2004 1-January to February

Week of 2-23-04

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel J. Boorstin, who wrote more than 20 history books over his long career, has died. He was 89.

Annenberg Poll: Senator John Kerry�s antiwar activities and President Bush�s service in the Texas Air National Guard matter chiefly to Americans who already appear to have made up their minds against the particular candidate.

At a historian's behest, the president of the College of Wooster in Ohio issues an apology after a guest lecturer invoked the Protocols of Zion in an attack on Israel.

The last surviving officer of the Pegasus Bridge raid on D-Day has revealed the vital plan was almost jeopardized when a number of paratroopers were arrested in Britain days before.

Fordham Institute releases Consumer�s Guide to High School History Textbooks.

Stanislaw Ryniak, the first person imprisoned at the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, has died. He was 88.

NYT architecture critic raves about the plan for the new National Center for the American Revolution at Valley Forge.

After 30 years in exile, Dick and Jane, the plucky pair that taught two generations of American children to read, are back in print. 2.5 million sold.

A man with a metal detector has unearthed a Roman bronze coin so rare it bears the face of a mystery emperor who"ruled" Britain for a matter of days; a similar coin was found in France 100 years ago but until now its uniqueness had meant both Emperor Domitianus and the coin were dismissed as a hoax.

In a scorching opinion, a federal judge in Brooklyn said this week that Swiss banks had been stonewalling in a landmark case concerning their conduct during the Nazi era and were perpetrating a"big lie" by continuing to deny wrongdoing in their handling of Holocaust victims' accounts over many decades.

Two of the oldest mummies found in Peru - so well preserved that one had an eye and internal organs intact - have gone on display after their discovery by building workers two weeks ago.

Parent in Indiana complains when school shows a history movie about Brown v. Board of Education, claiming the vulgar language is inappropriate for teenagers.

A Royal B.C. Museum curator, is studying physical evidence that supports the theory that English explorer Sir Francis Drake reached Canada's West Coast in 1579, 200 year before Capt. Cook's famous visit to Vancouver Island.

Some in Utah complain that the University of Utah, in an attempt to distinguish itself as a secular school, has gone too far, making it impossible for students to study LDS or state history.

Washigton DC trying to lure tourists to visit Decatur House, one of the city's last preserved slave quarters.

A Raphael painting bought by Britain's National Gallery this month for 22 million pounds ($41.7 million) is a fake, a U.S. art professor says.

NYT visits Norilsk, site of one of the great gulags of Soviet Russia, and finds few want to remember the past.

Case Study: NYT reveals how stolen art from Egypt made its way to a rich New Yorker's home.

Some linguists, who fear the language spoken by Jesus could vanish within a few decades, hope for a boost from Mel Gibson's new film, which is performed entirely in Aramaic and Latin.

Days before the release of Mel Gibson's film about the death of Jesus, which some critics say could fuel anti-Semitism, his father has told an interviewer that the Holocaust was mostly"fiction."

Week of 2-16-04

Largest black history museum on the East coast set to open in Maryland in 2005.

Italians are busy digging up corpses of historic figures from hundreds of years ago to settle age-old questions.

Turkish authorities say Australians would continue to have free access to Gallipoli.

German prosecutors have charged an honored East German doctor with the murder of one 34-year-old mentally handicapped woman at Germany's Stadtroda Hospital in 1941 and with complicity in the killing of a further 158 female patients in her care between 1940 and 1942.

Italians struggle to hand back looted Ethiopian obelisk; can't find a plane big enough to transport the piece.

Plans to build a road tunnel under Stonehenge are being scrutinised at a public inquiry.

The bookshops of Bariloche, an Alpine-style town on the edge of the Argentine Andes, are running out of copies of their new best seller -- a guide to the homes of senior Nazis who found refuge there after World War II.

Italian authorities say they cannot find a plane big enough to transport the 1700 year old Axum obelisk being returned to Ethiopia.

Ireland's Arts Minister is to seek a response from one of the country's leading museums to claims by a leading anti-Nazi group that a collection it has may contain looted Jewish arts works.

French film director Jean Rouch, a pioneer of the" cinema verite" style of documentaries, has been killed in a car crash in Niger at the age of 86.

Archaeologists are celebrating after a stolen collection of mummified human remains were returned to the Philippines area in which they were buried for several hundred years.

A team of Australian archaeologists have sparked an academic row by claiming to have solved the riddle of a missing 1,000 years in human prehistory--when man switched from nomad to farmer.

Nonprofit organization is seeking to build a museum and research center on the site of an 18th-century African-American community in Plymouth, MA.

RESEARCH into the largest relic from the Roman Empire's invasion of Scotland has given historians a dramatic insight into the daily life of ordinary soldiers and the gruesome nature of ancient warfare; Romans lined pits filled with stakes which may have been dotted with sharp objects such as glass.

