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
March 11, 2007
CARAVAGGIO, Italy -- Each year, the sleepy northern Italian town of Caravaggio throws a week-long festival to honour its most famous citizen, the fiery Renaissance artist who took his home town's name.
This year, however, the celebrations are likely to be muted. An art historian in Milan has discovered that Michelangelo Merisi -- the artist's original name -- was not born in Caravaggio. He was born in Milan, on September 29, 1571, and baptised at the church of Santa Maria della Pass
Source: New York Times
March 11, 2007
SALINAS, Calif. -- The National Steinbeck Center, at the top of Main Street in this farming community, exhibits an array of artifacts from John Steinbeck's life and works...Downstairs, in a climate-controlled vault, is the original manuscript of "The Pearl," his novella published in 1947...
Steinbeck aficionados wishing to examine the manuscript of "The Pearl"...have to travel here -— after making an appointment with a part-time archivist, who is in on Mondays, W
Source: Observer
March 11, 2007
When the mutilated bodies of Henry Dee and Charles Moore were dragged up from the waters of the Mississippi in 1964, they were tied to the engine block of a Jeep. The Ku Klux Klansmen who killed the black teenagers had intended their bodies never to be found.
In the Fifties and Sixties, black men, women and children were often killed with impunity by southern whites who believed they would get away with murder. But they were wrong in the case of Dee and Moore, who were both 19.
Source: Observer
March 11, 2007
Winston Churchill's views on anti-Semitism were at the centre of a row last night after Cambridge University claimed to have discovered a 70-year-old document in which the future Prime Minister wrote that Jews may 'have been partly responsible for the antagonism from which they suffer', inviting terms of abuse such as 'Hebrew bloodsucker'.
Dr Richard Toye, a Cambridge historian, said he chanced on a typed article, written by Churchill in 1937 but unpublished, among proofs and press
Source: Boston Globe
March 8, 2007
In Colonial Boston, Henry Knox's bookstore on Cornhill Street was a fashionable gathering place for British Army officers and members of the town's Tory elite.
Knox developed an interest in the science and tactics of artillery that he furthered by reading the books he imported from England and carried in his store.
That knowledge would shortly be turned against his customers in the military surprise that led to the events celebrated on Evacuation Day, March 17.
Source: NYT
March 10, 2007
A pilgrimage to Israel by 27 Roman Catholic bishops from Germany last week was meant to be a historic symbol of reconciliation between Jews and German Catholics.
Instead, after two bishops drew a link between the plight of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, it has become a fresh source of recrimination.
Jewish groups in Germany and Israel’s ambassador to Germany condemned their comments, which were reported in newspapers he
Source: NYT
March 10, 2007
The picture on Page 95 of “An Age of Voyages: 1350-1600,” a seventh-grade history book used in California schools since last fall, had been unremarkable to state education officials: a stiff 19th-century portrait of a man with a trimmed beard holding a few beads and wearing a crown.
But for Sikhs, that image of Guru Nanak (1469-1538), their religion’s founder, is anathema to everything they believe about the prophet, a simple man who preached to the poor and certainly, they say, nev
Source: Independent
March 10, 2007
It could be shrugged off as an argument over fish, but in fact it is a classic dispute over ancient rights and local pleasures, over privileges and prerogatives, which stretches back centuries into the Celtic mist.
A few unemployed southern Irish anglers are taking on a scion of Britain's high nobility in the person of the 12th Duke of Devonshire, Peregrine Andrew Morny Cavendish, friend of the Prince of Wales and inheritor of fabulous wealth. And some prize salmon are at stake.
Source: NYT
March 10, 2007
A prominent Turkish politician was convicted Friday of breaching Swiss antiracism laws by saying that the early 20th-century killing of Armenians could not be described as genocide.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry reacted swiftly to the decision, saying in a statement that it was saddened by the Swiss court’s ruling to punish the politician, Dogu Perincek, leader of the Turkish Workers’ Party, and to ignore “his freedom of expression.”
Mr. Perincek was ordered to pay a fin
Source: AP
March 10, 2007
BELGRADE, Serbia -- Admirers of late president Slobodan Milosevic marked the first anniversary of his death with wreaths and speeches on Saturday, even as Serbia continues to grapple with consequences of his ruinous rule.
Officials of the formerly Milosevic-led Socialist Party gathered at his grave in the eastern town of Pozarevac, praising the man who led Serbia through several wars and ended up facing the U.N. war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague...
