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
July 19, 2008
With the pressure of ruling and the stress of succession, perhaps it is no wonder that so many of Britain's kings and queens have made a mess of their reign.
On Tuesday, Today spoke to historians taking part in a debate organised by English Heritage, which seeks to answer the question of which British monarch should be considered the biggest failure.
Their nominees - Edward II, George IV and Mary, Queen of Scots - are certainly contenders for the dubious honour of Britain's w
Source: Hudson Valley Press
July 19, 2008
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced today that she will testify at a hearing in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 in support of the National Women’s Rights History Project Act (S.1816), a bill which she introduced last year that is presently before the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks.
Source: Boston Globe
July 19, 2008
Over the past few years, Sen. Edward Kennedy has sat for nearly three dozen interviews to recount personal anecdotes and insights about his storied life and times.
The recorded conversations -- which have never been made public -- are the heart of an ambitious oral history project by the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. The six-year project has gained even more significance since the 76-year-old senator was diagnosed this spring with brain cancer.
Source: WaPo
July 19, 2008
A longtime critic of the Smithsonian Institution introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate this week that would wipe out the national museum complex's exemption from the Freedom of Information Act and the Sunshine Act.
The legislation, co-sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Finance Committee, and Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, would require the Smithsonian to hold meetings in public and make records availabl
Source: BBC
July 22, 2008
The arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his expected
transfer to The Hague throws a renewed spotlight on the prosecution of war
crimes.
But what exactly are war crimes? What body of laws do they refer to and
who has the right to try a suspect for such crimes?
Radovan Karadzic is set to follow Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague
The concept of war crimes is a recent one. Before World War II, it was
generally accepted that the horrors of war were in the nature of war.
Source: http://en.epochtimes.com
July 21, 2008
With cooperation from the Ukrainian government,
archeologists are trying to reconstruct a Ukrainian town destroyed by the
Russian army during the 18th century.
At present Baturyn is a small town, but in the 18th century it was home
for Ivan Mazepa, a legendary commander or “ghetman” in Ukrainian."Under the patronage of President Victor Yuschenko the revival of
ghetman’s capital is happening in the city of Baturyn,” said Vladimir
Prihodko, a local administrator.
During the N
Source: http://www.courier-journal.com
July 22, 2008
An Ohio historian is expected to turn himself in to authorities Thursday
on charges that he illegally removed an 8-ton boulder from the Kentucky
side of the Ohio River.
Steven Shaffer of Ironton, Ohio, has been in contact with authorities in
Kentucky and indicated he will appear for his arraignment in Greenup
Circuit Court, said Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Duvall.
He faces a charge of removing an object of antiquity, a Class D felony
that carries a penalty of one to five yea
Source: BBC
July 21, 2008
Parts of one of Scotland's most influential religious and historic
buildings have been uncovered for the first time in centuries.
Archaeologists have been digging at Scone Palace and believe they have
found the walls of the lost abbey.
Despite the site's significance, there is very little sign of the 12th
century building above ground.
Source: http://www.terradaily.com
July 21, 2008
The contradictions in Europe's economies are becoming stark. In Britain, the government has resorted to its highest level of borrowing since the public finance records first began in 1946. It borrowed $49 billion in the last three months, an annual rate of $200 billion, which is close to 10 percent of GDP.
Source: CNN
July 21, 2008
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has been arrested after more than a decade as a fugitive from war crimes charges, the U.N. tribunal that charged him announced Monday.
Karadzic, 63, was the Serb political leader during the 1992-1995 war that followed Bosnia-Herzegovina's secession from Yugoslavia. He is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the law of war.
No details of his arrest were immediately available. But the chief prosecutor for th
Source: Houston Chronicle
July 20, 2008
When Franklin Roosevelt opened the first presidential
library in 1940, the price for the modest fieldstone structure on his
Hyde Park estate came to $376,000 — the equivalent of about $5.5
million in current dollars.