Military officials of Uruguay, members of a secret Southern Cone intelligence alliance called Operation Condor, threatened to assassinate U.S. Congressman Edward Koch in mid-1976; the CIA intercepted the threat but failed to take any actions in response to it or to warn Congressman Koch for more than two months.

The Georgia State University Department of History unanimously approved resolutions condemning the state's new history standards, citing errors and misinformed interpretations.

NJ finding it difficult to agree on what should be taught in history class.

A group of marine archaeologists may have solved one of the world's most enduring maritime mysteries -- the final resting place of HMS Beagle in which Charles Darwin developed his landmark theory of evolution.

A 526-year-old assassination conspiracy against the Medici family has been solved after the deciphering of a hidden letter.

The Washington State legislature is preparing to ask the State Supreme Court to overturn Nisqually Chief Leschi's conviction for murder after looking at evidence that exonerates the chief, but was never introduced during at his trial.

An elementary school in Topeka, Kan., that played a key role in the U.S. Supreme Court case that outlawed segregation will soon be the main attraction of a new national memorial dedicated to the legal struggle against enforced racial separation. Building opens May 17, 2004.

An investigation by baseball historians and The Providence Journal has determined that William Edward White is the first black, and the only former slave, to have played in the major leagues. He played one game in 1879.

NJ celebrates the 200th anniversary of the law ending slavery in the state.

Media celebrates two descendants of Nat Turner and his victims who have become friends.

NYT takes note of the fight for Robin Hood between two English towns: Yorkshire and Nottingham.

On the 200th anniversary of the birth of Franklin Pierce, Pierce acolytes are rallying Americans to take a fresh look at the only president denied renomination by his party.

Federal judge weighs suit on Tulsa's '21 Riot; reparations are sought for a white mob's torching of the city's black Greenwood area.

U.S. plans memorial to its War of 1812 dead - off Halifax.

Controversy over Turkey's alleged plan to charge a fee to visitors of the site of the Gallipoli battlefields.

New film by Denys Arcand--formerly a historian--is the Oscar-niminated The Barbarian Invasions; deals with 9-11.

Photographer is"horrified" by doctoring of his '71 Kerry photo.

Colorado-based mining firm, a top polluter, is sponsoring the Denver Museum of Nature & Science's new exhibit on Machu Picchu, the ancient city of the Incas in the Peruvian Andes.

Kerry foes distribute a doctored photo which falsely shows Kerry standing next to Jane Fonda at an anti-war rally in 1970.

The Toledo Blade's expose of alleged war crimes by the Tiger Force in Vietnam has prompted the Pentagon to conduct fresh interviews; Rumsfeld personally ordered the investigation.

Smaller, struggling presidential sites may get boost from federal fund bill.

Bush and Kerry are related: they're cousins,"sixteenth cousins, three times removed."

Week of 2-9-04

The March issue of the Journal of American History will include the previously announced roundtable of articles about plagiarism & the history scandals.

Experts hired by the state of Minnesota find flaws in state history rules; official says she'll ignore the complaints.

Nearly a decade after Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) abolished the position of"Historian of the House," a job posting has quietly appeared on the employment webpages of several professional history organizations. The position advertized:"Historian, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives."

In a speech at Swarthmore College, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. said that what he saw as the Bush administration's use of patriotism as a way to quell public debate was morally repugnant and undemocratic.

In April the National Park Service, with $5 million in congressional funds, will open an interactive center for visitors to Manzanar, one of 10 Japanese internment camps used during World War II.

Memorial to be built in Colorado where 163 Indians were shot and hacked to death by Colorado cavalrymen during the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864.

Harvard Crimson: In an interview in 1970 John Kerry called for U.N. control of troops and wondered if the CIA should be abolished.

Barbie and Ken go their separate ways.

The White House has released a document showing that President Bush was at a military base in Alabama during the last year of his National Guard service, but aides backed away from his weekend pledge to release all his military records.

German publisher decides not to issue a highly anticipated novel by Thor Kunkel based on original research into one of the Third Reich's best-kept secrets - a series of pornographic films shot by the Nazis in the woods around Hamburg; publisher says he canceled the book at the last minute over esthetic differences with the author.

National World War II Memorial set to open quietly in the next 2 months; official cereony will take place Memorial Day weekend.

History Channel asks 3 historians--Bob Dallek, Stanley Kutler & Thomas Sugrue--to investigate the claims advanced in a documentary run in 2003 that claimed LBJ was behind JFK's assassination.

A Florida high school student is suspended for wearing a Confederate flag shirt after the principal forbade them.

Scientists are studying the corpses of victims of the 1918 flu epidemic to stave off another pandemic.

