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: Guardian (UK)
February 24, 2006
Many of those who were present recall the "deathly silence" that fell across the hall. It was the evening of February 25 1956. Unexpectedly, delegates at the 20th congress of the Communist party had been ushered into a final, closed session at central committee headquarters in Moscow. When the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, took the tribune and began to speak, some members of the audience fainted. Others clawed their heads in despair. Most could not believe their ears.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
March 2, 2006
In 1918, when a horrific strain of influenza swept the globe, American society -- and colleges -- looked much different than they do today.
But several colleges have figured that they could learn from the past in preparing for what could be another flu pandemic -- if a deadly form of avian flu that has surfaced in humans in Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East becomes easily transmissible among people. So they have scoured their archives for records of the 1918 pandemic. What
Source: AP
March 2, 2006
Supporters of the National Women's History Museum pledged to spend March — Women's History Month — lobbying for a measure to allow them to move into a federal building that's been empty for years. After raising less than $10 million since 1996, the group is stepping
up its efforts to generate $150 million for a museum dedicated to great
names and unsung heroines.
"Half the story of U.S. history has never fully been told," said Susan B.
Jollie, the museum organizati
Source: Charleston Post & Courier
March 2, 2006
Historians, museum directors and state officials are starting to tackle a topic as sensitive as it is significant: what South Carolina should do to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.Rodger Stroup, director of the S.C. Department of Archives and History, met with some of them Tuesday after realizing only a few years remain until the first sesquicentennial milestone: the contentious Democratic convention in Charleston in April 1860.
The 150th anniv
Source: Washington Times
March 2, 2006
A House panel yesterday rejected a measure that would have designated an adapted version of "Shenandoah" as the interim state song, the latest refrain in a long ballad over which tune best represents the commonwealth. "The state song ought to be from a Virginian by a Virginian," said Delegate Terry Kilgore, one of the lawmakers who voted down the "Shenandoah" proposal. The song, most argued, is about folks leaving Virginia, crossing the
Source: AP
March 2, 2006
Lawyers have been unable to reach an agreement over missing Hawaiian artifacts. The group Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawaii Nei, which borrowed 83 objects from the Bishop Museum in 2000, hid them in a secret cave on the Big Island because the group claims the artifacts belong to the dead and aren't meant for public display.
They include a human-hair wig, containers with human teeth and carved wooden statuettes of family gods.
Hui Malama lawyer Alan
Source: National Geographic News
March 2, 2006
An ancient culture in southern Peru cultivated corn some 4,000 years ago, about a thousand years earlier than previously believed, a new study suggests. Researchers excavating a site in the Andean highland town of Waynuna found both corn leaf and corncob remains in the ruins of a house at least 3,600 years old.
Perhaps even more important, the scientists say, is that they found arrowroot remains at the same dig site.
The presence of this edi
Source: AP
March 2, 2006
Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein, as lawlessness and sectarian violence sweep the country, the former U.N. human rights chief in Iraq said Thursday.John Pace, who last month left his post as director of the human rights office at the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, said the level of extra-judicial executions and torture is soaring, and morgue workers are being threatened by both government-backed militia and insurgents not
Source: Baltimore Sun
March 2, 2006
When the family home of Abraham Lincoln's assassin was put up for auction in 1999, preservationists and prospective buyers found that the Gothic home had an appearance to match its ill-fated past: The porch was falling apart. The paint was peeling from the cracking walls. The property was in disarray.The fate of the home, many feared, was also in danger. Historians, actors and local officials teamed up to make a play for Tudor Hall, an 8-acre property between Bel Air a
Source: HNN Story based on OAH Treasurer's Report
March 2, 2006
The cost of last year's switch to San Jose was steep for the Organization of American Historians--steeper than officials originally anticipated. The OAH ended the fiscal year of 2005 nearly half a million dollars in the red. At the OAH Business Meeting last April officials said they expected to be down just $100,000 or so.
