span2, Book TV : History Kim MacQuarrie:"The Last Days of the Incas", Sunday, July 23 @ 9:00pm C-Span2, BookTV
  • C-Span2, Book TV : After Words: Larry Berman, author of"Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An - Time Magazine Reporter & Vietnamese Communist Agent" interviewed by Robert Kaiser, Sunday, July 23 @ 10:00pm C-Span2, BookTV
  • History Channel:"Rumrunners, Moonshiners and Bootleggers," Monday, July 23, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :12 - Secret Pagan Underground," Monday, July 23, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :13 - Underground Bootleggers" Monday, July 23, @ 9pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Special : Da Vinci & the Code He Lived By," Tuesday, July 24, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Man, Moment, Machine :Galileo & the Sinful Spyglass," Tuesday, July 24, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Return of the Pirates," Wednesday, July 25, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Deep Sea Detectives :Secret Underwater Caves," Wednesday, July 25, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"History's Mysteries :Mysteries on the High Seas," Wednesday, July 25, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Modern Marvels :Gold Mines," Wednesday, July 25, @ 9pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"UFO Files :Texas' Roswell," Wednesday, July 25, @ 11pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Alaska: Dangerous Territory," Friday, July 27, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Special :Rogue Waves," Friday, July 27, @ 4pm ET/PT
SELLING BIG (NYT):

  • Walter Isaacson: EINSTEIN HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE #8 (14 weeks on list) - 7-29-07
  • Ronald Reagan. Edited by Douglas Brinkley: THE REAGAN DIARIES #12 (8 weeks on list) - 7-29-07

  • Tim Weiner: LEGACY OF ASHES #13 (1 week on list) - 7-29-07

  • Michael Beschloss: PRESIDENTIAL COURAGE, #21 - 7-29-07
FUTURE RELEASES:

  • Kathryn C. Statler: Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam, (University Press of Kentucky) July 28, 2007
  • Richard B. Frank, MacArthur: A Biography, (Palgrave Macmillan), July 28, 2007
  • Woody Holton: Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, (Hill and Wang, August 7, 2007)
  • David Halberstam: Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, (Hyperion, September 2007)
  • John Kelin, Praise From a Future Generation: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the First Generation Critics of the Warren Report, (Wings Press TX), September 28, 2007
  • Maureen Waller: Sovereign Ladies: The Six Reigning Queens of England, (St. Martin's Press, September 28, 2007)
  • Rick Atkinson: Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, (Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated, October 2, 2007)
  • Benjamin J. Kaplan: Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe, (Harvard University Press, October 15, 2007)
  • Richard Avedon, The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family, (HarperCollins Publishers), October 23, 2007
  • M. Stanton Evans: Blacklisted by History: The Real Story of Joseph McCarthy and His Fight against America's Enemies, (Crown Publishing Group, November 6, 2007)
DEPARTED:

Sunday, July 22, 2007 - 18:00

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY:

  • Dinesh D'Souza: Ten Great Things About America - AOL, 7-1-07
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 2008 WATCH:

    Presidential Campaign 2008 Watch

    • Cal Jillson on"McCain's Run For Presidential Candidacy In Trouble":"He is crosswise to conservatives on immigration, and the people who were most excited about him in 2000 - the moderate Republicans - are mad at him on Iraq. The political base is just not there for him in nearly the same way it was in 2000, and he's eight years older." - NEWSPost India, 6-18-07
BIGGEST STORIES:
HNN STATS THIS WEEK:
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:This Week in History:

