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: History Today
November 16, 2009
Last Thursday, Sir John Soane’s Museum in London announced that a gold mourning-ring belonging to Soane and containing a lock of Napoleon’s hair had been returned to the museum. The museum had previously tried to acquire the ring at an auction held by Christie’s in June. At the time, however, the museum was the under-bidder. With the support of The Art Fund and private donors the museum has now successfully purchased the ring for £41,000.
The ring originally belonged to Sir John Soa
Source: BBC
November 16, 2009
The UN tribunal hearing cases from the 1994 Rwandan genocide has freed a man who had been sentenced to 22 years.
Protais Zigiranyirazo, the brother-in-law of ex-Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, had been found guilty of organising a massacre of 1,000 people.
But the appeals court judge said there had been serious errors in his trial and his conviction in 2008 violated "the most basic principles of justice".
Reporters say Mr Zigiranyirazo look
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 16, 2009
When Hemnecher Amen, a student, joined a protest outside the White House recently, it was the latest visible opposition here to US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hardly anyone took any notice.
With the US military several years into two faraway wars, American students like Amen are taking to the streets less often - and to less effect - than their Vietnam-era predecessors who were the vanguard of the anti-war movement in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The economic and acade
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 16, 2009
Benito Mussolini regarded Adolf Hitler as a teary-eyed "sentimentalist" but was jealous of the Nazi dictator's power and fame, diaries written by the Italian leader's mistress reveal.
Claretta Petacci's journals, which will be published this week, describe a meeting he had with the German leader in 1938 after British prime minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland.
The diaries also show Mussolini was irritated by being reg
Source: The Times (UK)
November 17, 2009
For the perfect Nazi Christmas you had to hang glittering swastikas and toy grenades from the pine tree in the living room and, in your freshly pressed uniform, belt out carols urging German women to make babies for the Führer rather than worship the Jewish Baby Jesus. Then came the moment to light the pagan candle-holders — hand-made by labourers at Dachau.
Hitler’s dream of a 1,000-year Reich came to an end long before the world was subjected to 1,000 of his Christmases but an exh
Source: CNN
November 16, 2009
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologized on Monday to thousands of adults who, as impoverished British children, were brought to Australia with the promise of a better life but found abuse and forced labor.
The so-called Forgotten Australians -- children who came from British families struggling with severe poverty or from institutions in the UK -- were brought to Australia in a program that ended 40 years ago.
The program scarred generations of children
Source: USA Today
November 9, 2009
Scientists have found evidence that cavemen near the U.S.-Mexican border were butchering gomphotheres, elephant-like beasts from the Ice Age that had been believed to be nearly extinct in North America by the time humans appeared there.
Researchers from the University of Arizona and Mexico's anthropology institute say they found the bones of two young gomphotheres — along with blades, a scraping tool and stone chips from making spear tips — at an 11,000-year-old site in Mexico's Son
Source: Times Colonist (Canada)
November 9, 2009
Bones found at a Saanich lot where a new home is being built are believed to be the 1,000-year-old remains of an 18-year-old aboriginal person, but police say it is also possible the bones are from several individuals.
The discovery began with a false alarm when on Nov. 3, a dog nosing around at the construction site pulled out a bone from loosened earth where excavators had been working. Construction was stopped at that point and is still on hold. Saanich police took the bone to th
Source: WHSV
November 11, 2009
A search for paw paws near Fort Boreman Historical Park has uncovered a rare artifact: a stone bearing the carved name of a Civil War soldier.
A search for paw paws near Fort Boreman Historical Park has uncovered a rare artifact: a stone bearing the carved name of a Civil War soldier.
Civil War historians Brian Kesterson and Terry McVey found the stone October 26.
During the war, Fort Boreman was a Union encampment.
Kesterson says the inscripti
Source: The Boston Globe
November 15, 2009
The latest restoration of USS Constitution is undoing historically incorrect changes, bringing the ship ever closer to its 1812 splendor.
