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: al Jazeera
July 11, 2006
An instructor at the University of Wisconsin who has said he believes US officials orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks, will be allowed to teach a course on Islam.
Some state politicians had called for the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fire Kevin Barrett, a part-time instructor, after he spoke about his theories on a radio talk show last month.
The university provost, Patrick Farrell, said in a statement late on Monday: "We cannot allow political pres
Source: Slate
July 5, 2006
Sixty years ago this week, the world's first bikini made its debut at a poolside fashion show in Paris. The swimsuit is now so ubiquitous—and, when compared with, say, the sight of Britney's pregnant, naked haunches on the cover of Bazaar, so demure—it's hard to comprehend how shocking people once found it. When the bikini first arrived, its revealing cut scandalized even the French fashion models who were supposed to wear it; they refused, and the original designer had to enlist a stripper inst
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 7, 2007
Boston — During his life, three cities defined Martin Luther King Jr.
Atlanta, where he was born and raised. Montgomery, where he launched a movement. Memphis, where he was killed.
But it was in Boston where he met his wife, Coretta, and received his doctorate from Boston University that King honed his philosophy.
In 1964, he donated more than 80,000 pages of his writings, letters and notes to BU. Compared to the recent $32 million sale of a 7,000-page coll
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 11, 2006
ATLANTA The Woodruff Library are abuzz with activity.
In just a few weeks, the library at the Atlanta University Center will become the temporary home to Atlanta's newly acquired writings of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and archivists and administrators are busy readying for the big event.
Woodruff —which serves as the official library of Morehouse and Spelman colleges, Clark Atlanta University and the Interdenominational Theological Center — will become custodian o
Source: Letter to members of the Latin Am Studies Association from President Charlie Hale
July 10, 2006
I write to inform you on the results of the referendum on the LASA2006 Congress
location, and on the LASA Executive Council decision that immediately followed.
All LASA members received an email ballot with a brief explanation of the relocation
issue, and request that you vote on the question: “Should LASA relocate our September
2007 Congress from Boston to Montreal, Canada?” In the final tally, 79 percent voted
“yes,” and 20 percent “no” with 1 percent in blank. Taking that recommendation
Source: Sofia Echo
June 26, 2006
A gold Thracian breastplate found near the village of Golemanite, Veliko Turnovo municipality, has proven pivotal to the re-construction of the Thracian Calendar. Using a mathematical model, Ventseslav Tsonev of the Regional Historical Museum in Veliko Turnovo presented his findings at a conference on Treasures and Sacred Typography, held recently in Sliven.
“In the Thracians’ calendar, there are three seasons and 60 main holidays.
A year consisted of 12 months with 360 days, five
Source: Guardian
June 28, 2006
The Guardian Chinese archaeologists have unearthed evidence that a foreign worker helped build the Terracotta Army mausoleum, the resting place of the country's first emperor, who died more than 2,200 years ago.
The remains of the worker, described as a foreign man in his 20s, were found among 121 shattered skeletons in a labourers' tomb 500 metres from the mausoleum in the north-western city of Xian, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.
Source: NYT
July 11, 2006
David A. Bright, an internationally renowned authority on the sinking of the Andrea Doria who was helping lead preparations to commemorate the disaster’s 50th anniversary later this month, collapsed and died on Saturday after making a dive into the wreck of the ship, about 60 miles south of Nantucket. He was 49 and lived in Flemington, N.J.
A scientist by training, Mr. Bright was a skilled wreck diver who had dived the remains of the Andrea Doria more than 100 times. He had an impor
Source: NYT
July 9, 2006
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, the British adventurer and diplomat, was as decisive in the creation of the modern Iraqi state as any single person.Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell — or Miss Bell, as the Iraqis still call her — is interred in the Anglican Church's cemetery in a raised tomb. It's dried up and crumbling in the Iraqi sun. The British delegations that used to pay homage stopped coming months ago because of the danger. A ring of jasmine trees and date
Source: NYT
July 9, 2006
ON June 11, 1957, the Atlas, America's first Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, took its inaugural flight from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
It lasted 24 seconds. The missile roared off the launching pad and soared to about 10,000 feet before its engines failed. Tumbling out of control, the rocket fell through its own trail of fire before the safety officer on the ground sent a radio signal that told the wayward rocket to blow itself up.
