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: China View
January 23, 2006
Archaeologists in northwest China's Shaanxi Province have discovered a large-scale relic site estimated to be 2,200 years old on the outskirts of the provincial capital Xi'an. The site is the biggest of its kind that has been excavated in the past three decades within the palace group of Changle Palace, the imperial residence palace of the imperial Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-24), archaeologists said.
The unearthed ruins, which lies in the northwest part
Source: CBS
January 24, 2006
In the halls of Sacramento, a special commission is rewriting Indian history: debating whether Aryan invaders conquered the subcontinent, whether Brahman priests had more rights than untouchables, and even whether ancient Indians ate beef.That this seemingly arcane Indian debate has spilled over into California's board of education is a sign of the growing political muscle of Indian immigrants and the rising American interest in Asia.
The foes — who includ
Source: BBC
January 24, 2006
Archaeologists have discovered a huge medieval cemetery next to a "lost church" in the centre of Leicester, England. About 1,300 skeletons were uncovered in the burial ground of a medieval church torn down centuries ago. The discovery, thought to be the largest of its kind outside of London, was made during excavations for a £350m shopping centre extension.
The wall trenches of St Peter's Church were also found.
Peter Liddle, Heritage Ser
Source: Live Science
January 23, 2006
Athens fell because a plague swept the empire. But scientists have debated what illness was responsible. A new DNA analysis of teeth from an ancient Greek burial pit indicates typhoid fever caused the epidemic. The plague began in Ethiopia and passed through Egypt and Libya to Greece in 430-426 B.C. It changed the balance of power between Athens and Sparta, ending the Golden Age of Pericles and Athenian dominance in the ancient world.
An estimated one-third of A
Source: Guardian (UK)
January 23, 2006
A secret underground military complex abandoned by the Nazis as allied forces stormed Normandy after D-day has been found by an English amateur historian.Gary Sterne came across the series of bunkers that had lain untouched for more than 60 years after buying a second world war map from an old American soldier. Armed with his map he visited the area near the Normandy beaches of Utah and Omaha, where he found the entrance to the military complex hidden under bramble bushes. H
Source: NYT
January 23, 2006
The New Leader, which is either the most influential of the little-known magazines or the least well known of the influential ones, is closing after 82 years of publication, first as a weekly, then a biweekly and, since 2000, a bimonthly.The executive editor, Myron Kolatch, said recently that he was still working on the January-February issue, which in characteristic New Leader fashion would probably come out a bit late, toward the end of next month, and would be a retrospec
Source: National Geographic
January 22, 2006
For his movie The New World, which arrives in U.S. theaters nationwide today, director Terrence Malick wanted to accurately recreate the sights and sounds of a 17th-century English colony. The film depicts the clash between the native Algonquian Indians and English settlers at the founding of Jamestown in present-day Virginia. Malick therefore decided to have the Native American characters speak the indigenous language of the time—Virginia Algonquian. There was only one problem: No one had spoke
Source: Willie Drye in National Geographic News
January 23, 2006
Archaeologists working in the rugged mountains of southwestern North Carolina are adding new details to the story of a tragedy that took place more than 160 years ago. The scientists are uncovering the remains of farms and homes belonging to the Cherokee Indians before they were forced to abandon their property and move to Oklahoma. About 16,000 Cherokee and hundreds of other Native Americans were forced out of North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama in t
Source: cronaca.com
January 21, 2006
The legendary 1965 DB5 model, complete with a host of high-tech gadgets, went under the hammer in Phoenix, Arizona. Driven by Sean Connery, the car boasts built-in Browning machine guns, tyre slashers, an oil slick ejector and a retractable rear bullet-proof screen. It was bought for $2,090,000 by a European collector. When last sold in 1970, it fetched £5,000.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
January 23, 2006
A drunk man climbed into a Vienna museum, stole possibly the world's most valuable sculpture on an impulse, and kept it hidden for nearly three years, police say. Their revelation today came after the famous Saliera by Benvenuto Cellini, worth $A81.13 million, was sensationally found buried in a snow-covered wood in northern Austria.Investigators had scoured the world for the statue since it disappeared in May 2003.
