Hundreds of German rescue workers are searching the ruins of a collapsed building in Cologne for nine people who may be trapped beneath the rubble.

The main building which collapsed is the Historic Archive of the city of Cologne, which houses documents up to 1,000 years old.

The building itself was an unremarkable 20th-century structure, but the archives it contained were very valuable, said Brumfield, who has done research in the building.

Last month, scientists from around the world partied into the small hours on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Darwin.

But as we celebrate the work of one of the most influential scientists ever, let's take a moment or two to remember others who contributed ideas in the history of evolutionary thought. Many came from Britain as well as other countries in Europe. Others came from further afield, and their writings are increasingly coming to light thanks to the painstaking work of historians of science, and historians of ideas.

One of them is an East African writer based in Baghdad in the 9th century called al-Jahiz. In a book describing the characteristics of animals, he remarked:

“Animals engage in a struggle for existence, and for resources, to avoid being eaten, and to breed.” He added, “Environmental factors influence organisms to develop new characteristics to ensure survival, thus transforming them into new species. Animals that survive to breed can pass on their successful characteristics to their offspring.”

A Nazi spy came within days of uncovering one of the Allies' most important missions and possibly changing the direction of the Second World War.

The story of a Portuguese wireless operator and the dramatic decision to pluck him from his vessel on the high seas to prevent him from betraying the position of a huge convoy bound for North Africa is revealed for the first time in a declassified MI5 file released by the National Archives.

Gastao de Freitas Ferraz was being paid by German intelligence to send coded messages about convoys to U-boat commanders and was on the tail of the Allied warships.

German car components supplier Schaeffler appears to have been more deeply involved in the political system of the Third Reich than previously assumed, according to research conducted by SPIEGEL TV in Poland.

It was already known that a company acquired by Wilhelm Schaeffler in 1940 in the town of Kietrz in what is now Poland employed forced laborers, but Polish researchers are now also linking the name Schaeffler to the processing of human hair from the Auschwitz death camp.

The deputy head of the Auschwitz Museum's research department, Dr. Jacek Lachendro, told SPIEGEL TV that part (1.95 tons) of the hair still exhibited in Auschwitz today was found in a factory in Kietrz at the end of World War II.

The opening of a sex shop in the historic district of Alexandria, Va., has generated outrage among local residents, who claim such a business sullies an area once frequented by the Founding Fathers. Were there sex shops in George Washington's day?

No. There is little record of sex toys, let alone a sex toy industry, from America's Colonial era. To the extent that Colonials used sex props, they would have made them on their own. (In one of the few references to sex and inanimate objects from the time, a 17th-century New York court described a prostitute flamboyantly measuring her clients' penises using a broomstick.) Nevertheless, there were plenty of brothels in the Colonial era, especially in port cities like Alexandria.

The visitors have heard the urban legend about an escape passage built between Fort Totten in Queens, to Fort Schuyler in the Bronx, where the Long Island Sound and the East River meet.

Historians, park rangers and common sense suggest it is a myth. The technology needed to build a tunnel under more than 100 feet of water, simply didn't exist at the time, they maintain.

But speculation has been stoked by tantalizing clues - including dead-ending corridors and walled-up chambers in both forts. The enduring tale prompted the History Channel to run a segment on it recently.

David Allen, 53, is fascinated by the myth. When he's not teaching history at SUNY Maritime College, housed in Fort Schuyler, he enjoys exploring the Throgs Neck fort's complex maze of underground tunnels.

A few months ago, he discovered a passage that appears to go under the bay headed directly for Fort Totten.

The home of Franklin Kameny, a longtime activist for gay rights, was designated by the Historic Preservation Review Board as a local landmark at a hearing on Thursday.

The site, located at 5020 Cathedral Ave. NW, is the first gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender site listed in D.C.’s inventory of historic sites.

During the 1960s and the early 1970s, Kameny’s home and office served as a meeting ground for planning gay civil rights campaigns and strategies.

Kameny still lives in the 54-year-old residence.

The home functioned as the headquarters of the Mattachine Society of D.C., which was co-founded by Kameny in 1961 to fight for equal rights for homosexuals.

Here's a little-known fact about Thomas Jefferson: He had a thing for mammoths, and even kept a collection of their bones in the White House.

