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: Tocqueville Connection
July 3, 2008
Bells rang out across Canada Thursday to mark the founding of Quebec City, at the exact time that French explorer Samuel de Champlain is thought to have landed on these shores 400 years ago.Rooted in the early days of the fur trade, and once the cradle of French civilization in North America that spanned from Acadia in easternmost Canada to Louisiana in the southern United States, Quebec City is now a bustling metropolis with a population of 700,000.
Its old qua
Source: Washington Times
July 3, 2008
Handcuffs used to restrain the man who assassinated President James A. Garfield were found last week when workers were cleaning out a closet at D.C. police headquarters.The handcuffs had been part of an old display that had been left in a dark corner and collected dust during the 1990s, according to Sgt. Breul, the department historian. The artifacts were kept in such poor condition that Sgt. Breul had said he would take the items to the Washington Historical Society.
Source: Newsweek
July 7, 2008
How's this for a coincidence? Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born in the same year, on the same day: Feb. 12, 1809. As historical facts go, it amounts to little more than a footnote. Still, while it's just a coincidence, it's a coincidence that's guaranteed to make you do a double take the first time you run across it. Everybody knows Darwin and Lincoln were near-mythic figures in the 19th century. But who ever thinks of them in tandem? Who puts the theory of evolution and the Civil War
Source: National Security Archive
July 2, 2008
The National Security Archive launches its new Web page for The Guatemala Project today, with links to information, analysis and declassified documents relating to all the Archive's Guatemala work over the past 14 years. After decades of civil war and genocide, Guatemala has become a virtual laboratory of international and transitional justice, with a genocide case underway in a Spanish court, another about a Guatemalan Army death squad logbook before the Inter-American Commission on Human Right
Source: http://www.arabtimesonline.com
July 2, 2008
“A large number of Iraqi artifacts are currently in Kuwait and are known to be in the possession of a famous Kuwaiti businessman,” say sources, adding “the Iraqi Antiquities Department has received information that Uday, son of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, smuggled a large number of ancient relics into Jordan by land and they were later transferred by air to Kuwait, reports Al-Dar daily. Sources say the Iraqi department has documents showing the route of smuggling and has supplied the d
Source: NYT
July 2, 2008
The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”
What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many
Source: AP
June 28, 2008
SREMSKA MITROVICA, SERBIA -- When entrepreneur Mitar Tasovac purchased a long-abandoned factory intending to develop a housing complex on the site, he uncovered a chilling chapter of local history that had lain dormant for 60 years.
After World War II, the sprawling complex on the outskirts of this northern Serbian town served as a prison camp for local Germans, and about 2,000 people died there.
Before the Nazi invasion in 1941, about 520,000 members of the minority li
Source: McClatchy
July 1, 2008
Notably mild-mannered Republican Sen. Thad Cochran shocked many earlier this year with comments about John McCain's volatile temper, but has since mended fences with the GOP presidential nominee.
But Cochran told the Sun Herald this week that he witnessed a confrontation between McCain and a Sandinista rebel decades ago that shocked him when McCain "got mad at the guy and he just reached over there and snatched him."
Elected to the U.S. House of Representative
Source: Reuters
June 30, 2008
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says Harry Truman, the common sense everyman from Missouri, was one of his favorite presidents. On Monday, he took a few minutes on the campaign trail to soak up some Truman history.
After Obama delivered a speech on the meaning of patriotism at an auditorium in the Truman presidential library complex in Independence, Missouri, he strolled over to Truman’s old house a few blocks away.
He stopped to visit well-wishers along
Source: http://weblog.infoworld.com
July 1, 2008
With Bill Gates stepping down from his day-to-day role of running Microsoft, he's been receiving a great number of accolades about the role he played in history of the PC. Much of it is deserved. But some of it definitely ignores the reality of how the PC industry evolved and the effect that Bill Gates and Microsoft had, for good and bad, on technology innovation.
At the Microsoft farewell to Gates last week, successor Steve Ballmer is quoted as saying: "Bill was really there a
Source: NYT
June 30, 2008
Years ago, when William Miller talked about being in the Vietnam War — if he talked about being in the Vietnam War — he would tell people he served on a Swift boat.