The only living veteran of the War of 1812” -- as USS Constitution Commander William Bullard described the old warship when he turned over his post this summer -- is having a makeover. Actually, “Old Ironsides” has gone through many looks since its launch 212 years ago. Some, such as the two-story barnlike structure built on its upper deck in 1882
Source: BBC
November 15, 2009
A statue honouring the late Victoria Cross holder and former Welsh Rugby Union president Sir Tasker Watkins has been unveiled by his daughter.
The 9ft (2.7m) bronze sculpture takes pride of place on the walkway leading into the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Lady Mair Griffith-Williams performed the ceremony in front of a distinguished audience.
Sir Tasker, whose wartime bravery earned him the Victoria Cross at the age of 25 in 1944, died two years ago.
Source: BBC
November 15, 2009
A 300-year-old document which led to one of the most infamous episodes in Scottish history is to go on display.
The signed order for the Massacre of Glencoe will form the centrepiece of an exhibition to mark the end of the Year of Homecoming.
It will be among nine cultural treasures which will be displayed in the National Library of Scotland from this week.
Thirty eight members of the MacDonald clan were killed in the massacre.
Source: BBC
November 15, 2009
The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Pavle, has died in Belgrade, the Church has announced.
The patriarch, 95, became leader of the Church in 1990. He was admitted to the city's military hospital two years ago.
Though he reportedly suffered from heart and lung conditions, the Church did not specify the cause of death. After the fall of communism and rise of Serb nationalism, the Church regained a leading role during his ru
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 15, 2009
The family of the actor Denholm Elliott is auctioning an archive of his memorabilia including a book of Shakespeare’s plays sent to him at a prisoner of war camp in Germany during the Second World War.
Elliott first developed an interest in acting while an RAF prisoner of war when he read and re-read the book sent to the camp in Selesia by the Red Cross.
He staged amateur dramatics and on his release he pursued an acting career in London before making his film debut i
Source: Fox News
November 15, 2009
The mayor who oversaw rescue efforts in the wake of the attacks on lower Manhattan tells 'Fox News Sunday' the president is only granting the 'wish' of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad at the expense of the American people and that the conspirators should be tried in a military tribunal.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani accused the Obama administration of "repeating the mistake of history" by bringing the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and his accomplices
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 14, 2009
An apology is to be made to the victims of child migration schemes who were shipped from Britain to Australia, where many suffered abuse and neglect.
On Monday, the Australian government will say sorry to the thousands of children deported there during the twentieth century.
Meanwhile, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, will this week say he is to look into what can be done to make amends to all the children who were shipped to Australia, Canada and other former coloni
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 11, 2009
Unseen colour 3D newsreel of the Queen’s Coronation, which was lost in an archive for more than 50 years, is to be broadcast for the first time.
The 17-minute footage, thought to be the first in the world to be filmed in colour 3D, was discovered in a tin labelled “Royal Review 1953” in the British Film Institute (BFI).
It had been passed in the 1960s to BFI by Dixons, the electrical retailers, with a letter which said: “We give you this film for your safe keeping in
Source: Kansas City
November 13, 2009
When Bob Enright first showed Kevin Corbett a small doll a sailor took off a Japanese kamikaze pilot whose plane struck a ship in World War II, he knew it was special.
“Bob said people had given him advice, saying sell the doll,” Corbett said. “He asked me what I thought and I told him not to listen to anyone; it was something special, something culturally significant.” ...
... The next day, he received a reply from Ellen Schattschneider, who teaches anthropology at Bra
Source: NYT
November 14, 2009
VENICE — At high noon on Saturday, a gondola bearing a hot-pink plywood coffin decked with yellow flowers made its way down the Grand Canal. Onlookers watched from the shore and shouted greetings from the Rialto Bridge before the boat alighted nearby in front of the Venice city hall.
Part photo opportunity, part political theater, the spectacle was the centerpiece of a fake funeral for the city of Venice. A group of prankster-provocateurs organized it to protest the fact that the nu
Source: DVIDS
November 14, 2009
BAGHDAD – The contributions of Native Americans to American history, as well as the military, are quintessentially, well, American.
November marks Native American History Month and is intended to celebrate and commemorate the rich culture of the various Indian nations, said Sgt. 1st Class Tamatha Denton, from New York.
"The theme for this year is 'Understanding American Indian Heritage Now and Then,'" she said. "We're touching on military service all the
