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: Daily Mail (UK)
April 30, 2010
Exactly 65 years after Adolf Hitler perished in his Berlin bunker, the man who Moscow claims destroyed his bones today refused to reveal the exact spot in Germany where he 'cremated' the Fuhrer.
Vladimir Gumenyuk, a 73 year old retired KGB officer, vowed to take his secret to his grave so that the location in the countryside around Magdeburg would not become the focus of pilgrimages by neo-Nazis.
The veteran is said to be the last man alive from a team of three who were
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 29, 2010
A Jewish grandmother has been banned from telling schoolchildren it was French gendarmes who handed her over to the Nazis during the Second World War for deportation to Auschwitz.
During the war, Ida Grinspan, now 79, was deported to the Nazi death camp in German-occupied Poland in 1944 but was one of the few survivors to make it back to France.
She wrote a letter about her wartime experiences to children at a school in Parthenay, western France.
But when
Source: National Security Archive at GWU
May 6, 2010
Washington, D.C., May 6, 2010 - Internal documents reveal that in the final years of the Cold War the top leadership of the Soviet Union debated the cover-up of their illicit biological weapons program in the face of protests from the United States and Great Britain.
The documents, first disclosed in a new book by David E. Hoffman, The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy, are being posted in English translation today by the National Securit
Source: Newsweek
May 4, 2010
The visage of Joseph Stalin once blanketed Moscow. But in the years since he died, his successors have relaxed official adoration of him and even allowed some criticism. The result: he was completely banned from the public space. A few attempts from provincial governments to erect statues of him caused immediate public protest. In recent years, though, with Moscow preparing to commemorate the 65th anniversary of its victory over the Nazis this week, Stalin is back—and he seems to be everywhere..
Source: Press Release
May 6, 2010
Oxford University Press (OUP) is honored to have been selected by the Organization of American Historians to be the publisher of the Journal of American History and the Magazine of History.
“History lies at the very core of our publishing program and mission, and we therefore welcome the pre-eminent journal in American history and the innovative Magazine of History with open arms, and with many ideas about how we can work together to increase their already formidable influence,” n
Source: PSU
May 4, 2010
A water feature found in the Maya city of Palenque, Mexico, is the earliest known example of engineered water pressure in the new world, according to a collaboration between two Penn State researchers, an archaeologist and a hydrologist. How the Maya used the pressurized water is, however, still unknown.
The feature, first identified in 1999 during a mapping survey of the area, while similar to the aqueducts that flow beneath the plazas of the city, was also unlike them. In 2006, an
Source: AP
May 4, 2010
The mummified body of a baby, kept by a family for nearly a century before a judge ordered the remains to be buried, has been removed from a cemetery, police said Tuesday.
A cemetery visitor on Monday reported that a grave appeared to have been unearthed, police Sgt. John Thomas said. The corpse of "Baby John" has not been recovered, he said.
The mummified body had been kept for years by Charles Peavey. He had said the family had the mummy, possibly the stillb
Source: BBC
May 5, 2010
Cornwall's fire service says that work has been carried out to preserve the archive of a local historian who died in a fire at her home.
The body of Joan Rendell MBE, 89, was found after her bungalow at Yeolmbridge caught fire on Tuesday.
Miss Rendell wrote more than 30 books and was appointed a Cornish bard by Gorseth Kernow, the organisation which promotes the study of Cornish literature, art, music and history.
She was also an avid collector of matchbo
Source: BBC
May 5, 2010
University of Ulster divers have been passing on their expertise to maritime archaeologists in the historic Egyptian port of Alexandria.
Staff from the UU's maritime archaeology centre conducted a 10-day training workshop for 15 archaeologists from north and east Africa who wanted an insight into the challenges of working underwater.
During their stay the UU divers were granted a rare opportunity to explore the underwater remains of the famous Pharos lighthouse - one o
Source: BBC
May 5, 2010
Schoolchildren in Denbighshire have been at the premiere of a film they have helped produce as part of Britain's Cultural Olympics.
For the last year pupils at five schools have studied the Bronze Age landscape and artefacts of north Wales.
It includes the Golden Cape which was discovered in Mold in 1833.