The slightly damaged statue was re
Source: The Independent
January 23, 2006
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum had languished below 200,000 on Amazon's top-seller list but stormed to 21 yesterday, with the online retailer struggling to meet demand.
After issuing new threats to attack the US and calls for President George Bush to withdraw American troops from Iraq, Bin Laden then found time to "plug" Mr Blum's book. "If Bush decides to carry on with his lies and oppression, it would be useful for you to read th
Source: Network of Concerned Historians
January 23, 2006
The news that the Ministry of Justice decided yesterday that the trial against the world-famous Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk will not proceed is greeted with relief by International PEN members world wide. Yet it does little to assuage PEN's concerns that the right to freedom of expression in Turkey is severely curtailed by the existence of laws that penalise debate on "taboo" topics.During the past 12 months, PEN has monitored over 60 cases of writers, journal
Source: The Boston Globe
January 23, 2006
All Portsmouth set out to do was dig a manhole on a two-lane street of clapboard homes. Then a city backhoe hit a slat of white pine in the russet mud. It was a coffin, soft, brown, and six-sided, the first remnant of a buried chapter in New England history. About 200 coffins lay under the street near Choozy Shooz and the other shops that lend downtown Portsmouth a cosmopolitan air. No one knew much about this burial ground because the coffins held slaves, their unmarked graves paved over and mo
Source: Metro News
January 21, 2006
A full-length portrait of George Washington by artist Charles Willson Peale sold for a record $21.3 million on Saturday at Christie's auction house.The 8-foot-tall oil painting was bought by dealer C.L. Prickett, presumably for a client, a Christie spokeswoman said.
The 1779 canvas depicts a portly and rosy-cheeked Washington as Commander of the Continental Army at Princeton, New Jersey. Washington later became the first U.S. president.
The sa
Source: Independent (UK)
January 22, 2006
Adolf Hitler intended to recreate the Vatican's St Peter's Square in the centre of Berlin to honour his ally Benito Mussolini, newly discovered documents have revealed.Albert Speer, the fuhrer's chief architect, was commissioned to draw up the plans, which have been discovered by historians examining his papers.
They had been stored in a secret room inside Moscow's Museum of Architecture after being taken to Russia at the end of the Second World War.
Source: Epoch Times
January 21, 2006
Precisely how long is the Great Wall of China? Because historical records and measurements differ, officials in China have decided to survey the length and orientation of the Great Wall, using the latest techniques and a budget of 200 million yuan (approximately US$ 25 million).
Source: AScribe Newswire
January 17, 2006
While much of the hoopla over Ben Franklin's birthday will focus on his role as an influential American diplomat, a new book suggests that he deserves considerable recognition for his important but overlooked contributions to medicine. "Franklin played a critical role in development of modern medicine," suggests Stanley Finger, Ph.D., a noted medical historian and professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. "With strong interests in bedsid
Source: James M. Boyden, chairman of the Tulane History Department
January 23, 2006
There seems to be some confusion abroad in the profession about the status of graduate study in history at Tulane. Tulane Ph.D. and M.A. programs in history will continue as before, and that there will be some enhancement in the value of the stipends of incoming and continuing doctoral students as soon as fall 2006. Because of communications difficulties in New Orleans (U. S. mail remains very slow, and applicants were understandably skeptical of our online applications pro
Source: Jerusalem Post/AP
January 21, 2006
Research commissioned by Germany's Dresdner Bank AG has found that the bank once held a major stake in a company that helped build the Auschwitz death camp, a spokesman said Saturday.The bank held a 26 percent stake in the company, Huta, spokesman Ulrich Porwollik said, confirming a report by the weekly Der Spiegel.
Historians also found that, starting in 1910, officials from the bank repeatedly headed Huta's supervisory board - "also at the relevant time,&
Source: Monterey Herald
January 20, 2006
Heirs of Armenians killed 91 years ago in the Turkish Ottoman Empire sued Deutsche Bank A.G. and Dresdner Bank A.G. on Friday, claiming the German banks owe them millions of dollars and other assets deposited by their ancestors.The class-action lawsuit was filed in Superior Court on behalf of seven Armenians living in Southern California. It is the latest bid by Armenians in the United States to recover assets they believe belonged to some 1.5 million Armenians who perished
