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: Discovery News
July 29, 2010
A 200-year-old mystery has finally been solved.
Thanks to a never-say-die effort between a currency historian and a scholar studying John James Audubon (1785-1851), the famous artist's first published bird illustration has been discovered.
This depiction of a running grouse or Heath Hen (a relative of the greater prairie chicken) was intended for mass production on bank notes. Audubon had mentioned the drawing and the resulting engraved paper money in two diary entries,
Source: Discovery News
July 30, 2010
The legendary outlaw Billy the Kid may have stolen horses and cattle, escaped from jail and killed 21 men, according to legend. But nearly 130 years after his death, all of that is water under the bridge, right?
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson thinks so, and he's looking to pardon this outlaw of the Old West.
Shortly after slaying Billy the Kid, Sheriff Garrett published a book, "The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid," one of the earliest accounts that soli
Source: Live Science
July 30, 2010
Five thousand years ago, in North Africa, humans formed an alliance with the wild ancestors of the donkey, twice.
This was no insignificant feat; domestication of the donkey's ancestors helped these ancient cattle herders become more mobile and adapt as the Sahara Desert expanded. Donkeys also expanded over-land trade and contributed to the growth in the early Egypt state.
New research answers, and raises, questions about who these wild animals were and how humans bro
Source: Guardian
July 28, 2010
Stone tools, flakes and the remains of a final feast at the site in Wiltshire hint that the huge sarsens that now stand at Stonehenge were brought to Marden Henge first.
The last revellers seem to have cleared up scrupulously after the final party at Marden Henge some 4,500 years ago.
They scoured the rectangular building and the smart white chalk platform on top of the earth bank, with its spectacular view towards the river Avon in one direction, and the hills from whi
Source: Time
July 29, 2010
Its origins are an archaeological riddle worthy of Indiana Jones, but it's also a beacon of an oil-rich future. Welcome to the at least 7,000-year-old Arbil citadel in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, a stunning walled fortress on a roughly 10-hectare site that some experts say is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement on earth (it's still occupied today, by a single family of 12). After years of stop-start negotiations, the citadel is finally set for a face-lift and likely World Heritage
Source: Inside Science News Service
July 27, 2010
Physicists have created a dye that promises to last for a thousand years. The secret to this extraordinary durability? Its formula is based on a Mayan pigment, a brilliant blue color that survives to this day on the walls of their ancient temples.
Dooryhee and team of French physicists have spent years studying historical objects using X-rays. They shoot finely-tuned beams of X-rays from a synchrotron machine -- much stronger than a dental X-ray -- at these materials and look at th
Source: AP
August 1, 2010
UNESCO added five cultural sites to its World Heritage List on Sunday, including the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long-Hanoi in Vietnam.
The citadel, built in the 11th century by the Viet Dynasty, became the 900th site listed as a World Heritage Property. With the other four sites added, the total increased to 904.
The new sites are the historic monuments of Dengfeng in China, the archaeological site Sarazm in Tajikistan, the Episcopal city of Albi in France and a 17th-cen
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 29, 2010
The Galapagos Islands has been withdrawn from a list of endangered world heritage sites by a UN panel.
The World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) took the decision at a meeting in Brazil’s capital Brasilia.
The archipelago of volcanic islands off the Pacific coast of Ecuador had been on the World Heritage in Danger list since 2007. A growing local population, fishing, and tourism had put pressure on natu
Source: Telegraph (UK)
August 1, 2010
One of David Cameron’s ancestors helped suppress the Indian Mutiny, it has emerged.
Just days after the Prime Minister won praise for his first visit to the subcontinent, it was disclosed that Mr Cameron’s great-great-grandfather was a British cavalryman who fought the Indians more than 150 years ago.
William Low left behind graphic accounts of how he slew rebels with his sabre and participated in a mass hanging of civilians during the two-year mutiny against British
Source: AP
July 1, 2010
"Colonel Peacock, Major Hogan, Captain Bower ... Shoot from the hip! Quick march! Right turn!" The names, ranks and barked commands of World War II British officers tumble from these old Asian soldiers' memories as if it all happened yesterday.