  • 07-02-1881 - President James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau; he died on Sept. 19.
  • 07-02-1890 - Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.
  • 07-02-1937 - Amelia Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to fly around the world.
  • 07-02-1964 - President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.
  • 07-02-1976 - In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.
  • 07-03-1608 - Samuel de Champlain founded the city of Quebec.
  • 07-03-1775 - Commander in chief George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Mass.
  • 07-03-1863 - The Battle of Gettysburg ended.
  • 07-03-1890 - Idaho became the 43rd state in the United States.
  • 07-03-1930 - The U.S. Veterans Administration was created by Congress.
  • 07-03-1962 - Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
  • 07-03-1962 - Algeria became independent after 132 years of French rule.
  • 07-04-1776 - The U.S. declared independence from Great Britain.
  • 07-04-1826 - Former presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died.
  • 07-04-1831 - Former president James Monroe died.
  • 07-04-1884 - The Statue of Liberty was presented to the United States in Paris.
  • 07-04-1895 - Katharine Lee Bates published America the Beautiful.
  • 07-04-1939 - Lou Gehrig, stricken with ALS, made his farewell at Yankee Stadium.
  • 07-04-1976 - The United States celebrated its bicentennial.
  • 07-05-1811 - Venezuela became the first South American country to declare independence from Spain.
  • 07-05-1865 - William Booth formed the Salvation Army in London, England.
  • 07-05-1946 - Larry Doby signed with the Cleveland Indians, becoming the first African American player in the American League.
  • 07-05-1954 - Elvis Presley recorded"That's All Right," his first commercial record.
  • 07-05-1975 - Cape Verde became independent after 500 years of Portuguese rule.
  • 07-05-1975 - Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win a Wimbledon singles title when he defeated Jimmy Connors.
  • 07-05-1996 - Dolly, the first sheep cloned from adult cells, was born.
  • 07-06-1535 - Sir Thomas More was beheaded after refusing to join Henry VIII's Church of England.
  • 07-06-1885 - Louis Pasteur successfully treated a patient with a rabies vaccine.
  • 07-06-1942 - Anne Frank and her family sought refuge from the Nazis in Amsterdam.
  • 07-06-1944 - A fire caused by inept fire-eaters in the main tent of the Ringling Brothers Circus in Hartford, Conn., killed over 160 people.
  • 07-06-1957 - Althea Gibson won the Wimbledon women's singles tennis title. She was the first black person to win the event.
  • 07-07-1456 - Twenty-five years after her execution, Pope Calixtus III annulled the heresy charges brought against Joan of Arc.
  • 07-07-1846 - Commodore John D. Sloat occupied Monterey and declared California annexed to the United States.
  • 07-07-1898 - The United States annexed Hawaii.
  • 07-07-1946 - Italian-born Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized, becoming the first American saint.
  • 07-07-1981 - President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor for the Supreme Court.
  • 07-07-2005 - 52 people were killed and hundreds injured in London when terrorists bombed subways and a bus.52 people were killed and hundreds injured in London when terrorists bombed subways and a bus.
  • 07-08-1776 - The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was given in Philadelphia, Pa.
  • 07-08-1777 - Vermont became the first colony to abolish slavery.
  • 07-08-1889 - The Wall Street Journal began publication.
  • 07-08-1950 - General Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of the United Nations forces in Korea.
  • 07-08-1958 - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) awarded the first official gold album. It was for the Oklahoma soundtrack.
IN THE NEWS:
REVIEWED AND FIRST CHAPTERS:

  • Marcus Mabry: Madame Secretary TWICE AS GOOD Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power NYT, 7-1-07
  • COVER REVIEWS: AMERICANA Born on the Fourth of July Three books look to the past for clues to our nation's future - WaPo, 7-1-07
  • Cullen Murphy: COVER REVIEWS AMERICANA All Hail America? ARE WE ROME? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America - WaPo, 7-1-07
  • Jon Meacham on William W. Freehling: Before the Cannon Fired A scholar examines the forces and people that helped start the Civil War THE ROAD TO DISUNION Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861 - WaPo, 7-1-07
  • Fergus M. Bordewich on Beverly Lowry: A Woman Called Moses The legendary exploits of a heroine who went from bondage to bravery HARRIET TUBMAN Imagining a Life
  • Saul Friedlander: Challenges the view that the Holocaust was simply the result of bureaucrats doing what they were told - Richard Evans in the NYT Book Review, 6-24-07
  • Gil Troy on Patrice Higonnet: History as an extended blog post - newsobserver.com, 6-17-07
OP-ED:
PROFILED:
FEATURE:
INTERVIEWED:
QUOTED:

  • Michael Klarman: Doubts Court ruling on schools will have much effect--says not even Brown did:"Just as Brown produced massive resistance in the South and therefore had little impact on desegregation for a decade, this decision is going to be similarly inconsequential. This affects only the tiny percentage of school districts that use race to assign students, and even in those districts, like Louisville and Seattle, it won't be consequential because there are so many opportunities for committed school boards to circumvent it." - NYT, 7-1-07
  • Gil Troy on"Attacks replace issues; politics turns poisonous":"American politics has always had a nasty side, but there's a sense that it has a darker edge, has become more venomous, because it's pumped out 24/7. Now it's all nastiness, all the time.... People have always used foils in politics. Through their excesses, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Coulter provide liberals with made-to-order caricatures of what they consider the worst aspects of the Republicans; Franken and Olbermann are the perfect liberal foils for Republicans. They feed off each other, sadly distorting our politics." - newsobserver.com, 7-1-07
HONORED, AWARDED, AND APPOINTMENTS:
SPOTTED & SPEAKING EVENTS CALENDAR:
NEW ON THE WEB:

