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: USA Today
November 11, 2009
GALESBURG, Ill. — The future of VFW Post 2257 might hinge on the life span of its worn-out, 50-year-old boiler and attendance at weekly bingo games this winter.
Like many Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion posts, Post 2257 in this western Illinois city of 31,000 people is struggling to survive as older members die and younger veterans decide not to join. Nationally, the number of VFW posts declined from 8,374 in 2007 to 7,915 as of June, spokesman Jerry Newberry says. The
Source: Politico Playbook
November 11, 2009
About 600 people turned out last night for the event at the Library of Congress, including Reagan alumni, veterans of Bush 41, senators, ambassadors, former Congress members, judges and press luminaries like CNN’s Sam Feist. Rick Fowler, manager of the Beach Boys, who have a long association with President Ronald Reagan, also attended. Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave a tough, pro-Reagan speech that emphasized the message of peace through strength. It was one of the biggest gatherings ever of
Source: BBC
November 11, 2009
Services of commemoration are being held around the world to mark Armistice Day, the end of World War I in 1918.
At a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, US President Barack Obama said no tribute could match the service and sacrifice of the armed forces.
Earlier, Angela Merkel became the first German chancellor to mark the day by attending French events in Paris.
In London, the Queen, politicians and British Armed Forces chiefs recalled the passing of th
Source: Thaindian News
November 9, 2009
An archaeological excavation has uncovered the mummy of a young priestess, a member of the elite, with several precious items dating from the period of 300-450 AD in Cahuachi, Peru.
According to a report in Travel Culture History News, the mummy was found inside a series of rooms between the Great Pyramid and what is known as the Orange Pyramid.
The building would have formed a small temple that had 4 columns holding up its roof.
Giuseppe Orefici, director
Source: Inside Higher Ed
November 11, 2009
One of the most important troves of African-American historical materials became the subject of national ire and hand wringing this week, when the student newspaper at Howard University reported that the university library’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center -- considered one of the foremost repositories of artifacts and manuscripts related to black history -- could close due to an inadequate budget and a shortage of staff.
The article prompted a stream of upset phone calls, e-mails
Source: Boston.com
November 10, 2009
Governor Deval Patrick today assailed the speaking invitation that a group of UMass Amherst faculty extended to a convicted terrorist, even after criticism from state and university leaders scuttled earlier plans for a speech.
"I am more than a little disappointed about this invitation having been extended,'' Patrick said at a State House news conference. I fully get the point, and respect the idea of free speech. But I think it is a reflection of profound insensitivity to cont
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
November 10, 2009
Frankfurt, Germany - Yesterday, Marlene Muehlmann saw the Berlin Wall tumble down.
Along with tens of thousands of young people from around the world, she decorated one of 1,000 giant dominoes erected along the strip that once divided East and West Germany and then toppled to commemorate the end of the cold war."I knew everything already, how the border was," says Marlene, a 9th-grader who lives in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg, not far from where the wall was."The parents in
Source: Boston.com
November 10, 2009
Senator John F. Kerry, who came to national prominence when he testified before Congress as a Vietnam war hero turned anti-war activist, is now warning against those pushing for a troop surge in Afghanistan by asserting that the same could have turned the tide in Vietnam.
"Let me be clear: more than 58,000 American troops died because they were sent into battle based on false assumptions, flawed goals, and faulty strategies. Yes, we adopted smarter tactics near the end, but by
Source: The Putnam Standard and Citizen's Newspaper
November 10, 2009
The Veterans Administration and the Library of Congress Veterans History Project have a special message for all Americans this Veterans Day - Honor our Veterans. Record their histories!
By recording the oral histories of our Veterans, we preserve the human face of American history for generations to come and honor those men and women who swore to protect and defend the United States.
The Veterans History Project (VHP) collects and preserves the remembrances of American
Source: Guardian (UK)
November 9, 2009
It started out as a personal account by a world leader of where he was when the wall came down. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, posted a photograph of himself taking a pickaxe to the Berlin Wall on his Facebook page, describing how he rushed to Berlin on 9 November 1989, and crossed through Checkpoint Charlie on the first day the gates opened.