But the war never really ended for the Karen tribesmen who fought with the British to drive the Japanese out of Burma, and who now live as refugees in jungle camps astride the Thai-Myanmar border or inside their ravaged homeland, i
Source: Art Daily
July 30, 2010
Polish historians have created an unusual 3D film that documents the shocking sea of rubble that Warsaw was reduced to during World War II.
Jan Oldakowski, the director of the Warsaw Uprising Museum, said the film "City of Ruins" is mainly meant for young people who do not realize the degree to which Poland's capital was destroyed from 1939-45.
"Young people do not understand what it means that Warsaw was in ruins; they think it was just a few collapsed h
Source: National Parks Traveler
July 30, 2010
Music has been called a universal language, and now a unique musical instrument has been created to commemorate not only two important historic sites, but also some ideals that are central to the story of our nation. The Spirit of America Gibson Les Paul Guitar has just gone on display at Ellis Island in New York, and you can see it there until next August.
The concept of honoring historic structures and sites by incorporating bits and pieces from those locations isn't new, but this
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 30, 2010
Reptile footprints, believed to be the oldest ever discovered, provide evidence of the first creatures to live exclusively on land, scientists say.
The 318 million-year-old fossilised reptile footprints were found in sea-cliffs on the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada by Dr Howard Falcon-Lang of Royal Holloway, University of London.
The discovery proves the theory that reptiles were the first to make the continental interiors their home.
This is because
Source: NY Times
July 28, 2010
You’re a high school or college student, or a journalist, psychologist or historian, and you have a paper to write on Winston Churchill’s “finest hour” speech from June 18, 1940, arguably his most stirring moment in World War II. But you want to go beyond the famous lyric of defiance he delivered in the House of Commons and learn how he progressed in his own mind to that moment, and what private doubts he had — as he did — about Britain’s ability to withstand Hitler.
By the summer o
Source: BBC News
July 29, 2010
Tales of the man who founded Penguin 75 years ago, conjure up the image of an eccentric character from one of the publisher's books.
Sir Allen Lane was the man who used a fairground slide to drop deliveries to his company (then based in a crypt) and came up with the Penguincubator - a vending machine for the firm's books to be installed on train platforms.
Stories differ as to whether this machine was ever made, with some reports suggesting at least one machine was inst
Source: BBC
July 29, 2010
David Cameron has rejected calls for the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, which has been part of the Crown Jewels for 150 years, to be returned to India.
The diamond, which was mined in India, was seized by the East India Company in 1849 and presented to Queen Victoria.
Indian politicians have long urged the 105-carat treasure's return....
Source: BBC
July 29, 2010
An 88-year-old man charged with taking part in the killing of 430,000 Jews at a Nazi death camp may be tried as a minor, officials say.
Samuel Kunz is also charged with personally shooting dead 10 Jews at Belzec in occupied Poland in 1942-43.
The retired civil servant was 20 when he is alleged to have started working as a guard at the camp.
He has confirmed being at Belzec, but denied being involved in any killings, officials say....
Source: BBC
July 29, 2010
Hawley Crippen, the doctor hanged for the gruesome murder of his wife Cora, is one of the most infamous killers in British history. Exactly 100 years after his arrest, why is there a campaign to prove his innocence, asks Stephen Tomkins?
Having the surname Crippen does not endear you to UK Customs, according to a distant relative of the infamous doctor convicted of killing his wife.
James Patrick Crippen of Ohio, second cousin three times removed of Dr Hawley Crippen, h
Source: BBC
July 29, 2010
Serbia is seeking support for a UN resolution which it says will prevent separatist movements from following the example of Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.
Last week the UN's highest court ruled that Kosovo's secession in 2009 did not violate international law.
Kosovo says the resolution - which says unilateral secession should not be a way of resolving territorial disputes - is "disastrous".
Serbia rejects Kosovo's
Source: Telegraph (UK)
July 29, 2010
A colossal statue of explorer Christopher Columbus has finally found a home in Puerto Rico after a two decade quest and a string of rejections because it was deemed too ugly.
The 600-ton monument, which stands at 350 ft tall, was given to the United States as a gift of friendship by its Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli.
But the bronze creation, designed to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the New World in 1492, was shunned by cities across