The resulting short film was shown at the Scala cinema in Prestatyn, helping to explain the life and landscape in north east Wales 4,000 years ago.
Source: BBC
May 5, 2010
A statue of RAF hero Sir Keith Park has been taken down from the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Sir Keith commanded RAF squadrons that defended London and the South East from World War II Luftwaffe attacks in 1940.
The 16.4ft (5m) tall glass-fibre sculpture had been on the plinth in central London for the past six months.
A permanent, bronze statue of Sir Keith will now be erected in Waterloo Place on the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain on 1
Source: BBC
May 5, 2010
The scout hat worn by the founder of scouting, Lord Baden Powell, is expected to fetch up to £1,000 when it goes under the hammer in East Sussex.
The wide-brimmed felt hat, with leather headband and buckle, is being auctioned as part of a collection of memorabilia owned by sculptor Bryan Mickleburgh.
Other items in the collection include a white Stetson and gloves which belonged to cowboy actor Roy Rogers.
The sale is being held on Thursday at Wallis and
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 5, 2010
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President, has denied reports that Osama bin Laden is in Tehran and insisted that the al-Qaeda leader is, in fact, in the US capital of Washington.
Without backing up the claim, the Iranian leader said he had "heard" that bin Laden was in the US capital.
He added that, at any rate, US officials ought to know the extremist Islamic leaders whereabouts
Source: Baltimore Examiner
April 29, 2010
In conjunction with the beginning of the 2010 National Genealogical Society Conference, the Federation of Genealogical Societies has announced a new fund-raising effort, with the goal of digitizing and making available the pension files for War of 1812 veterans. This effort will help to commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812.
The state of Maryland played a significant role in the War of 1812. The battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore inspired Francis Scott Key to write what w
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 5, 2010
One of Poland's most famous and controversial pop stars faces two years in gaol after suggesting that the Bible was written by drunks and people with a fondness for "herbal cigarettes".
Dorota Rabczewska, famed for an unabashed attitude when it comes to flaunting her flesh, and a string of hits, has been charged by Warsaw prosecutors with insulting religious feeling for comments she made in a television interview a year ago.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 5, 2010
India is to ban schoolchildren from wearing leather shoes because they are seen as a "vestige of British colonial rule."
Instead canvas plimsolls will replace uncomfortable and "environmentally hazardous" leather shoes.
The move by the country's school boards follows a campaign by Maneka Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's widowed daughter-in-law, who is now an member of parliament for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. She is one of India's leading animal
Source: Art Daily
May 5, 2010
Six giant figureheads at Chakanbakan Archaeological Zone, Quintana Roo, considered the greatest and among the earliest in the area, will be restored by specialists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
Created more than 2,300 years ago, these sculptures remind the Olmeca style, which represented deities with jaguar faces, revealing the adoption by Maya of elements from earliest cultures.
Intervention to figureheads made out of stucco, clay and
Source: Der Spiegel (Germany)
May 4, 2010
D-Day may have been the beginning of the end of Germany's campaign of horror during World War II. But a new book by British historian Antony Beevor makes it clear that the "greatest generation" wasn't above committing a few war crimes of its own.
It was the first crime William E. Jones had ever committed, which was probably why he could still remember it well so many years later. He and other soldiers in the 4th Infantry Division had captured a small hill. "It was pre
Source: Telegraph (UK)
May 5, 2010
An interview in which a Soviet commander admitted how close Moscow came to defeat by Germany during the Second World War has been broadcast in Russia for the first time.
The Soviet Union nearly lost the war in 1941 and suffered from poor planning, according to Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the frank television interview that has been banned since it was recorded in 1966.
Zhukov, the most decorated general in the history of both Russia and the Soviet Union, admitted that Sovi
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
May 5, 2010
They chronicle Winston Churchill's life in extraordinary detail - from baby to wartime Prime Minister.
Rarely seen photographs, revealing letters, his engagement diary from the Second World War and even an unsmoked cigar all form part of this astonishing private collection of memorabilia.
Amassed over 30 years by American Malcolm S Forbes Jr, grandson of Forbes magazine founder BC Forbes, it is expected to raise well over £1million when sold at auction.
Announcin
