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
March 24, 2010
An Irish tricolour believed to have flown from the General Post Office in Dublin during the 1916 Rising has failed to make its reserve price at auction.
The flag was up for sale at Bloomsbury Auctions, New York. It was expected to fetch up to $700,000, but did not make the reserve price of $500,000.
A spokeswoman for the auctions said there had been no bids in the room.
She could not confirm if there had been any telephone bids for the flag.
It
Source: BBC News
March 24, 2010
Sister Luz Isabel Cueva vividly remembers the moment Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero was murdered as he celebrated Mass on 24 March 1980.
"When he finished his sermon, he walked to the middle of the altar; at that moment, the shot rang out," says Sister Luz Isabel, who was among the congregation at a private chapel in El Salvador's capital, San Salvador.
"It sounded like a bomb explosion. Monsignor Romero held on to the cloth on the altar for a moment and
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 24, 2010
The Turin Shroud could finally be dated accurately thanks to new technique that determines the age of ancient artefacts without damaging them, claim scientists.
The researchers said the new method was so safe it could allow scientific analysis of hundreds of artefacts that until now were off limits because museums and private collectors did not want the objects damaged.
"This technique stands to revolutionise radiocarbon dating," said Dr Marvin Rowe, who led the res
Source: Deutsche Welle (Germany)
March 23, 2010
Their mothers were French, their fathers were German soldiers in Nazi-occupied France. Some 200,000 children endured scorn and often hid their father's identity. Now some have begun applying for German citizenship.
More than 200,000 children fathered by German soldiers were raised by their French mothers after the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, according to Paris historian Fabrice Vergili. The author of the book "Naitre ennemi" (Born an Enemy) also estimate
Source: Guardian (UK)
March 16, 2010
Beneath the grey veil used to cloak her awful secrets from the public gaze, "the widow" stands 14ft tall and the blade hangs menacingly over a hole designed for a neck. "One can have a certain indifference on the death penalty," read Victor Hugo's famous words nearby, "as long as one has not seen a guillotine with one's own eyes."
When France put an end to capital punishment in 1981, it also bid a not-so-fond farewell to the instrument of death that had
Source: CNN.com
March 22, 2010
In the beginning, there was the stone.
The blue-gray vein of granite that courses through northeastern Georgia spawned jobs in the quarries and finishing sheds of Elberton, where generations of stonecutters have turned slabs of rock the size of refrigerators into statues, tombstones and tile.
And one day, it brought a visitor who gifted the town with a landmark that leaves visitors scratching their heads decades later.
The nearly 20-foot high series of gran
Source: Live Science
February 22, 2010
The answer to why we dance - and even why some people are better dancers than others - can be found in evolution. A study published in the Public Library of Science's genetics journal in 2006 suggested that long ago the ability to dance was actually connected to the ability to survive.
According to the study, dancing was a way for our prehistoric ancestors to bond and communicate, particularly during tough times. As a result, scientists believe that early humans who were coordinate
Source: Press Republican
February 23, 2010
Part of a stone foundation discovered next to one of the old Champlain Bridge pillars could be from a small French fort built in 1731.
The foundation is about a foot and a half from the side of a pillar on the Vermont shore, but archeologists don’t know if it’s from the fort or an early house.
The Champlain Bridge closed Oct. 16, 2009, and was destroyed by controlled explosives Dec. 28. A new bridge is scheduled to be constructed nearby starting this spring.
Source: New York Times
February 22, 2010
The most immediate threat to preserving the ruins of Babylon, the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is water soaking the ground and undermining what is left in present-day Iraq of a great city from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar II.
It is also one of the oldest threats. The king himself faced water problems 2,600 years ago. Neglect, reckless reconstruction and wartime looting have also taken their toll in recent times, but archaeologists and experts in the pre
Source: Thanhnien News
March 23, 2010
Vietnamese mummies did not have their organs removed and their bodies were supple and fragrant when unearthed
The body of Pham Thi Dang, second wife of Dang Dinh Tuong – a high-ranking official under the Le Dynasty (1428-1788) was found 42 years ago in Van Cat Hamlet, in the northern province of Nam Ha (now Nam Dinh).