A German company has invented a tourist telescope that creates a remarkable vision of the past, so that visitors who look for example at the Parthenon in Athens will see it in its original state.

The Church of England has questioned whether the accepted Biblical story of three Wise Men was accurate.

An eBay auction of a skull claimed to be from an ancient Hawaiian who was buried at Kaanapali long ago was halted Wednesday after outraged Native Hawaiians contacted legal authorities.

Website claims Discovery Channel documentary misidentified a mummy as Nefertiti's; actually, it was a male mummy.

A Welsh woman who married into one of Germany's most prominent musical families nearly became Adolf Hitler's wife, a BBC Wales programme has revealed.

At age 86 Philipp von Boeselager is still troubled by nightmares about Hitler; he was one of the young Germans who tried to kill Hitler in 1944. Says if they had succeeded, Germans would have believed with Hitler they could have won the war.

Conservative students at Duke University unveil a study that found that none of the school's history professors are conservative (32 to 0).

Gen. Wesley K. Clark told a military historian four years ago that he was pressed by some members of the Clinton administration to end the war in Kosovo so that it would not interfere with Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign. But on Saturday he denied that there was any political pressure to end the war.

Website tracks down letters Ike sent to 10 people to take over the federal government in the event of an atomic attack.

Sons of Confederate Veterans in Hot Springs, Arkansas organizes a conference to denounce Abe Lincoln and oppose the placement of a Lincoln statue in a more prominent position by city officials.

Maryland County turns down request to place a statue of native son Frederick Douglass at a courthouse that features a monument to Southern Confederates.

Week of 2-2-04

A grass-roots campaign of activists, actors, journalists and others have launched an Internet-driven campaign that pummels the Civil War drama Cold Mountain for its historically inaccurate absence of blacks.

A collision between Earth and a passing comet in the 6th century AD may have caused the collapse of agriculture, mass famine and indirectly led to the bubonic plague in Europe, a study has suggested.

Leonardo da Vinci not only anticipated the airplane, the life jacket, the intercom and the robot, he also created the first natural plastic, according to an Italian scholar.

Japanese film distributor cancels plans to display a painting by Germany's Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, following protests.

An order of monks in Romania claims they have part of the skull of St George, who was killed in 303AD in Palestine.

Cardiff University researchers have discovered that the Earth experienced an extreme cold spell in 536-540AD.

Editorial in the Washington Post calls on the Pentagon to return the archives of Saddam's regime to Iraqi control.

History projects prospering under the Bush budget for 2005, says the National Coalition for History.

British archaeologists showed off a hoard of glass and copper jugs, ceremonial crosses and other Saxon artifacts, giving the public a first look at a rare find of a royal tomb from the seventh century.

Officials at a Las Vegas grammar school have launched an investigation into the unusual Black History Month lesson, which involved separating children by skin color and giving preferential treatment to black students.

Winston Churchill predicted World War I two years before it broke out, Library of Congress scholars discovered in a newly unearthed collection of the British prime minister's letters.

Mel Gibson, responding to focus groups as much as to protests by Jewish critics, has decided to delete a controversial scene about Jews from his film in which the Jewish high priest Caiaphas calls down a kind of curse on the Jewish people by declaring of the Crucifixion,"His blood be on us and on our children."

Adella Wotherspoon, the last survivor of the deadliest disaster in New York City history until Sept. 11, 2001 � the burning and sinking of the steamboat General Slocum in June 1904 � has died at 100.

Federal court decides scientists can examine the remains of Kennewick Man.

Ford & Carter and Bill Moyers protest the History Channel's decision to run a documentary that claims LBJ killed JFK; the documentary is based on the book by Barr McClellan, father of the White House spokesman.

Secret video taken of the Temple Moiunt Video reveals neglect, including piles of garbage; Israeli archeologists outraged.

Virginia Senate rejects a resolution that would have designated April as Confederate History and Heritage Month after black lawmakers called it"a slap in the face."

Yorkshire MP fighting to get a resolution passed to reclaim Robvin Hood from Nottinghamshire.

Vietnamese claim they're victims of Agent Orange and sue--a first.

Orwell biographer, hearing about some articles that Orwell secretly buried, wants to dig them up--if he can get permission.

Lord Bullock, author of Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1952), dead at 89.

President Richard Nixon acknowledged that he had given instructions to"do anything short of a Dominican-type action" to keep the democratically elected president of Chile from assuming office, according to a White House audio tape.

A proposal to investigate the conduct of the United States government towards foreign minorities detained or otherwise placed in jeopardy during World War II is being blocked in the United States Senate by an anonymous"hold."

Ayatollah Sistani invokes the history of the Shiite rebellion against the British in 1920 as justification for his demand for direct elections in June.