Source: AP
March 10, 2007
VATICAN CITY -- The Rome diocese has wrapped up its examination of Pope John Paul II's virtues and life, an important step in the Catholic Church's process that could lead to sainthood for the late pontiff.
Rome Cardinal Camillo Ruini said Saturday he had been informed that completion of work by the diocese on the cause for beatification and sainthood will be marked with a ceremony in St. John's Lateran Basilica on April 2 in the capital. The date is the second anniversary of John P
Source: BBC News
March 10, 2007
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The old chestnut tree that comforted Anne Frank while she was in hiding during the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands is to be cut down.
Amsterdam city council said the diseased tree behind the building in which the Jewish Frank family took refuge has been attacked by a fungus.
But after protests by environmental groups and the Anne Frank Museum, a cutting of the tree will be replanted.
The chestnut tree is listed as a monument and
Source: The Hindu (Chennai, India)
March 11, 2007
FEROKE, Kerala, India -- [Kerala] Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has said that India is sliding into the grip of neo-imperialism because of the economic and cultural regime that globalisation has brought about.
Inaugurating the 67th Session of the Indian History Congress at Farook College here on Saturday, Mr. Achuthanandan said the celebration this year of the 150th anniversary of the revolt of 1857 had a special significance in the prevailing situation in India because it gave
Source: Ottawa (Ont.) Citizen
March 10, 2007
The Canadian War Museum, refusing to bow any further to demands from several veterans' organizations, has announced it will not change a controversial display that raises questions about the morality and military value of the Allied bombing campaign in Germany during the Second World War.
The decision quickly prompted the Royal Canadian Legion to renew calls for a public boycott of the museum and to ask a Senate committee on veterans affairs to "investigate the matter" --
Source: San Bernardino (Calif.) Sun
March 10, 2007
CHINO, Calif. -- Federal agents dismantled two F-14 Tomcat fighter jets Thursday afternoon at Chino Airport, leaving only metal skeletons on the tarmac.
It was unclear if a third jet seized from a Chino museum two days earlier had been moved or stripped.
The former military aircraft were taken from the Yanks Air Museum and the Planes of Fame Museum after a 17-month investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Defense Criminal Investigation Service and
Source: AP
March 9, 2007
DAYTON, Ohio -- A building used as a top-secret code-breaking lab for the United States during World War II will be demolished, the University of Dayton announced Friday.
From 1942 to 1945, the Navy used the building as a lab for designing and building sophisticated code-breaking machines, including the NCR Bombe, credited with helping crack German U-boat codes.
The university, which owns the property, said a study showed the building had lost its historical integrity b
Source: AP
March 9, 2007
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Exactly 145 years after the USS Monitor faced the Confederate ship CSS Virginia in the first clash of ironclads, a $30 million center dedicated to the Union vessel opened Friday.
The Monitor Center, a new wing of The Mariners' Museum, houses more than 1,200 artifacts from the Civil War ship and an interactive exhibition on both armored vessels...
The Monitor, a new design, and the Virginia, built atop the burned-out hull of the Union steam f
Source: Times (of London)
March 10, 2007
NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Greek Cypriots today finished demolishing a wall that has for decades split Europe's last divided capital in two, in a dramatic move which officials hope may kick-start reconciliation moves.
The move to demolish the wall on Ledra Street, which runs through the heart of Nicosia, started under cover of darkness last night, and was not publicised earlier in the day. It followed the Turkish Cypriot dismantling of a disputed elevated walkway in January, which was at the centr
Source: Al Wafd (via MEMRI--Middle East Media Research Institute, Washington DC)
March 9, 2007
Egyptian Education and Culture Ministry official Dr. Radha Abu Sari'a announced that it had been decided to eliminate foreign history studies in international and foreign schools in Egypt. He said that starting with the next school year, the only history taught would be Egyptian history, in Arabic.
The change is aimed at preserving Egypt's cultural identity and preventing a recurrence of incidents such as that in which a schoolbook claimed that the Jews had built the pyramids.
Source: Daily Times (Lahore, Pakistan)
March 10, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan and India should follow in France and Germany’s footsteps and compile a joint history manual of their culture and war memories to improve bilateral relations, said German Ambassador Guntar Mulack while addressing the launch ceremony of the first ever ‘Franco-German history manual’ at the Alliance Francaise.
Mulack said that Germany and France had different cultures, languages and traditions, with a history of wars, and yet they had managed to make a j