Today, as George W. Bush forges ahead with ambitious plans for a
library, museum and policy institute to be built in Dallas at his
wife's alma mater, Southern Methodist University, the cost to build
homage to his presidency has risen nearly fiftyfold to $250 millio
Source: Politico.com
July 21, 2008
An Obama campaign ban on green clothing during the candidate’s visits to Israel and Jordan has created wide puzzlement among observers of the Middle East.
In a memo to reporters, described as “a few guidelines we sent staff before departure to the Middle East,” Obama advance staffer Peter Newell laid out rules on attire for Jordan and Israel.
First among them: “Do not wear green.”
An Obama aide explained to reporters that green is the color associated with
Source: Times of India
July 21, 2008
Soon after Adolf Hitler's waxwork in Berlin caused an outcry, a card game featuring the great dictators of history, including the Nazi leader and Josef Stalin, has sparked a row in Germany.
Hitler's waxwork at Madame Tussauds was beheaded earlier this month as it opened its doors in Berlin.
The card game, called The Fuehrer Quartet presents information on historical figures such as Hitler, Stalin, Franco of Spain and Ceaucescu of Romania. The dictators are divided int
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 22, 2008
The Edinburgh Dungeon said the one-day event is in revenge for the Battle of Falkirk, fought 710 years ago July 21st, at which more than 2,000 Scots were slaughtered by the Auld Enemy.
English visitors will only be allowed entry if they sign a scroll swearing allegiance to Scotland, while those from other countries will be encouraged to bring in items deemed 'typically English’ to be smashed.
The attraction, which is visited by 200,000 people per year insisted the mea
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 22, 2008
Political leaders in Europe and the US have congratulated the Serbian government on managing to detain Karadzic after 13 years on the run.
Richard Holbrooke, the US diplomat who brokered the Dayton Peace Agreement for Bosnia in 1995, described his arrest as "a historic day".
He said: "One of the worst men in the world, the Osama bin Laden of Europe, has finally been captured.
"A major, major thug has been removed from the public scene
Source: Guardian (UK)
July 22, 2008
A lifetime of memories is wrapped up inside the rickety wooden house that Necati Celik, 76, has called home since he was five. It is where he lived with his wife and brought up his children.
But Celik is unlikely to fulfil his wish of seeing out the rest of his days tending his flowers outside the 100-year-old listed building - a classic late Ottoman structure in Sulukule, Istanbul. He cannot afford the extensive renovations that local officials are demanding as part of a controver
Source: AP
July 21, 2008
The oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, a 4th century version that had its Gospels and epistles spread across the world, is being made whole again — online.
The British Library says the full text of the Codex Sinaiticus will be available to Web users by next July, digitally reconnecting parts that are held in Britain, Russia, Germany and a monastery in Egypt's Sinai Desert.
A preview of the Codex, which also has some parts of the Old Testament, will hit the Web
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
July 21, 2008
It remains to be seen if the new law will prod more institutions to reach out to veterans or if it will transform veterans' enrollment patterns. But history suggests a skeptical view.
In the 60 years since its passage, the original GI bill has gained an almost mythical status. It has been credited with promoting postwar prosperity, expanding the middle class, and democratizing higher education in the United States. Some historians see it as a watershed in American higher education,
Source: HamptonRoads.com
July 19, 2008
Barbara Johns didn't live to see the day.
Neither did Oliver W. Hill Sr., Spottswood Robinson III or the Rev. L. Francis Griffin.
But each of those Virginia civil rights pioneers will be posthumously recognized Monday as part of a ceremony honoring the strides they made.
On that day, the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial, bearing their images in bronze, will be unveiled on the grounds of the state Capitol.
The four-sided memorial surrounds a grani
Source: AP
July 20, 2008
From Abraham Lincoln's boyhood residence to the Mary Todd Lincoln house, visitors this year are flocking to Kentucky sites dedicated to the 16th president.
But, Lincoln's Confederate counterpart, Jefferson Davis, is experiencing a similar resurgence. Kentucky, which claims both men as native sons and has statues of both in its Capitol Rotunda, isn't the only place experiencing a Davis boost.
"It'll be hard for anyone to approach the level of attention that Abraham Lincol