The rocket's designers, though dis
Source: NYT
July 11, 2006
Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s former intelligence chief, now one of his bitterest enemies, has implicated the disgraced dictator and one of his sons in a cocaine manufacturing and smuggling scheme and contends that it was one of the sources of General Pinochet’s illicit $28 million fortune.
Gen. Manuel Contreras, who ran the Directorate of National Intelligence, the Chilean secret police, during the 1970’s, made the charges in a document submitted last week to an investigating magistrate
Source: The Daily Telegraph
July 11, 2006
THE Mongolian capital has been swamped with images of its former potentate, Genghis Khan, in honour of the anniversary of his unification of the nation in 1206. At the climax of celebrations in Ulan Bator yesterday, soldiers in traditional uniform and bearing yaks' tail standards heralded the unveiling of an enormous statue of the Great Khan in the main Sukhbaatar Square.
The monument in which it is set contains earth and stones from the holy and historic places in Mongolia associat
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 11, 2006
In just a few weeks, the library at the Atlanta University Center will become the temporary home to Atlanta's newly acquired writings of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and archivists and administrators are busy readying for the big event. Woodruff --- which serves as the official library of Morehouse and Spelman colleges, Clark Atlanta University and the Interdenominational Theological Center --- will become custodian of the $32 million collection, slated to arrive in Atlanta from Sotheby's au
Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 11, 2006
There's no likeness of him, no record of a word he wrote or said directly, no marked grave. The slave rebellion he allegedly plotted --- which would've been the largest in U.S. history --- was scotched before it happened. Some historians believe there was no plot --- that the insurrection said to have called for the murder of every white in Charleston was concocted by white leaders for political advantage.
What isn't disputed: Denmark Vesey, a freed slave, was hanged in 1822 with 34
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
July 10, 2006
A federal judge in Mexico dropped genocide charges Saturday against a former president, Luis Echeverría, for his role in a student massacre 38 years ago. The statute of limitations had expired, the judge said.
Mr. Echeverría, 84, was accused of ordering security forces to crush a student rally in Mexico City on October 2, 1968. Officials say the crackdown left about 30 people dead, while human-rights groups say as many as 300 died that day.
Mr. Echeverría was interior
Source: AP News
July 9, 2006
Advocates who say black Americans should be compensated for slavery and its Jim Crow aftermath are quietly chalking up victories and gaining momentum.
Fueled by the work of scholars and lawyers, their campaign has morphed in recent years from a fringe-group rallying cry into sophisticated, mainstream movement. Most recently, a pair of churches apologized for their part in the slave trade, and one is studying ways to repay black church members. The o
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
July 8, 2006
Long before he died Friday night at the age of 93, Frank Zeidler had become a legendary Milwaukeean.The man who was mayor from 1948 to 1960 was an intellectual who loved serious issues and debate, a human encyclopedia of Milwaukee history, a meticulous recorder of everything he did or was involved in.
During his three terms at City Hall, Milwaukee nearly doubled in size and peaked in population. More than three decades later, Zeidler, a nearly lifelo
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
July 9, 2006
Kathy Domzalski remembers waking to the screams of the survivor. Pat Waddington remembers how close she came to sharing the fate of the eight student nurses -- opting at only the last minute not to stay overnight with her friends in the neighboring town house.
The fear ran through all of Chicago.
Exactly 40 years ago this week, Richard Franklin Speck broke into a two-story town house in a quiet middle-class neighborhood on the Southeast Side and made nightmares come t
Source: Tyler Green in the LAT
July 10, 2006
THE SMITHSONIAN Institution, our national museum and also a scientific research complex, is at a crisis point. Many of its 20 venues, such as the National Museum of Natural History and the National Air and Space Museum, need tens of millions of dollars in work. Desperate for funds, the Smithsonian has made arguably improper arrangements with big business, and it has accepted funding from corporations with an all-too-obvious interest in what goes on view in the institution's museums. But the real
Source: BBC
July 7, 2006
A print of the only photograph of Mozart's widow, Constanze Weber, has been found in Germany.
The photograph was taken in 1840 in the Bavarian town of Altoetting when she was 78. She died two years later. The local authorities say detailed examination has proved the authenticity of the image, which is a copy of the original daguerreotype.
HNN EDITOR'S NOTE: This story appears on the BBC website. But some on the Internet claim the photo is a fake.
