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: ClioWeb
September 1, 2005
It’s that time again…the History Carnival! We’ve got a great crop of posts this time, so enjoy!
Source: BBC
September 1, 2005
British people were happier in the depression of the 1930s than they are now, researchers have claimed. The Cardiff University team said that people were more content in pre-war Britain, despite poorer living standards and more unemployment. Professor Mansel Aylward, who led the study, said health care and wages had improved in the last 70 years, but expectations had also gone up.
But historian Dr John Davies said life in the 1930s was "less comfortable&quo
Source: LAT
August 31, 2005
Concluding a monthlong vacation marked by antiwar protests outside his Texas home and a rising death toll in Iraq, President Bush on Tuesday invoked the anniversary of the Japanese surrender in World War II and the postwar rebirth of that country as a parallel to present-day U.S. efforts in the Middle East. Bush spoke against the dramatic backdrop of the Ronald Reagan, a 1,092-foot, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier docked at North Island Naval Air Station, where he drew repeated applause from an
Source: Independent (UK)
August 31, 2005
The anti-war message of the original 'Godzilla' film was taken out when America remade it. Now British audiences will be able to see the real meaning behind the movie. When the Japanese monster movie Godzilla was sold to an American distributor 50 years ago, it was re-edited to excise every mention of the strong anti-nuclear message that had made it such a hit in Hiroshima and Tokyo.
Without the politics, the re-cut dubbed story of the dinosaur-like creature wit
Source: NYT
August 31, 2005
Jude Wanniski, a journalist, consultant and, most of all, a fierce and unconventional partisan who marshaled intellect and salesmanship to promote big tax cuts as the best cure for an ailing economy, a theory embraced and executed by President Reagan, died yesterday in Morristown, N.J. He was 69. The cause was a heart attack.Mr. Wanniski coined the phrase "supply-side economics" to describe his idea that a reduction in personal tax rates would stimulate produ
Source: AFP
August 31, 2005
For more than 500 years, historians have believed that the last Viking king, Sven Estridsen, was laid to rest with his mother, Estrid, after his death in 1074.
But a test on the pulp of molars extracted from skeletons in the tomb at Roskilde Cathedral, on the island of Sjaelland, shows that the two sets of remains are unrelated, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday's issue. Jorgen Dissing, at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Copenhagen,
Source: Forbes
August 29, 2005
Forget annoying earthquakes like the 1906 temblor that destroyed San Francisco, or events such as the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state, and even the 1994 Los Angeles shaker that brought down sections of major freeways. In terms of total destruction, these natural disasters are pikers by world standards and serve only to remind us that extremes are the norm.The National Hurricane Center pegs Hurricane Andrew, a category five storm in 1992, as the most destructive to hit the United States. It caused damage estimated at $26.5 billion.To date, 2004 was the most destructive hurricane season with four named storms slamming ashore: Charley, causing $15 billion in damage; Ivan, $14.2 billion; Frances, $8.9 billion and Jeanne, $6.9 billion. Total: $45 billion.Hurricane Hugo is ranked as fifth most destructive storm, causing $7 billion in damage in 1989.Hurricane Allison caused an estimated $5 billion in damage in 2001; Floyd, $4.5 billion in 1999; Isabel, $3.4 billion in 2003; and Fran, $3.2 billion in 1996.New Orleans last took a direct hit from a hurricane in 1965 when Betsy's 8-to-10-foot storm surge flooded the city. The storm was blamed for 74 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Source: NYT
August 31, 2005
Even as the economy grew, incomes stagnated last year and the poverty rate rose, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. It was the first time on record that household incomes failed to increase for five straight years. Over all, the poverty rate increased to 12.7 percent, from 12.5 percent in 2003. Poverty levels have changed only modestly in the last three decades, rising in the 1980's and falling in the 1990's, after having dropped sharply in the 1960's. They reached a low of 11.1 percent in 1973
Source: Houston Chronicle
August 31, 2005
Nearly half a century after they faced down a mob to integrate Little Rock Central High School, the Little Rock Nine stood together outside the Statehouse on Tuesday and unveiled statues of themselves in that defiant walk. Some cried as they pulled away the sheets draping their individual statues and saw themselves as they were in 1957.
