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: Telegraph (UK)
August 5, 2010
An early piano believed to have been played by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has surfaced in Germany and could be worth millions of pounds.
Public broadcaster SWR said the instrument was built in 1775 and acquired in the 1980s by piano manufacturer Martin Becker in the southern German city of Baden-Baden from an antiques dealer in Strasbourg, eastern France.
When Mr Becker decided to auction off the fortepiano, a music historian noticed the offer and "had a hunch that it
Source: BBC News
August 3, 2010
An extreme storm may have contributed to the deaths of famed climbers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine as they tried to reach Everest's summit in 1924.
That is the conclusion of a new study using weather data recorded during their historic expedition.
Mallory and Irvine were sighted on 8 June 1924, scaling Everest's north-east ridge, before vanishing.
The storm caused a pressure drop big enough to deprive the climbers of oxygen, the new study proposes.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 5, 2010
Winston Churchill was accused of ordering a cover-up of a Second World War encounter between a UFO and a RAF bomber because he feared public "panic" and loss of faith in religion, newly released secret files disclose today.
The former Prime Minister allegedly banned reporting of the “bizarre” incident, off the east coast of England, for half a century amid fears disclosures about unidentified flying objects would create public hysteria.
He is said to have ma
Source: Fox News
August 4, 2010
This is from the House Historian's Office.
1. 2005, for Katrina emergency supplemental2. 1991, for numerous appropriations and other bills3. 1980
Traditionally, there have been periods of time where Congress adjourned throughout the month of August as far back as the second session of the First Congress in 1790. The first period of time that Congress adjourned in the month of August was 12 August 1790 until the beginning of the third session of the First Congress on 6 D
Source: NYT
August 5, 2010
One day last week, the novelist Peter Quinn (“I’m actually a lapsed historian”) was walking west on 45th Street, beyond Eighth Avenue, when he stopped outside the old home of a vanished Broadway restaurant called Billy Haas’s Chophouse.
“This is it,” he said, nodding at the graceless apartment building that had, in the local manner, risen to take its place. “He comes out here” — Mr. Quinn pointed at the curb — “and a tan cab is heading west. He’s wearing a double-breasted coat. He’s
Source: Florida Times-Union
August 4, 2010
Navy Capt. Vernon L. “Mike” Micheel, an unassuming but heroic naval aviator who downplayed his feat of bombing two Japanese aircraft carriers on the same day during the Battle of Midway, died Thursday at Fleet Landing in Atlantic Beach. He died two weeks short of his 93rd birthday.
A reception in his honor will be held at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 21 in the Coleman Center at Fleet Landing, 1 Fleet Landing Blvd.
When he retired in 1972, Capt. Micheel had spent his last five years
Source: Armchair General
August 4, 2010
With sunny suns – despite early morning rain – and temperatures hovering near 90 degrees at 3:30pm it wasn’t exactly close to the conditions that were seen in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. But for those taking part in the World War II Veterans Day Weekend Re-enactment at Veterans Memorial Park in St. Clair Shores, Michigan it was close enough. A couple dozen of America and Canadian re-enactors gathered up and made the landing while coming "under fire" from the German defende
Source: Fox News
August 5, 2010
Three weeks ago 88-year-old World War II Veteran Bob Simon got on a Southwest flight with his son, Jay and off to their "home away from home” Buffalo, New York.
But Tuesday, when they went to get on their return flight, a Southwest employee told them Bob couldn't get on because he didn't have the right kind of doctor's note addressing his medically necessary oxygen tank.
On Wednesday, after a few contacts of theirs made calls to Southwest hinting of media coverage,
Source: CNN
August 5, 2010
The president nominates officers for important promotions all the time, but Wednesday, he nominated John D. Lavelle, a two-star major general, to be promoted all the way up to a four-star general. What makes this nomination different is that Lavelle died 31 years ago.
The story began amid the controversial Vietnam War, while Richard Nixon was president.
In 1972, Lavelle was a four-star Air Force general. But, according to the Pentagon and historical record, in April of
Source: BBC News
August 5, 2010
An exhibition of late works by artist Salvador Dali opens this weekend in Atlanta, including several pieces not seen in the US for half a century.
