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: Reuters
December 29, 2005
Black History Month no longer is just about Martin Luther King Jr. biographies and classic black movies.
Indie distributor ThinkFilm is giving the traditional Black History Month home video promotion a serious bent in February with "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till," the acclaimed documentary that details the true story of one of the country's most notorious civil rights killings. The DVD is scheduled to arrive in stores February 28, at a time whe
Source: LA Times
December 29, 2005
The myth of a unified Iraqi identity may have finally been laid to rest this month. More clearly than any other measurement since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion, preliminary results from the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections show Iraq as three lands with three distinct identities, divided by faith, goals, region, history and symbols.
Though Iraqis often speak lovingly of golden ages when they were one big happy family, Iraq has been a shaky proposition since its 1920s founding. Rather tha
Source: Weekly Standard
December 26, 2005
Former President Jimmy Carter, in an interview for the January issue of GQ magazine, reveals how, on the recommendation of then-CIA director Stansfield Turner, he once authorized a psychic to make targeting decisions--while "in a trance"--for America's satellite surveillance system:
GQ: One of the promises you made in 1976 was that if you were elected, you would look into the [UFO] reports from Roswell and see if there had been any cover-ups. Did you look into that?
Source: NYT
December 28, 2005
It may seem half a shame to get rid of a church tradition, however cruel and antiquated, if it can inspire poetry like "The Inferno" or spooky lines like these from Seamus Heaney: "Fishermen at Ballyshannon/Netted an infant last night/Along with the salmon."
But limbo, that netherworld of unbaptized babies and worthy pagans, is very much on the way out - another lesson that while belief in God may not change, the things people believe about him most certainly do
Source: World Science
December 17, 2005
Some 64 centuries ago, a prehistoric people of obscure origins farmed an area along Egypt’s Nile River. Barely out of the Stone Age, they produced simple but well-made pottery, jewelry and stone tools, and carefully buried their dead with ritual objects in apparent preparation for an afterlife. These items often included doll-like female figurines with exaggerated sexual features, thought to possibly symbolize rebirth.
Despite the simplicity of their possessions, a new study suggest
Source: LAT
December 28, 2005
It will be three years before George W. Bush becomes an ex-commander in chief, but he's already boning up on the post-retirement adventures of the original Cowboy President.
Bush is reading "When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House" by Patricia O'Toole while he relaxes at his Texas ranch during the week between Christmas and New Year's, the White House said Tuesday.Roosevelt, who was 50 when his second term ended in 1909, liv
Source: Independent (UK)
December 28, 2005
THE belief that every Victoria Cross, Britain's highest military honour, is made from cannon captured during the Crimean War is nothing more than a myth, says a book marking the 150th anniversary of the medal.
John Glanfield, a historian and author of Bravest of the Brave, to be published next month, claims to have exposed the truth about the metal used to make the awards.It has long been believed that all 1,351 Victoria Crosses awarded have been made of b
Source: Reuters
December 27, 2005
The Palestinian mastermind of the Munich Olympics attack in which 11 Israeli athletes died said on Tuesday he had no regrets and that Steven Spielberg's new film about the incident would not deliver reconciliation.
The Hollywood director has called "Munich", which dramatises the 1972 raid and Israel's reprisals against members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), his "prayer for peace".Mohammed Daoud planned the Munich attack on be
Source: AP
December 27, 2005
The impeachment of former President Clinton is in a gray area of history, too long ago to be a current event, too recent to be judged in perspective.
Yet history is already judging Clinton in the place where millions of students get their information about him -- textbooks. Seven years after he was impeached in a scandal of sex, perjury and bitter politics, Clinton has become a fixture in major high school texts. The impeachment is portrayed in the context of his two-term tenure, a
Source: AP
December 27, 2005
The Atlanta History Center has obtained Civil War field orders handwritten by Union General William T. Sherman. The history center got the field orders in a deal that was clinched with the offer of a bundle of Confederate currency that was donated to the center.
Of the documents, 50 are field orders written by Sherman and two are orders written by his aides. They join another 12 orders the Atlanta History Center already had."Sherman surrendered," said
Source: AP
December 27, 2005
Workers digging a subway extension unearthed the skeletal remains of 108 people that officials believe were buried in the city's original cemetery for the poor.
