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: Telegraph (UK)
February 4, 2008
Thousands of illegitimate mixed-race children fathered by American GIs were given up by their British mothers and shipped across the Atlantic, according to newly released papers.
The issue of how to deal with the unwanted offspring of the illicit affairs divided the country towards the end of the Second World War and exposed the racial prejudices of the time.
It was considered so serious that there were dire warnings it could harm Anglo-American relations and the Govern
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 4, 2008
The final resting place of three German U-boats, nicknamed "Hitler's lost fleet", has been found at the bottom of the Black Sea.
The submarines had been carried 2,000 miles overland from Germany to attack Russian shipping during the Second World War, but were scuttled as the war neared its end. Now, more than 60 years on, explorers have located the flotilla of three submarines off the coast of Turkey.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 2, 2008
A fifth of British teenagers believe Sir Winston Churchill was a fictional character, while many think Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur and Eleanor Rigby were real, a survey shows.
The canvass of 3,000 under-twenties uncovered an extraordinary paucity of basic historical knowledge that older generations take for granted.
Despite his celebrated military reputation, 47 per cent of respondents dismissed the 12th-century crusading English king Richard the Lionheart as fictional
Source: NYT
February 3, 2008
EARLY in the last century, Argentina was one of the world’s 10 richest countries. Its fabled beef and other farm exports were building an industrial economy. In 1928, it had more cars than France and more telephone lines than Japan. The dream of its Spanish founders — to transform a wild land tucked near the bottom of the world into a great country of European culture and education inhabited by white-skinned people — was coming true.
But those days are deep in the past. As the Argen
Source: NYT
February 3, 2008
SOMETIMES the simplest of arguments can reveal the deepest of divisions. Take the dispute between Senator Barack Obama and the Clintons over the legacy of Ronald Reagan. The episode began in Reno, Nev., you will recall, when Mr. Obama told an editorial board that Mr. Reagan was a president of ideas who had moved the country’s politics. His ideas weren’t necessarily good ideas, as Mr. Obama framed it, but they were transformative.
That may sound like a straightforward statement of hi
Source: NYT
February 3, 2008
More than six decades after the end of World War II, the families of men like Joe Huba are making a new push to find and bring home the remains of their missing and dead. After years when survivors accepted the solace of mass memorials and unknown-soldier graves, a younger generation is seeking something much more personal.
The relatives are spurred by strides in DNA matching, satellite mapping and Internet archives, and by a new advocacy group impatient with the pace of the militar
Source: WaPo
February 3, 2008
It fell to Mike Turpen, a former Oklahoma attorney general, to warm up the crowd, and he did so with gusto. "Bill Clinton!" he shouted to several thousand people gathered in the McCasland Field House at the University of Oklahoma. "He gave us eight years of peace and prosperity! Do you remember?"
In case they didn't, the former president bounded onstage, took the microphone and spent some of the next hour reminding them: He balanced the budget and paid down the n
Source: Times (UK)
February 1, 2008
Patriotism should be avoided in school lessons because British history is"morally ambiguous," a leading educational body recommends.
History and citizenship lessons should stick to the bare facts rather than encouraging loyalty to Britain when covering subjects such as the Second World War or the British Empire, the Institute of Education researchers said. Teachers should not instill pride in what they consider great moments of British history, as more shameful episodes could be dow
Source: NYT
February 2, 2008
Growing up in the palest of Chicago suburbs, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton had some of her earliest exposures to African-Americans through field trips. She sat in the back of her father’s Cadillac as he detoured through the inner city, cautioning her about the fate of people who, in his conservative Republican view, lacked the self-discipline to succeed.
She took a sociology course at Wellesley College that included a trip through Boston’s poor areas. On Tuesdays, she went to a hou
Source: AP
February 1, 2008
The National Archives wants a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit seeking quick access to records about a health care task force Hillary Rodham Clinton headed as first lady, or delay the release for about a year.
Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group, has complained in a lawsuit that the National Archives isn't moving fast enough on its April 2006 request to see the documents. The archives says Judicial Watch is trying to jump ahead of those who made earlier requests u
Source: History Today
January 30, 2008
Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes have been scattered at sea on the 60th anniversary of his death. His great-granddaughter, Nilamben Parikh, was at the ceremony off the coast of Mumbai with ten other relatives of the Indian political leader. The 75-year-old Ms Parikh stated: ‘This is a day for deep thought. This day will help us think how to move forward.’ The ashes were scattered about 1km from the shore, 60 years after Gandhi was assassinated on January 30th, 1948 by a Hindu fanatic. After his cremation,
Source: AHA Blog
January 29, 2008
Google search, love it or hate it, has become ubiquitous. And now, according to a post Monday on the Official Google blog, searching may be evolving. Google is experimenting with “alternate views for search results,” including timeline, map, and information views that should hopefully provide a better sense of context to the search results.
The timeline view allows users to filter search results by date, using either a timeline at the top of the page, or by typing in their own set o
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
February 1, 2008
On January 29, 2008, President Bush issued Executive Order 13457 “Protecting American Taxpayers From Government Spending on Wasteful Earmarks.” Executive Order 13457 could have a real impact on funding for specific historical sites and programs, research and archival projects, and colleges and universities since they are often times the beneficiaries of congressional earmarks.The executive order follows through on the threat the President made during his State of the Union a
Source: http://www.aftenposten.no
January 30, 2008
Most Norwegian high school students (65 percent) don’t know who Pol Pot was or what the Gulag means (64 percent). A new survey shows Norwegian 15-20-year-olds are sorely lacking in their knowledge of 20th-century history.
Over a quarter of the students polled couldn’t even identify Mao Zedong, while 75 percent had never heard of "The Great Leap Forward".
The survey, carried out under the auspices of Norwegian "think tank" Civita (
Source: http://www.thebostonchannel.com
January 31, 2008
A centuries-old ship washed ashore on a Wellfleet beach after Sunday's storm on Cape Cod, according to a published report.
The 19th-century schooner could be seen south of Newcomb Hollow Beach on Tuesday, the Cape Cod Times reported. It's not clear when the ship sunk, but it's the largest shipwreck to wash up or be uncovered since a similar ship appeared on a beach in Orleans about 10 years ago, according to William Burke of the National Park Service.
Source: Palm Beach Post
February 1, 2008
The Seminoles were expecting a battle.
They cut down grass so they'd have a better view of the enemy and made notches in trees, to keep their guns steady.
"They lured them into a crossfire," Seminole historian Willie Johns said of the Indians' target, some 1,000 U.S. soldiers who arrived Christmas Day 1837, at the north end of Lake Okeechobee.
The ensuing battle - involving about 400 Seminoles - was the largest and bloodiest fight of the Second Se
Source: AP
February 1, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The bronze medallion embedded in the pavement behind the Commercial Bank of Texas is easy to overlook. About the size of a DVD, it barely registers as a bump for the cars pulling into the drive-thru window.
But it is there — engraved with the name of the space shuttle Columbia and the date five years ago Friday that the spacecraft exploded over the skies of eastern Texas.
The metal disc serves as a quiet tribute to the spot where a piece of the shut
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 2, 2008
A Chinese shopping list written 300 years ago has been found stuffed inside an 18th century vase.
The porcelain has been on display for almost 25 years at Fairfax House in York. It was uncovered while the elegant Georgian house, which is closed to the public every January, was being cleaned.
Peter Musgrove, who co-ordinates the work, said: "I took it out to clean and heard a rattling in the bottom of the vase.
"I gently poked a stick inside and dr
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 31, 2008
A lost city at the bottom of the ocean contains chemical traces that suggests it could have been the cradle of life on Earth.
Some believe the right ingredients for life made their way from outer space. Darwin thought it emerged in a "warm little pond" and others have looked for answers on the sea floor.
Now evidence to back the latter submarine idea has emerged from the "Lost City" which lies at a depth of 2,600 feet, where creamy white to grey spir
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 2, 2008
A float depicting victims of the Holocaust and a Hitler figure has been banned from Rio Carnival after objections from the Jewish community.
A judge issued the injunction, which prevents the float taking part in the carnival parade, after a lawsuit brought by Fierj, the Jewish Federation of Rio de Janeiro.
Judge Juliana Kalichszteim said: "Carnival should not be used as an instrument of hatred, any kind of racism and clear trivialisation of barbaric and unjustified