The collection of 40 paintings - plus films, sculptures and photographs - focuses on the period from 1940 to 1983.
Works have been brought in from countries around the world - including Canada, Scotland and Japan.
The exhibition runs at Atlanta's High Museum of Art until 9 January.
"It's become
Source: BBC News
August 5, 2010
Model Naomi Campbell has testified that she was given some "dirty-looking stones" after a 1997 dinner attended by ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor.
Speaking at Mr Taylor's war crimes trial in The Hague, she said late that night, two unidentified men appeared at her room and gave her the stones.
However, she had no proof that the stones were diamonds or came from Mr Taylor, as a fellow guest suggested.
Linking him to illegal "blood diamond
Source: AP
August 4, 2010
More people are visiting Yellowstone National Park than ever before.
The park announced Wednesday that it set a new monthly record for visits during July, when more than 957,000 people came through its gates. That's nearly 60,000 more than last July, when the park's previous monthly record was set....
Source: AP
August 4, 2010
...A long-sealed tunnel has been found under the ruins of Teotihuacan and chambers that seem to branch off it may hold the tombs of some of the ancient city's early rulers, archaeologists said Tuesday.
Experts say a tomb discovery would be significant because the social structure of Teotihuacan remains a mystery after nearly 100 years of archaeological exploration at the site, which is best known for the towering Pyramids of the Moon and the Sun.
Archaeologists had susp
Source: The Sofia Echo
August 4, 2010
Archaeologists from Varna discovered one of the largest medieval treasures in recent times and the largest one in 2010 during excavation works in the medieval city of Kastritsi in Euxinograd, on August 4, news agency Focus reported.
The treasure was discovered embedded in the floor of a home within the medieval stronghold, the report said.
According to associate professor Valentin Pletnyov, head of the Regional History Museum in Varna, the treasure consisted of a small
Source: AP
August 4, 2010
A U.S. military historian on Wednesday testified in the trial of the retired Ohio autoworker accused of being a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp and expressed doubt about John Demjanjuk's account of his whereabouts in the last years of World War II.
Bruce W. Menning told the Munich state court Wednesday that Demjanjuk's claim he went to the Austrian city of Graz late in 1944 to join a Ukrainian force fighting the Soviets under German command was "implausible" as the
Source: BBC
August 4, 2010
Judges at The Hague have barred photographers from taking pictures of supermodel Naomi Campbell when she gives evidence at the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Her lawyers would be allowed to intervene in order to prevent her answering a question that might lead to her incriminating herself, the court ruled.
A television feed of the court's proceedings would be broadcast as usual, it was reported.
Measures to protect witnesses' identities
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 4, 2010
Fidel Castro, the former Cuban leader, is expected to address the communist country's National Assembly for the first time in four years on Saturday.
State media reported that a special session, requested by Castro, would be held this weekend.
On July 26 Castro said that he would ask for the meeting to warn of an imminent nuclear war involving the United States, Israel and Iran....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 4, 2010
When the remains of an ancient underwater city were photographed off the coast of Bali, the Indonesian government hailed it as a potentially "phenomenal" discovery.
Mystical statues of the gods, their faces covered in gorgonian fans, stood rooted to the ocean floor behind an ornate temple gateway 100 feet below sea level.
The undersea archaeological department of the Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced an investigation as rumours quickly cir
Source: CNN
August 4, 2010
A judge in the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor has decided that supermodel Naomi Campbell's testimony in the case will go ahead Thursday.
The Special Court of Sierra Leone confirmed to CNN Wednesday that Campbell will take the stand at the tribunal, despite an emergency motion the defense filed Monday to delay her testimony.
Prosecutors say Taylor gave Campbell a diamond during the war in Sierra Leone, contradicting Taylor's testimony that
Source: CNN
August 4, 2010
New Orleans is richer than it was before Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, but largely because many of its poor have not returned since the storm, according to a report released Wednesday.
Average wages are up, "knowledge-based" jobs are gaining ground on the area's traditional blue-collar economy and basic services like schools and hospitals are improving, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu told reporters.
While the poverty rate of 23 percent is the lowest si