So it seems strangely fitting that workers unearthed a 500,000-year-old mammoth skull and two tusks last month while excavating in downtown San Diego for the new campus of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

"It seemed bizarre at first, but when we heard about Thomas Jefferson's fascination with the mammoth, the coincidence was almost too good to be true," said Rudy Hasl, dean of the law school.

The fossils included a mostly intact skull with three molars, two tusks, and an assortment of foot and leg bones. Patrick J. Sena, a paleontologist with the San Diego Natural History Museum, says the bones probably belonged to a Columbian mammoth that may have been 15 to 17 feet tall.

The majority of British adults find it easier to remember details surrounding key historical events than significant moments in their own lives, including the death of a loved one or the birth of their first child - that’s the verdict of a compelling new research project released today.

The study, which was commissioned to mark the launch of UKTV’s new history channel Yesterday, was led by Professor Geoff Beattie who asked 300 people to recall exact details of 32 personal and historical memories ranging from their first kiss to the death of Princess Diana. The research team then compared the group’s ability to recall their memories of these events in detail.

The results highlight the presence of ‘Flashbulb Memories’ which are created during a personally significant or shocking event of national or international importance and which often overshadow memories of personal events. The study found that news of the 9/11 attacks was remembered in extreme detail by 82% of respondents compared to the birth of a first child, which could only be recalled at the same level of detail by 65% of respondents.

The shocking events of 9/11 have ingrained themselves on the nation’s memory to such an extent that 81% of participants could recall who told them about 9/11, 84% remembered what time it was when they heard about it, 92% knew where they were when they heard the news and 71% recalled their ongoing activity. This represents an extraordinary level of recollection after nearly eight years.

Memories surrounding Princess Diana’s fatal car crash are also very strong, a surprising 62% of the participants could remember details of exactly when they were told about the tragedy, who told them, where they were and what they were doing at the time. This compared favourably with many personal memories; 50% could recall their first child’s first birthday and a mere 46% of the same group were able to recall significant details about their first day at secondary school.
The study found that the 7th July London bombings also provided extremely vivid ‘Flashbulb Memories’ for 58% of respondents, whereas only 38% of people could remember their first major argument with their current partner in the same level of detail.

The research suggests that time does not diminish memories of certain momentous historical events. It may be almost 46 years since JFK was assassinated but 52% of the respondents who were old enough to remember still had extremely clear memories of that day, and can even remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.

The study also highlighted the least memorable events in recent history including Torvill and Dean’s perfect score of 6.0’s for the Bolero at the 1984 Olympics with only 25% of people being able to remember it with any clarity. This was closely followed by New Labour sweeping to victory in the 1997 general election which could only be recalled in detail by 24% of the study group. A similar number of people struggled to remember details of Gary Barlow’s teary announcement when Take That split up in 1996 which would suggest that the band are perhaps even more popular now than they were back then.

The top five Flashbulb historical memories and personal memories are outlined below:

Top five Flashbulb historical memories

9/11 - (82%)
Princess Diana’s death - (62%)
July 7th London bombings - (58%)
The assassination of JFK - (52%)
Boxing Day Tsunami - (41%)

Top five personal memories

Death of a close relative - (81%)
Passing driving test - (79%)
First date with current partner - (76%)
Wedding day - (72%)
First kiss - (66%)

The findings reveal the reason we’re able to recall some historical events over and above personal memories is due to the way the human brain records them. When a cultural event takes place, it triggers a primitive survival mechanism which results in the memory being encoded so that it stays with you until the day you die.

Professor Geoff Beattie from the University of Manchester says: “The Yesterday Historical Study provides a fascinating insight into our recollection of key cultural events many years after they’ve happened. While we’re constantly reminded about personal milestones such as our wedding day or our children’s birthdays through photographs or family gatherings, we rarely talk about the big historical moments, and yet we remember where we were, what we were doing, and even the exact time of day that we heard about them with absolute clarity years afterwards.”

Richard Kingsbury, Yesterday’s Channel Head says: "The premise of Yesterday is that world events and cultural memories we remember through television are very much part of who we are. The surprising aspect of this research is just how powerful these memories are. Yesterday will be a place where we can re-live those moments and in doing so understand more about who we are and what has shaped us."

For six decades, his parents and siblings battled Moscow and their native Stockholm, mounting a search for answers that cost them their savings, careers, relationships, health and, concealed until now, two of their lives.