At least now they have heard of it. But not in the way he would like.
“I was proud of what I did, and all the guys I was with,” Mr. Miller said. “Now somebody says ‘Swift boat’ and it’s a whole different meaning. They don’t associate it with the guys we lost. That’s a shame.”
“Swift boat” has be
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 1, 2008
The wreck of a richly-jewelled 17th century ship has been discovered in the English Channel.
Marine archaeologists who explored the 600-ton vessel off Dorset believe it may have been as luxurious in its day as the Titanic.
Among the treasures they have retrieved is a statue of a merman whose eye sockets would have held precious stones.
Source: BBC
July 1, 2008
US President George W Bush has signed a bill removing Nelson Mandela and South African leaders from the US terror watch list, officials say.
Mr Mandela and ANC party members will now be able to visit the US without a waiver from the secretary of state.
The African National Congress (ANC) was designated as a terrorist organisation by South Africa's old apartheid regime.
A US senator said the new legislation was a step towards removing the "shame of dishonouri
Source: Spiegel Online
June 28, 2008
When the fans of the German and Spanish teams throng into Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium on Sunday to watch the Euro 2008 finals they will be hoping to enjoy a day of thrilling sport in Austria's most historic stadium. Many may not realize, however, that this history spans back to the 1930s when the stadium served as a Nazi barracks and then as a prison where Jews were held before being deported to concentration camps.
The dark chapter in the stadium's history began in 1934, three ye
Source: AFP
June 26, 2008
A US defence department team has arrived in India to prepare a search for the remains of hundreds of American personnel who went missing over the Himalayan "Hump" during World War II, diplomats and officials said.
The team, from the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command (JPAC), will fly to the northeast frontier state of Arunachal Pradesh for a "site survey" ahead of the search once monsoon rains stop in October.
"It's still very early
Source: ABC
June 14, 2008
For the 2nd time this month, a massive confederate flag was raised near a well-traveled highway intersection, for all drivers to see.
The Sons of the Confederate Veterans, a local southern Heritage group, raised the 30 foot by 50 foot flag during a ceremony at 8 am this morning. They plan to fly the flag until around 3 pm, then will take it down again.
A group of onlookers traveled past the flag, located on the group's property off US 92, which could be seen by drivers
Source: http://www.kentonline.co.uk
June 24, 2008
A German submarine which sank off the coast of Folkestone in 1918 is to be moved because it poses a threat to shipping.
The U-boat is a designated war grave and saw the loss of 28 crewmen when it collided with a mine.
It currently lies near the Varne bank just 23 metres below the surface.
Although the wreck has been undisturbed since it sank the increasing number of vessels operating in the Channel means the wreck is reducing the avaliable sea room.
Source: Reuters
June 29, 2008
The first rabbis ordained in Poland since World War Two received their diplomas from Warsaw's Rabbinical College on Sunday, PAP news agency said.
Nine students from the United States and Israel were granted rabbinical rights at a ceremony presided over by Poland's chief rabbi, U.S.-born Michael Schudrich, and attended by Jewish clergy from Poland, Israel and Britain.
"This was a ceremony of historic proportions," said Rabbi Szalom Ber Stambler, who heads the c
Source: McClatchy
July 1, 2008
The lady carved on the ancient rock is squatting, with frog-like legs sticking out to each side. Her decapitated head is dangling to the right.
That's how she had been, perfectly preserved, for up to 800 years, until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers came upon her last year while building a $375 million dam to control flooding in southern Puerto Rico.
She was buried again last week with the hope that some day specialists will study her and Puerto Rican children will visi
Source: CNN
July 1, 2008
The search teams comb through the backyards of the half-million-dollar homes with metal detectors, placing red flags on the manicured lawns every time they get a hit. To the shock of residents, they sometimes find live bombs.
The bombs are left over from a 12,000-acre World War II bombing range. The area has become an Orlando neighborhood with thousands of homes.
The Army Corps of Engineers has launched a $10 million cleanup of what used to be the PineCastle Jeep Range,