  • Holly Cowan Shulman: Exploring Digital History - A new blog through the Virginia Center for Digital History on history and documentary editing and the electronic media.
ON TV:History Listings This Week:

  • C-Span2, Book TV : History Joseph Wheelan"Invading Mexico: America's Continental Dream And The Mexican War, 1846-1848," @ Sunday, July 1 at 8:00pm C-Span2, BookTV
  • C-Span2, Book TV : History Jules Witcover"Very Stange Bedfellows: The Short And Unhappy Marriage Of Richard Nixon And Spiro Agnew," @ Sunday, July 1 at 11:00pm C-Span2, BookTV
  • History Channel:"The States" Marathon, Monday, July 2, @ 2-5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed" Monday, July 2, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier," Monday, July 2, @ 10pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"The Presidents" Marathon, Tuesday, July 3, @ 2-6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"The Revolution" Marathon, Wednesday, July 4, @ 10am-11pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"American Eats: History on a Bun," Thursday, July 5, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"American Eats :Ice Cream," Thursday, July 5, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"UFO Files" Marathon, Friday, July 6, @ 2-6:30pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Band Of Brothers" Marathon, Saturday, July 7, @ 1:30-8pm ET/PT
SELLING BIG (NYT):

  • Ronald Reagan. Edited by Douglas Brinkley: THE REAGAN DIARIES #2 (5 weeks on list) - 7-08-07

  • Walter Isaacson: EINSTEIN HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE #7 (11 weeks on list) - 7-08-07
  • Michael Beschloss: PRESIDENTIAL COURAGE, #9 (7 weeks on list) - 7-08-07
  • Carl Bernstein: A WOMAN IN CHARGE: THE LIFE OF HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, #14 (3 weeks on list) - 7-08-07
FUTURE RELEASES:

  • Bill Yenne: Rising Sons: The Japanese-American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II, (St. Martin's Press, July 10, 2007)
  • Kathryn C. Statler: Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam, (University Press of Kentucky) July 28, 2007
  • Richard B. Frank, MacArthur: A Biography, (Palgrave Macmillan), July 28, 2007
  • Woody Holton: Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, (Hill and Wang, August 7, 2007)
  • David Halberstam: Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, (Hyperion, September 2007)
  • John Kelin, Praise From a Future Generation: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the First Generation Critics of the Warren Report, (Wings Press TX), September 28, 2007
  • Maureen Waller: Sovereign Ladies: The Six Reigning Queens of England, (St. Martin's Press, September 28, 2007)
  • Rick Atkinson: Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, (Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated, October 2, 2007)
  • Benjamin J. Kaplan: Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe, (Harvard University Press, October 15, 2007)
  • Richard Avedon, The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family, (HarperCollins Publishers), October 23, 2007
  • M. Stanton Evans: Blacklisted by History: The Real Story of Joseph McCarthy and His Fight against America's Enemies, (Crown Publishing Group, November 6, 2007)
DEPARTED:

Thursday, July 19, 2007 - 20:11

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 2008 WATCH:

    Presidential Campaign 2008 Watch

    • Fred Thompson Aided Nixon on Watergate - AP, 7-7-07
    • Michael Beschloss on"Divorce not a political deal-breaker":"If candidates can't bear up under full disclosure, they have no business being in politics." - Contra Costa Times, 7-5-07
BIGGEST STORIES:

  • Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Whatever Happened to the Investigation of His Arrest for Jaywalking by the Atlanta police? - HNN Staff, 7-5-07
HNN STATS THIS WEEK:
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:This Week in History:

  • 07-09-1816 - Argentina formally declared independence from Spain.
  • 07-09-1850 - Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the U.S., died after only 16 months in office.
  • 07-09-1872 - The doughnut cutter was patented by John F. Blondel of Thomaston, Me.
  • 07-09-1896 - William Jennings Bryan delivered his" cross of gold" speech at the Democratic National Convention.
  • 07-09-1900 - The British Parliament proclaimed that as of Jan. 1, 1901, the six Australian colonies would be united at the Commonwealth of Australia.
  • 07-09-1974 - Former U.S. chief justice Earl Warren died in Washington, DC.
  • 07-09-2002 - Baseball's All-Star Game ended in a tie after 11 innings. Both sides had run out of pitchers.
  • 07-10-1890 - Wyoming became the 44th state in the United States.
  • 07-10-1940 - The Battle of Britain began.
  • 07-10-1951 - Armistice talks to end the Korean War began at Kaesong.
  • 07-10-1973 - The Bahamas became independent from Great Britain.
  • 07-10-1985 - The Coca-Cola Company announced that it was bringing back the original Coke and calling it Coca-Cola Classic.
  • 07-10-1991 - President Bush lifted economic sanctions against South Africa.
  • 07-10-1991 - Boris Yeltsin was sworn in as Russia's first elected president.
  • 07-10-2003 - Spain opened its first mosque (in Granada) since the Moors were expelled in 1492.
  • 07-11-1533 - Pope Clement VII excommunicated England's King Henry VIII.
  • 07-11-1804 - Former vice president Aaron Burr fatally wounded former secretary of the treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel. Hamilton died the following afternoon.
  • 07-11-1864 - Confederate general Jubal A. Early and his troops attacked Washington, DC. They retreated the next day, ending the Confederate threat to occupy the capital.
  • 07-11-1914 - Babe Ruth made his major league baseball debut as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.
  • 07-11-1977 - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work to advance civil rights.
  • 07-11-1995 - The United States and Vietnam established full diplomatic relations.
  • 07-12-1543 - England's King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr.
  • 07-12-1690 - Protestant William of Orange defeated Roman Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.
  • 07-12-1862 - Congress authorized the Medal of Honor.
  • 07-12-1984 - Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale became the first major-party candidate to choose a woman as a running mate when he announced his choice of Geraldine Ferraro.
  • 07-13-1793 - French revolutionary Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by royalist sympathizer Charlotte Corday.
  • 07-13-1863 - The draft riots, protesting unfair conscription in the Civil War, began in New York City.
  • 07-13-1865 - P. T. Barnum's American Museum, which had featured Tom Thumb and the original Siamese twins Chang and Eng, was destroyed by fire.
  • 07-13-1930 - The first World Cup soccer competition began in Montevideo, Uruguay.
  • 07-13-1943 - The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history—involving some 6,000 tanks, 2,000,000 troops, and 4,000 aircraft—ended in German defeat.
  • 07-13-1977 - A 25-hour blackout hit New York City, engendering widespread rioting and looting.
  • 07-13-2003 - Iraq's interim governing council was inaugurated.
  • 07-14-1789 - The storming and destruction of Bastille marked the beginning of the French Revolution.
  • 07-14-1798 - Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a crime to publish false, scandalous, or malicious writing about the U.S. government.
  • 07-14-1881 - Billy the Kid was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett in New Mexico.
  • 07-14-1921 - In one of the most controversial cases in U.S. history, anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of two murders and sentenced to death.
  • 07-14-1933 - In Germany, all political parties except the Nazi party were outlawed.
  • 07-14-1946 - Dr. Spock's Common Sense Book of Baby & Child Care was published.
  • 07-14-1958 - A military coup overthrew the monarchy in Iraq, killing King Faisal II. General Abdul Karim Kassem becomes Iraq's leader.
  • 07-15-1870 - Georgia became the last of the Confederate States to be readmitted to the Union.
  • 07-15-1918 - The Second Battle of the Marne began during World War I.
  • 07-15-1948 - John J. Pershing, whose leadership in World War I earned him the title General of the Armies of the United States, died in Washington, DC.
  • 07-15-1975 - The Russian Soyuz and the U.S. Apollo launched. The Apollo-Soyuz mission was the first international manned spaceflight.
IN THE NEWS:
REVIEWED AND FIRST CHAPTERS:
OP-ED:
PROFILED:
FEATURE:
INTERVIEWED:
QUOTED:

  • Stephen Hess on"'Scooter' Libby move helps seal Bush’s Iraq legacy":"It closes one chapter of the sort of life-draining issue of George W Bush and Iraq. It's totally in keeping with everything he’s done up to now, including his sense of loyalty to his people." -- Reuters, 7-3-07
  • David Greenberg on the Nixon Library:"Everybody who visited it, who knew the first thing about history, thought it was a joke. You didn't know whether to laugh or cry." - LAT, 7-8-07
  • Howard Zinn: Why we fly the flag - Boston Globe, 7-8-07
  • Theodore Roszak, William Seraile, Michael Kazin: Historians say where they were during the summer of love, 40 years ago - From a survey of 17 academics conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Ed, 7-2-07
  • Bill Gammage: Aussie historian lashes out at Turkey for putting a road through a cemetery for war dead - http://canberra.yourguide.com.au, 7-1-07
HONORED, AWARDED, AND APPOINTMENTS:
SPOTTED & SPEAKING EVENTS CALENDAR:
NEW ON THE WEB:
ON TV:History Listings This Week:

  • C-Span2, Book TV : History Joan Quigley"The Day The Earth Caved In: An American Mining Tragedy" @ Sunday, July 8 at 11:00pm C-Span2, BookTV
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :07 - Catacombs of Death," Sunday, July 8, @ 11pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Amazon Adventures," Monday, July 9, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Modern Marvels :George Washington Bridge," Monday, July 8, @ 7pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :09 - Freemason Underground," Monday, July 8, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :11 - Dracula's Underground" Monday, July 8, @ 9pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Bloodlines: The Dracula Family Tree," Monday, July 8, @ 10pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Alaska: Big America," Tuesday, July 10, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Investigating History :Billy the Kid," Tuesday, July 10, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Modern Marvels :Statue of Liberty," Tuesday, July 10, @ 7pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Special : Rome: Engineering an Empire," Wednesday, July 11, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Modern Marvels :The Chrysler Building," Wednesday, July 11, @ 7pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Ku Klux Klan: A Secret History.," Thursday, July 12, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Modern Marvels :Empire State Building," Thursday, July 12, @ 7pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Lost Worlds :Churchill's Secret Bunkers," Thursday, July 12, @ 11pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Dogfights," Marathon Friday, July 13, @ 2-6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"The World Trade Center: Rise and Fall of an American Icon," Friday, July 13, @ 6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Dogfights :Kamikaze," Friday, July 13, @ 9pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Dogfights: The Greatest Air Battles," Saturday, July 14, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:" Cities Of The Underworld :01 - Hitler's Underground Lair," Saturday, July 14, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :10 - Beneath Vesuvius," Saturday, July 14, @ 9pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :11 - Dracula's Underground," Saturday, July 14, @ 10pm ET/PT
  • History Channel:"Cities Of The Underworld :04 - Scotland's Sin City," Saturday, July 14, @ 11pm ET/PT
SELLING BIG (NYT):

  • Ronald Reagan. Edited by Douglas Brinkley: THE REAGAN DIARIES #5 (6 weeks on list) - 7-15-07

  • Walter Isaacson: EINSTEIN HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE #8 (12 weeks on list) - 7-15-07
  • Michael Beschloss: PRESIDENTIAL COURAGE, #11 (8 weeks on list) - 7-15-07
  • Carl Bernstein: A WOMAN IN CHARGE: THE LIFE OF HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, #20 - 7-15-07
  • >
FUTURE RELEASES:

  • Bill Yenne: Rising Sons: The Japanese-American GIs Who Fought for the United States in World War II, (St. Martin's Press, July 10, 2007)
  • Kathryn C. Statler: Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam, (University Press of Kentucky) July 28, 2007
  • Richard B. Frank, MacArthur: A Biography, (Palgrave Macmillan), July 28, 2007
  • Woody Holton: Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, (Hill and Wang, August 7, 2007)
  • David Halberstam: Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, (Hyperion, September 2007)
  • John Kelin, Praise From a Future Generation: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the First Generation Critics of the Warren Report, (Wings Press TX), September 28, 2007
  • Maureen Waller: Sovereign Ladies: The Six Reigning Queens of England, (St. Martin's Press, September 28, 2007)
  • Rick Atkinson: Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, (Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated, October 2, 2007)
  • Benjamin J. Kaplan: Divided by Faith: Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe, (Harvard University Press, October 15, 2007)
  • Richard Avedon, The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family, (HarperCollins Publishers), October 23, 2007
  • M. Stanton Evans: Blacklisted by History: The Real Story of Joseph McCarthy and His Fight against America's Enemies, (Crown Publishing Group, November 6, 2007)
DEPARTED:

Sunday, July 8, 2007 - 21:51