Also unknown, even to the Swedish foreign ministry -- whose file on Mr. Wallenberg dwarfs its record of any king, colony or war -- is that the family documented its struggle. Mr. Wallenberg's late mother and stepfather, who died two days apart in 1979, kept a diary. His half-brother, Guy von Dardel, now 89, compiled a 50,000-page archive.

Together with hundreds of interviews, the family's thousands of journal entries, letters and documents -- most read for the first time by The Wall Street Journal -- lay bare the toll of an unending quest.

In early October, as the meltdown of the financial industry gained momentum following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 59% of U.S. voters agreed with Ronald Reagan that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Since then, the stock market has fallen roughly 3,000 points, millions of jobs have been lost, nearly a trillion dollars has been spent so far to bail out the financial industry, an additional $787-billion government stimulus package has been approved, and a new president has taken office who has proposed spending billions and billions more.

Despite all that, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows that the basic views of the American people have not change: 59% of voters still agree with Reagan’s inaugural address statement. Only 28% disagree, and 14% are not sure.

For the old Kurdish shepherd, it was just another burning hot day in the rolling plains of eastern Turkey. Following his flock over the arid hillsides, he passed the single mulberry tree, which the locals regarded as 'sacred'. The bells on his sheep tinkled in the stillness. Then he spotted something. Crouching down, he brushed away the dust, and exposed a strange, large, oblong stone.

The man looked left and right: there were similar stone rectangles, peeping from the sands. Calling his dog to heel, the shepherd resolved to inform someone of his finds when he got back to the village. Maybe the stones were important.

They certainly were important. The solitary Kurdish man, on that summer's day in 1994, had made the greatest archaeological discovery in 50 years. Others would say he'd made the greatest archaeological discovery ever: a site that has revolutionised the way we look at human history, the origin of religion - and perhaps even the truth behind the Garden of Eden.

The auction of Gandhi’s glasses, pocket watch and sandals, as well as a bowl and plate, by Antiquorum Auctioneers in New York on March 4th and 5th was announced a couple of weeks ago. The sale of the personal belongings of a man renowned for his ascetic lifestyle and life philosophy sparked, however, considerable controversy. The announcement fuelled opposition in India, where some of Gandhi’s followers have requested that the buyer put the objects in the public domain and a group of MPs have demanded their return to India. One minister suggested that the government should enter the auction and buy the items arguing that they formed part of India’s heritage.

Tushar Gandhi, a great-grandson of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, has, however, recently launched a ‘people’s initiative’, a popular appeal to Indians to raise the necessary funds to buy the objects in order to thereafter preserve them in a museum. He has argued, on similar grounds to some Indian ministers and followers of Gandhi, that the objects constitute part of Indian heritage and should not be sold to wealthy collectors.

STOCKHOLM -- In neat script, blue ink on white letterhead, Fredrik von Dardel began writing to the stepson he had long been told to leave for dead: "Dear beloved Raoul."

It was March 24, 1956. He always wrote at his living-room table, his wife, Maria, looking on from a corner of the couch by the phone. On a chest, a spray of flowers she kept fresh stood beside a picture of her son, Raoul Wallenberg.

Mr. Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who safeguarded 20,000 Jews in Budapest in the waning months of World War II, vanished into the Soviet penal system in 1945. But the couple, then 71 and 65 years old, believed their son was alive and readied a letter for Sweden's prime minister to take to Moscow...

Mr. Wallenberg did not come home then, or ever. His end remains unclear. The world now knows the missing Swede as a symbol of humanitarianism -- an honorary citizen in four countries, commemorated with stamps in eight and monuments in 12, the subject of scores of films and books.

Unknown, however, is the price his family paid as it tried in vain to bring him home. For six decades, his parents and siblings battled Moscow and their native Stockholm, mounting a search for answers that cost them their savings, careers, relationships, health and, concealed until now, two of their lives.

Also unknown, even to the Swedish foreign ministry -- whose file on Mr. Wallenberg dwarfs its record of any king, colony or war -- is that the family documented its struggle. Mr. Wallenberg's late mother and stepfather, who died two days apart in 1979, kept a diary. His half-brother, Guy von Dardel, now 89, compiled a 50,000-page archive.

Together with hundreds of interviews, the family's thousands of journal entries, letters and documents -- most read for the first time by The Wall Street Journal -- lay bare the toll of an unending quest.

CBS News' Randall Pinkston chronicles the history of the Pullman car porters, African American train car employees who worked virtually nonstop in the hopes of fulfilling the American Dream.