Decades after studying mummies discovered across the country – from the bodies of royalty and senior officials to the common man, archeologists Do Van Ni
Source: The Japan Times
March 23, 2010
Japanese and South Korean historians have again failed to reach a consensus view on Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, notably its recruitment of Korean laborers and women, as well as the drafting of Koreans into the Japanese military.
The two countries' second joint history study group issued a 2,200-page report Tuesday nearly three years after discussions got under way in June 2007. A report by the first study group was released in June 2005.
The
Source: Los Angeles Times
March 23, 2010
Among significant milestones recorded by White, a retired Air Force major general and decorated war veteran, was taking a rocket-powered X-15 plane almost 60 miles into space and then landing it.
Robert M. White was a 38-year-old U.S. Air Force major and record-setting test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base in 1962 when he joined the elite ranks of America's four astronauts.
But Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter went into spac
Source: BBC
March 23, 2010
The first stamp featuring Mary Queen of Scots has been unveiled by Royal Mail.
It is one of a series showing the seven Stewart kings and queens who ruled Scotland from 1406 until the Union of the Crowns with England in 1603.
TV historian Neil Oliver launched the stamp series at Stirling Castle, the historical home of the Stewarts.
Source: BBC
March 23, 2010
A 12th century music manuscript used by monastic orders during Holy Week has been unearthed in the Borders.
The discovery was made by Archive Manager Rachel Hosker and her staff at the Heart of Hawick cultural centre.
It was contained in papers relating to the Rutherford family of Knowesouth, near Jedburgh.
The document will now go on public display and some excerpts from the manuscript will be performed for the first time since its discovery.
Source: BBC
March 23, 2010
The Staffordshire Hoard is to remain in the West Midlands after the £3.3m purchase price was met.
The Anglo Saxon treasure was found in a field in Staffordshire by a metal-detecting enthusiast last July.
A National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) grant of £1.285m has been added to money raised by a campaign involving Stoke and Birmingham councils.
The Memorial Fund grant stops the collection from being divided up and sold to private col
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 23, 2010
An Irish journalist tried to place Tony Blair under citizen's arrest for war crimes on Tuesday night during a visit by the former prime minister to the European Parliament.
David Cronin, a reporter for the Inter Press Service news agency and a regular commentator for The Guardian, placed his hand on Mr Blair's arm and said: "This is a citizens' arrest. You are guilty of war crimes."
Mr Blair, speaking to MEPs about his role as EU and US envoy to the Middle Ea
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 23, 2010
Gay soldiers have threatened to take a US general to court over his claim that the presence of homosexual troops was responsible for the Dutch army's failure to prevent the Srebrenica massacre.
John Sheehan, a former US general and Nato commander, outraged the Netherlands last week when he alleged that openly gay Dutch soldiers had so damaged military morale that the country's army was powerless to prevent genocide in Bosnia.
Up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massa
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 23, 2010
A set of 11 previously unseen pictures of Marilyn Monroe show the actress relaxing on the set of her classic comedy film Some Like It Hot.
The colour shots from 1959, three years before her death, include one of Marilyn chatting with co-star Tony Curtis.
Another shows Curtis dressed in drag about to apply his own lipstick.
The pictures come from a set of slides taken on location in Florida, USA, and which are about to go on sale at an auction of showbiz
Source: AFP
March 22, 2010
The oldest stone wall in Greece, which has stood at the entrance of a cave in Thessaly for the last 23,000 years, has been discovered by palaeontologists, the ministry of culture said Monday.
The age of the find, determined by an optical dating test, singles it out as "probably one of the oldest in the world", according to a ministry press release.
"The dating matches the coldest period of the most recent ice age, indicating that the cavern's paleolithic
Source: BBC News
March 23, 2010
A search engine is being created to help historians find useful sources.
The Connected History project will link up currently separate databases of source materials.
Once complete, it will give academics or members of the public a single site that lets them search all the collections.
Once completed the search engine will index digitised books, newspapers, manuscripts, genealogical records, maps and images that date from 1500-1900.
"There
