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: US State Department
August 31, 2006
The United States and Cyprus have agreed to extend a 2002 bilateral agreement and to continue imposing import restrictions on a range of Byzantine treasures, such as priceless frescoes and floor mosaics, to protect them from pillaging.Cypriot culture is among the oldest in the Mediterranean, according to a State Department Web page on the 2002 bilateral agreement, which adds: “There is a long history of documented pillage of archaeological sites in Cyprus, including evidence
Source: AP
August 31, 2006
Greek officials vowed to step up their fight to reclaim its plundered ancient heritage after taking delivery Thursday of two ancient sculptures returned by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.Presenting the artifacts in Athens, Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis said their repatriation was very important "both symbolically and practically."
"The days when foreign museums and private collectors were able to buy undocumented antiquities are ov
Source: NYT
August 30, 2006
SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 29 — Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that critics of the war in Iraq and the campaign against terror groups “seem not to have learned history’s lessons,” and he alluded to those in the 1930’s who advocated appeasing Nazi Germany.
In a speech to thousands of veterans at the American Legion’s annual convention here, Mr. Rumsfeld sharpened his rebuttal of critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq strategy, some of whom have called for phased wi
Source: India Daily
August 29, 2006
Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher and Clement Attlee, whose post-war government presided over the partition of the sub-continent and India's independence, have been named the best British prime ministers of the 20th century. Sir Winston Churchill, who led Britain to victory in the second World War, only merits a fourth place in the list of 20 and the current incumbent Tony Blair struggles to finish mid-table. Thatcher's dramatic victory in her battle with the trade unions and her
Source: Cliopatria (blog)
August 27, 2006
A roundup of women blogging history, under their own names and pseudonymously, by Ralph Luker.
Source: OneWorld US (website)
August 27, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 25 (OneWorld) - A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferencz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting"aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.
"Nuremberg d
Source: Guardian (London)
August 23, 2006
A Chinese court has ordered two Japanese historians to pay damages of 1.6m yuan (£110,000) to a survivor of the Nanjing massacre after they accused her of fabricating her account of the 1937 atrocity.Although the ruling will be impossible to enforce across national boundaries, the defamation lawsuit opens up a new front in a conflict over wartime history that has recently prompted a spate of trials, street demonstrations and a deterioration in relations between Asia's two mo
Source: Guardian (London)
August 24, 2006
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few," said Winston Churchill in praise of the pilots who took part in the Battle of Britain. But as the 66th anniversary of the firefight in the skies approaches, some of the country's top military historians have claimed it was the Royal Navy rather than the RAF that saved Britain from invasion by the Germans in the autumn of 1940.The three military historians who run the high comm
Source: Daily Californian
August 25, 2006
The UC system announced Monday that it has launched a Web site offering free access to more than 150,000 images, documents and primary source materials relating to California's history and culture. The Web site Calisphere, which UC officials described as a "learning tool," doubles as both a database and a search engine. Internet users will be able to look at materials such as diary entries, artwork, cartoons and transcripts that have been gathered from cultural her
Source: News Standard (Syracuse)
August 25, 2006
In the wake of an activist’s death at the hands of FBI operatives, the agency’s revelation that it may have destroyed records on the independence movement in Puerto Rico has aggravated tensions over the government’s presence on the island.In a recent response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Chicago-based legal advocacy group People’s Law Office, the FBI admitted that it could not locate records relating to the activities of a prominent Puerto Rican nationalist
Source: American Scientist Online
August 25, 2006
Every year, thousands of tourists from around the world take a long flight across the South Pacific to see the famous stone statues of Easter Island. Since 1722, when the first Europeans arrived, these megalithic figures, or moai, have intrigued visitors. Interest in how these artifacts were built and moved led to another puzzling question: What happened to the people who created them?
In the prevailing account of the island's past, the native inhabitants—who refer to themselves as the
Source: CNN.com
August 25, 2006
A Louisiana school district suspended a white bus driver while it investigates complaints that she ordered nine black children to sit at the back of the bus.
...
Two mothers, both black, sparked the investigation with a complaint on Monday that their children and the other black children had been ordered to sit in two rows of seats in the rear of the bus."In all these years, I've never had a problem like this," said Janice Williams, whose four children ride publi
Source: Robert J. Samuelson, WaPo
August 24, 2006
The origins of today's credit culture date to the 1920s and the advent of installment lending for cars and appliances (stoves, refrigerators, radios), says economist Martha Olney, author of"Buy Now, Pay Later." Attitudes changed. In the 19th century,"it was thought that only irresponsible families bought on credit," she says."By the 1920s, it was only foolish families that didn't buy on credit and use it while they were paying for it." In the mid-1920s, 60 to 70 percent of cars were sold on one-
Source: Ralph Luker (blog)
August 23, 2006
An internal investigating committee at the University of Cincinnati has found Don Heinrich Tolzmann guilty of plagiarism in his book, The German-American Experience. After reviewing charges first made three years ago on H-Ethnic, the committee has recommended that Tolzmann be dismissed as a faculty member in the Un
Source: Washington Times
August 23, 2006
For tourists and residents who enjoy lolling among the trinkets and treasures of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, the building's closure next month for a two-year renovation may be a disappointment.
But curators say history buffs still can enjoy objects which range from "the famous to the unexpected" when officials open a temporary exhibit Nov. 17 at the National Air and Space Museum."The renovations we're doing is mainly goi
Source: Times (London)
August 20, 2006
Bonnie Prince Charlie’s defeat at Culloden should be a cause for national celebration instead of collective wailing and gnashing of teeth, one of Britain’s leading historians has advised Scots.Dan Snow, presenter of the BBC’s Battlefield Britain series, said that the most famous defeat on Scottish soil was good for the country. He condemned Scottish nationalists for using the result to promote anti-English hatred.
For many Scots it will be the ultimate heresy bu
Source: CNN
August 23, 2006
Skeletons found at an unearthed site in Mexico show Aztecs captured, ritually sacrificed and partially ate several hundred people traveling with invading Spanish forces in 1520.Skulls and bones from the Tecuaque archeological site near Mexico City show about 550 victims had their hearts ripped out by Aztec priests in ritual offerings, and were dismembered or had their bones boiled or scraped clean, experts say.
The findings support accounts of Aztecs capturing a
Source: Montreal Gazette
August 21, 2006
Doesn't the British government have anything more pressing to attend to? It plans to make the wrong-headed and pointless gesture of giving pardons to 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers executed for desertion or cowardice in the First World War.
The government of Britain has promised to consult Canada, because 23 of those on the list were Canadians. Greg Thompson, our veterans affairs minister, should do the same thing his Liberal predecessor Ron Duhamel did in 2001, the last tim
Source: NYT
August 22, 2006
After the 18,000-year-old bones of diminutive people were found on the Indonesian island of Flores, the discoverers announced two years ago that these were remains of a previously unknown species of the ancestral human family. They gave it the name Homo floresiensis.Doubts were raised almost immediately. But only now have opposing scientists from Indonesia, Australia and the United States weighed in with a comprehensive analysis based on their own first-hand exam
Source: Press Release--Hurricane Archive
August 15, 2006
NEW ORLEANS, August 15, 2006-Courtney Giarrusso and her family followed a Crescent City tradition and decided to ride out Hurricane Katrina on the top floors of the Fairmont Hotel in downtown New Orleans. Little did they know that the levee flooding would trap them in the hotel and later destroy their Lakeview home, which was designed to accommodate Courtney’s needs as a quadriplegic. Since she returned to New Orleans in December, Courtney has encountered many more challenges, including finding