Most of the loss was due to the decision to move the annual meeting from San Francisco
Source: Jason Emerson in American Heritage
February 1, 2006
Abraham Lincoln signed it. A lot of scholars say he didn’t write it. Now, newly discovered evidence helps solve an enduring mystery.In a records box in a back office in a house in the hills of Vermont, six letters about Abraham Lincoln’s famous “letter to the Widow Bixby” lay unknown and undisturbed. For how long is uncertain, although this author’s fingerprints made last March were the only ones visible in the thick chalky dust of years. The letters, received and writ
Source: Christian Science Monitor
March 2, 2006
Since the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been killed, arbitrarily imprisoned, or forced to flee their country. But when the victims of what some call genocide finally get their day in court, it probably won't be in China. Instead, Spain - which is conducting a judicial investigation on the issue - is likely to hold the first trial.Although Spain had no citizens affected by the suspected crimes, its National Court decided in January to i
Source: Times (UK)
March 2, 2006
An amateur cryptologist's internet project is using idling computers to help crack three Nazi codes that eluded the Enigma codebreakers of the Second World War.Launched in January, the project has already broken one of the three messages, from a U-Boat commander forced to dive during an attack on November 25, 1942. The computers of 2,500 strangers are now whirring away, trying to decode the remaining two. You can volunteer your computer here.
Stefan Krah, a Germ
Source: Hartford Courant
February 3, 2006
Cuban academics hoping to attend a gathering of Latin America experts in Puerto Rico were denied visas by the American government, marking the latest in the current U.S. administration's trend of shutting out Cubans. Some 55 philosophers, economists, and historians were told last week they'd be unable to travel to this month's Latin American Studies Association congress in San Juan. Visa requests for four academics were still pending, said Sheryl Lutjens, an American politic
Source: Scotsman
March 2, 2006
Archaeologists have found a shipwreck from the late 1300s buried in the mud of a canal in central Stockholm, officials said today.They are now awaiting permission to excavate the wreckage - one of the oldest ever found in the Swedish capital - hoping it will shed light on shipbuilding techniques and trade in the 14th century.
Experts say they might be able to bring the ship up on land, as was done with the 17th century warship Vasa, which is now housed in a muse
Source: The Australian
March 2, 2006
Leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981, an Italian parliamentary investigative commission said in a report.A final draft of the report, which is due to be presented to parliament later this month, was made available today by the commission president, Senator Paolo Guzzanti.
"This commission believes, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to
Source: Reuters
March 2, 2006
South Korea's foreign minister called on Thursday for Japanese leaders to reflect on the troubled history between the two Asian nations, a day after Seoul and Tokyo exchanged barbs over the issue. Japan ruled Korea as a colony from 1910-1945 and despite generally improved ties, a simmering feud persists over what Seoul sees as Tokyo's lack of proper contrition for its wartime aggression.
"The leaders of Japan should seriously take to their hearts the view o
Source: BBC News
March 1, 2006
The 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising should be officially commemorated in Londonderry, city councillors have decided. The proposal was made by Sinn Fein representatives and supported by the SDLP, however, unionists on the council have opposed it. Sinn Fein's Peter Anderson said the 1916 rebellion should be remembered like other events.
The DUP's Joe Millar has said the council should not support it.
"I don't think that Derry
Source: Kathimerini
March 1, 2006
The remains of buildings found in excellent condition at Argilos, an important commercial town, on the estuary of the Strymonas River.The excavation of ancient Argilos, an important commercial center in the Archaic and Classical periods, reveals a little-known side of colonization by people from Andros in the northern Aegean.
The remains of buildings in the ancient city may not be as striking as other finds from Macedonia, but they are a part of a larger c
Source: UPI
February 28, 2006
Archeologists say they have found the remains of a "unique" ancient Phoenician temple in Sicily. "You have to go all the way to Amrit in Syria to find a similar one," Lorenzo Nigro of the Rome University archeology team told the Italian news agency ANSA. The temple was discovered last year when part of a lagoon near the Phoenician city of Motya -- now called Mozia -- was drained.
The "monumental" temple was found on the