The discoveries on the grounds of an old brick crematorium in East Los Angeles revealed a forgotten layer of history, stunning Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials and nearby residents."I've lived in the same house for 70 years," said Diana Tarango, a longtime Eastside resident. &quo
Source: Guardian
December 27, 2005
Britain's biggest cads, rogues and evil-doers from the past 1,000 years have been given special recognition by historians. Academics have put together a list of 10 rogues whose deeds and behaviour they feel sets them apart as the worst of the worst. Kings, politicians, archbishops and mass murderers all feature in the run-down, which sees one villain nominated for each of the past 10 centuries.
The vilest character of the 20th century was said to be Oswald Mosley, founder of the Br
Source: Jerusalem Post
December 27, 2005
With the approach of Munich's US opening today - a month before its premiere in Israel - media coverage has only intensified, putting those on both sides of the debate on guard. In a short telephone interview, the film's Israeli public relations representative slammed the "anti-Spielberg rumors" he says have been circulating in the Israeli press. Israel's consul-general in Los Angeles, not normally looked to for his views on film, generated international headlines after attending a pre
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 27, 2005
WHEN Channel 4 recently polled its viewers to find the Britons We Love To Hate, the list was led by politicians and television personalities from Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher to Jordan and Jade Goody. The latest list of Britons we like to hiss is, however, more Blackadder than Big Brother.
Chosen by professional historians who nominated a villain from each of the past 10 centuries, the list includes a king, a serial killer, several lawyers and, more controversially, a saint.
Source: Deutsche Welle
December 27, 2005
An education watchdog asked history teachers in the UK to expand their teaching about German history beyond the current concentration on Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), a non-departmental public body, which maintains and develops the national curriculum in the UK, found "widespread disquiet over what is seen as the gradual narrowing and 'Hitlerization'" of history teaching in Great Britain. In its widely t
Source: NYT
December 27, 2005
CAPE COAST, Ghana - For centuries, Africans walked through the infamous "door of no return" at Cape Coast castle directly into slave ships, never to set foot in their homelands again. These days, the portal of this massive fort so central to one of history's greatest crimes has a new name, hung on a sign leading back in from the roaring Atlantic Ocean: "The door of return."
Ghana, through whose ports millions of Africans passed on their way to plantations in the
Source: CNN
December 27, 2005
The documentary "Hoop Dreams" and footage of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake are among the 25 movies picked this year for the National Film Registry, a compilation of significant films being preserved by the Library of Congress.
Fictional films chosen by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington range from Buster Keaton's last comedy, "The Cameraman," to the Christmas classic "Miracle on 34th Street" to the 1982 teen comedy "Fast Times at Ridgemo
Source: Expatica.com
December 22, 2005
The Vatican has opened up to German historians the secret records associated with the Catholic Church's former Index of Forbidden Books, revealing that well-loved books of the 19th century nearly came under bans.
The Index, which was abolished in 1967, was a directory listing thousands of books that the church considered as theologically wrong or immoral.
The historians discovered that both a guide to good manners and the classic 19th century novel "Uncle Tom's C
Source: BBC News
December 26, 2005
One of the UK's most popular monuments opened on Boxing Day for the first time in a decade.
English Heritage said it was responding to visitor demand and opened Stonehenge to the public on 26 December and wi.ll do the same on New Year's Day.
The ancient monument will be open, for the first day of 2006, from 1000 GMT with last admissions at 1600 GMT. Peter Carson, Stonehenge director, said: "We normally stay closed during the festive hol
Source: Boston Globe
December 27, 2005
ANNA, Ill. -- The tiny Camp Ground church cemetery includes among its dead some of the earliest settlers from this part of southern Illinois -- Germans whose weathered sandstone grave markers date to the 1800s.
Still, a mystery lingers about others who might be buried on this solemn ground: Is the graveyard the final resting place of Cherokee Indians who died here during the winter of 1838-39 as they were forced westward on the infamous Trail of Tears to what now is Oklahoma?