Elizabeth Eckford looked at the statue of herself leading the way into the school and smiled and joked about the mo
Source: Wa Po
August 31, 2005
Cindy Sheehan: anti-American communist? That was the accusation coming yesterday from the Heritage Foundation, which hosted author John J. Tierney Jr. for a forum titled "The Politics of Peace: What's Behind the Anti-War Movement?" Tierney researched the movement for a book and came up with some choice descriptions. "I have to say it is communist," he told an audience at the conservative think tank, also describing the groups involved as "revolutionary socialistic"
Source: Wa Po
August 31, 2005
Charities and the federal government launched what aid agencies predicted could be the longest and costliest relief effort in U.S. history, as workers began arriving last night in states devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and as the U.S. military organized an intensive response by already stretched National Guard and active-duty forces. The American Red Cross, working in concert with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called its plan to house and feed tens of thousands of people the biggest
Source: Chicago Trib
August 31, 2005
Despite an emphasis on the theme of race, the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is staffed overwhelmingly by white workers--an unacceptable irony for a complex that celebrates history's Great Emancipator, the head of a minority watchdog group charged Tuesday. "When you look at what the man stood for and what he was about, it just doesn't match," said Roy Williams, who heads the Illinois Association of Minorities in Government.Williams called
Source: CNN
August 31, 2005
A deal reached between school officials and a conservancy group paves the way to demolish the landmark hotel where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, but would allocate money to help preserve historic schools around the district.Under the agreement passed Tuesday by the Los Angeles Unified School District board, a group of historic preservationists will drop lawsuits seeking to prevent the district from razing the hotel, in exchange for the district giving $4.
Source: MosNews
August 31, 2005
As Russia prepared to mark the 150th anniversary of the heroic defense of its southern port of Sevastopol, Russian historians released sensational archive data refuting the traditional interpretation of the reasons and outcome of the Crimean War (1853-1856), RIA-Novosti reported Wednesday.Scholars have discovered sensational documents at the Foreign Ministry’s archives of the Russian Empire, Sheremet’s colleague, historian-orientalist Mikhail Yakushev added. Those papers she
Source: AP
August 31, 2005
A retired carpenter who has lived in the United States for more than 50 years was stripped of his U.S. citizenship Tuesday for taking part in a police organization that helped the Nazis round up Ukrainian Jews during World War II. Osyp Firishchak, 86, could face deportation proceedings under an order issued by federal Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan.In his decision, the judge said Firishchak lied during a three-day civil trial when he denied being a member of the Ukrainian Auxili
Source: White House Website
August 30, 2005
President Bush on Tuesday said, "I'm also proud to stand with those whose achievements we commemorate today, the military veterans of World War II. In war, America called you from your farms and your schools and your factories to defeat two of the most ruthless armies the world has known. ... And in a lasting peace that has been your greatest legacy, America confirmed the power of freedom to transform the bitterest of enemies into the closest of friends."
Here's the
Source: Yahoo News
August 30, 2005
The National Archives announced on Tuesday that the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., had discovered a "large volume" of unreviewed and unreleased Roberts documents that were filed under a code instead of under Roberts' name. Additional employees from the Archives have been sent to the Reagan library to review the documents to determine what or how much can be released, officials said.Roberts' confirmation hearing will begin nex
Source: Reuters
August 30, 2005
A quarter of a century after its birth, Poland's Solidarity remains an inspiration for Europe and pro-democracy movements round the world, leaders and activists said on the eve of the union's 25th anniversary.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the spirit of solidarity which was the driving force of the 1980s non-violent revolt that led to the overthrow of communism was still much needed in today's European Union.
Source: Expatica
August 30, 2005
German President Horst Koehler Tuesday in Warsaw assured Poles no serious political force in Germany wants or intends to revise the history of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath. The statement came in response to Polish fears that a planned Berlin-based centre documenting the expulsion of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe after the WWII defeat of Nazi Germany could be used to skew or revise historical facts about Germany's role as the primary aggressor during the war.
Source: Guardian
August 31, 2005
A shock campaign involving mutilated Michelangelos and beaten-up Botticellis is to be launched at Italians over the next few weeks, to get them used to the idea of contributing personally to the upkeep of their vast cultural heritage.Italy's state-owned broadcaster, Rai, has been enlisted for the onslaught featuring the destruction of some of the country's most famous art treasures and cultural sites under the slogan: "Without your help, Italy could lose something."
