Roundup: Talking About History
This is where we excerpt articles about history that appear in the media. Among the subjects included on this page are: anniversaries of historical events, legacies of presidents, cutting-edge research, and historical disputes.
SOURCE: The Independent (London) (9-30-05)
After a two-year odyssey of his own, an amateur British historian claims to have located the mythical land of Ithaca " the island homeland of Homer's legendary Greek hero Odysseus.
For centuries, scholars the world over have argued over the whereabouts of the lost kingdom, ruled over by one of the Greek heroes of the Trojan war.
Now thanks to 21st-century computer technology, space photography and the obsession of a management consultant from Surrey, the riddle may have been solved.
Robert Bittlestone, backed up by two classical experts, believes the island described in the epic poem is now part of the Ionian tourist destination of Kefalonia.
Using satellite imagery and 3D global visualisation techniques developed by Nasa to look for clues, Mr Bittlestone, the chairman of the UK management consultancy Metapraxis, came up with his theory after undertaking field trips in western Greece and using his computer to analyse literary,...
For centuries, scholars the world over have argued over the whereabouts of the lost kingdom, ruled over by one of the Greek heroes of the Trojan war.
Now thanks to 21st-century computer technology, space photography and the obsession of a management consultant from Surrey, the riddle may have been solved.
Robert Bittlestone, backed up by two classical experts, believes the island described in the epic poem is now part of the Ionian tourist destination of Kefalonia.
Using satellite imagery and 3D global visualisation techniques developed by Nasa to look for clues, Mr Bittlestone, the chairman of the UK management consultancy Metapraxis, came up with his theory after undertaking field trips in western Greece and using his computer to analyse literary,...
Saturday, October 1, 2005 - 15:21
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SOURCE: The Guardian (London) (9-30-05)
A book published in Italy today is set to reignite a smouldering controversy over how close the Nazis came to manufacturing a nuclear device in the closing stages of the second world war.
The 88 year-old author, Luigi Romersa, is the last known witness to what he and some historians believe was the experimental detonation of a rudimentary weapon on an island in the Baltic in 1944.
Hitler's nuclear programme has become a subject of intense dispute in recent months, particularly in Germany. An independent historian, Rainer Karlsch, met with a barrage of hostility when he published a study containing evidence that the Nazis had got much further than previously believed.
Mr Romersa, a supporter of Mr Karlsch's thesis, lives today in an elegant flat in the Parioli district of Rome. His study walls are covered with photographs from a career during which he interviewed many of the major figures of the 20th century, from Chiang Kai-shek to Lyndon Johnson....
The 88 year-old author, Luigi Romersa, is the last known witness to what he and some historians believe was the experimental detonation of a rudimentary weapon on an island in the Baltic in 1944.
Hitler's nuclear programme has become a subject of intense dispute in recent months, particularly in Germany. An independent historian, Rainer Karlsch, met with a barrage of hostility when he published a study containing evidence that the Nazis had got much further than previously believed.
Mr Romersa, a supporter of Mr Karlsch's thesis, lives today in an elegant flat in the Parioli district of Rome. His study walls are covered with photographs from a career during which he interviewed many of the major figures of the 20th century, from Chiang Kai-shek to Lyndon Johnson....
Saturday, October 1, 2005 - 15:15
SOURCE: The Daily Telegraph (London) (9-30-05)
It is almost unthinkable to imagine Mr Darcy, Jane Austen's dashing hero, rounding off a night out with his friends at a curry house.
But according to a recent discovery, he could well have done. Historians have found that Britain's first Indian restaurant was opened in 1809, in the midst of the Napoleonic wars and during the period in which Austen set Pride and Prejudice.
The Hindoostane Coffee House was established by Sake Dean Mahomed, an Indian-born entrepreneur, as a purveyor of Oriental food of the "highest perfection" in Marylebone, London, which at the time was a residential district for the well-off.
Mr Mahomed, who had served in the East India Company army and was married to Jane Daly, an Irishwoman, hoped to cash in on the area's popularity with former merchants and servicemen who settled there after making fortunes on the subcontinent.
It was a high class affair, decorated in the colonial style of the Raj, and...
But according to a recent discovery, he could well have done. Historians have found that Britain's first Indian restaurant was opened in 1809, in the midst of the Napoleonic wars and during the period in which Austen set Pride and Prejudice.
The Hindoostane Coffee House was established by Sake Dean Mahomed, an Indian-born entrepreneur, as a purveyor of Oriental food of the "highest perfection" in Marylebone, London, which at the time was a residential district for the well-off.
Mr Mahomed, who had served in the East India Company army and was married to Jane Daly, an Irishwoman, hoped to cash in on the area's popularity with former merchants and servicemen who settled there after making fortunes on the subcontinent.
It was a high class affair, decorated in the colonial style of the Raj, and...
Saturday, October 1, 2005 - 15:07
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