But today, Sarkozy was accused of rewriting history by French journalists who had studied reports from the time and found no evidence
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 11, 2009
The United Nations has declared July 18 "Nelson Mandela International Day" to mark the South African anti-apartheid leader's contribution to peace.
A resolution adopted by consensus by the 192-member world body calls for commemorations every year starting in 2010 on July 18 - Mandela's birthday - to recognise the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's contribution to resolving conflicts and promoting race relations, human rights and reconciliation.
Mandela, 91, led the
Source: BBC
November 11, 2009
After more than six years of conflict Iraq seems an unlikely place for a holiday. But could its status as the birthplace of civilisation see tourists flocking?
For most travellers it will, undoubtedly, be years before Iraq becomes a destination of choice. But as the country stabilises its advocates believe its potential is beginning to emerge.
At one time Iraq was a regular stop for British travellers. Early flights to imperial India refuelled in the port city of Basra
Source: BBC
November 11, 2009
Later this month Egyptian archaeologists will travel to the Louvre Museum in Paris to collect five ancient fresco fragments stolen from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in the 1980s, but there are many other "stolen" antiquities which they also want back, reports the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo.
Thousands of artefacts were spirited out of Egypt during the period of colonial rule and afterwards by archaeologists, adventurers and thieves.
According to a 1972
Source: Guardian (UK)
November 11, 2009
The simulated screeching of the Stukas over Warsaw almost has you ducking for cover. The thump of marching jackboots portends terror. The melancholy piano of Chopin tugs at Polish heartstrings.
In the Museum of the Warsaw Rising, the sound effects are powerful, the visuals compelling, the tragedy forcefully conveyed. The story of the Polish capital's suicidal rebellion in 1944 against the Nazi occupation is vividly told through interactive, multi-media installations that play on the
Source: BBC
November 11, 2009
The death of the "last Tommy", Harry Patch, in July put an end to first-hand memories of the World War I trenches. But if Armistice Day pricks your curiosity about what your ancestors did in the world wars, there are many avenues of archives to explore.
And according to Anthony Richards, archivist at the Imperial War Museum, interest in researching family military history is now more popular than ever. A major aspect of genealogy is often the involvement of family members
Source: BBC
November 11, 2009
Researchers have discovered a fossil skeleton that appears to link the earliest dinosaurs with the large plant-eating sauropods.
This could help to bridge an evolutionary gap between the two-legged common ancestors of dinosaurs and the four-legged giants, such as diplodocus.
The remarkably complete skeleton shows that the creature was bipedal but occasionally walked on all four legs.
The team reports its discovery in the Royal Society journal Proceedings
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 11, 2009
Hanukkah dinner in Odessa, bathers in the Baltic Sea, a tailor in front of his shop in Serbia - just some of the 25,000 images of pre-war Jewish life garnered from the private collections of survivors for a new exhibition.
With the number of those who lived through the Holocaust fast dwindling, researchers scoured cities across Europe, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and Baltic states, to glean as much as they could about the lives of Jewish families in the years before World
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 11, 2009
Britain’s last surviving First World War veteran has shunned Remembrance Day commemorations in Australia because he does not agree with the glorification of war, his family has said.
In July Claude Choules, 108, became Britain’s sole survivor from the 1914-1918 war, following the death of Harry Patch, aged 111.
Mr Choules, who lives in a nursing home in Perth, served on HMS Revenge during a 41-year naval career that spanned both world wars, witnessing the surrender of
Source: Telegraph (UK)
November 11, 2009
The nation fell silent at 11am today as the passing of the First World War generation was marked at a moving Westminster Abbey memorial service for Armistice Day.
The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, senior politicians and the heads of the Armed Forces gathered for the ceremony in central London.
The Very Rev Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster, opened the service by recalling the moment exactly 91 years ago when the guns fell silent in Europe.
Source: AP
November 11, 2009
For the first time since World War I, the leaders of Germany and France appeared together at a ceremony Wednesday to commemorate the end of the conflict, saying it is now time to celebrate their countries' reconciliation and friendship.
Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel together laid a wreath of flowers at the tomb and symbolically relit the perpetual flame above it to mark the 91st anniversary of the end of World War I.
The last of 8.4 million French who foug