Iraq probe said to be based on JFK panel, according to anonymous White House source.

Florida high school student suspended after circulating an unauthorized petition to ban the Confederate flag on student items.

NYT ombudsman chastises the paper for ignoring for months the Toledo Blade expose of alleged Vietnam war crimes.

Smithsonian American history museum's travelling exhibit on 9-11 attracting crowds; some had questioned whether the museum should be involved with a current event.

Smithsonian scientist who challenged right of Indians to the corpse of Kennewick Man writes a book in defense of his argument that the bones should be subject to scientific research.

Revealed: Shaken by criticism, Tennyson proposed removing almost half the famous account of the Crimean war tragedy from"The Charge of the Light Brigade," including,"Theirs not to reason why/Theirs but to do and die."

Weider family, publisher of He-Man mags, now publishing a magazine about military history.

Director of the Information Security Oversight Office calls for the declassification of old secrets by the federal government.

William Safire reveals in the NYT how a C.I.A. campaign of computer sabotage in the early 1980s resulted in a huge explosion in Siberia that wrecked a Soviet pipeline and helped the US win the cold war.

Week of 1-26-04

Largest re-enactment of World War II taking place in Pennsylvania; re-enactors replay the Battle of the Bulge.

Explicit pornographic films from the silent era are to be screened in British cinemas after the chance discovery of 300 reels in the attic of a"very respectable family" in France.

An important piece of Vietnam's past has been uncovered in Hanoi on the site of the new parliament, but what will happen to it is still unclear; officials ambivalent about pre-revolutionary artifacts.

St Petersburg celebrates crucial role its citizens played in helping to defeat Hitler; seige began 60 years ago.

German filmmaker Georg Wilhelm Pabst being given new attention despite his Nazi films.

New York Life Insurance Co. has agreed to pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by heirs of Armenian genocide victims who accused the company of failing to honor valid claims.

Vasili Mitrokhin, 81, the KGB archivist who for 12 years secretly made notes from the Russian spy agency files until he defected to Britain in 1992, has died of pneumonia.

Discovery of 500 year old bones"will change the way history in South Africa is understood and taught."

White House joining History Channel to"Save Our History," a historic preservation project; administration joining Gilder Lehrman to create History Teacher of the Year awards ($1,000).

Smithsonian American history museum to open a $19 million permanent exhibit exploring an oft-times fervently debated topic: the depiction of the nation's military history, beginning with the French and Indian War in the 1750s, running through World War II and Vietnam, and culminating with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Discovery of"witch bottle"--containing bent pins, human hair and perhaps urine--supposed to protect a household against evil spells in England from period of 1830s suggests that witch superstitions lasted into the modern era.

Nashville dedicates a new library room in memory of the civil rights sit-ins of 1960.

Tennessee begins selling a new license plate that features the Confederate flag.

Smithsonian employee rumages around NH in search of presidential artifacts for the museum's growing collection; Kerry staff refuse to part with a handmade wooden sign.

Historian starts a chapter of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War in Louisiana.

Kansas preparing for 3 big anniversaries this year: Lewis & Clark visit (200th); Kansas-Nebraska Act (150th); Brown v. Board (50th).

Georgia and Minnesota moving in opposite directions, Georgia adopting looser history standards, Minnesota stricter ones.

At Arthur Schlesinger's request, John Dean has written a biography of Warren Harding for the new American Presidents series.

Poll of Europeans reveals that 46 % feel Jews are"different," 71% of them urged Israel to withdraw from the territorie, 9% do not"like or trust Jews," 15% would prefer that Israel not exist, 48% said that Jews have"a particular relationship with money."

In a prehistoric battle for survival, Neanderthals had to compete against modern humans and were wiped off the face of the Earth, according to a new study on life in Europe from 60,000 to 25,000 years ago.

Scholars say a high school student's discovery of a neglected papyrus in a university storage area is a significant contribution to the study of the Roman Empire.

FEARS have been raised that rotting coffins contained in a South London cemetery may contain traces of SMALLPOX.

Outgoing AHA president, James McPherson, accuses historian of writing a phony history of Lincoln's assassination.

In his new book on Lincoln, David Donald reverses course; now doubts the Ann Rutledge story.

Germany's best-selling newspaper has accused the Royal Air Force of insufficient zeal in its campaign against Nazi targets after reconnaissance pictures of Auschwitz were made public for the first time.

Town in NC approves a God resolution that claims"It is a fact that the majority of those who drafted and signed the U.S. Constitution ... never intended that there be a separation between [God] and the affairs of government."

Holocaust court settlements being used to feature stories by victims; Jewish official says thousands more died in Nazi medical experiments than was previously believed.

Depressed survivors of Nazi death camps are nearly twice as likely to consider suicide as other emotionally troubled Jewish seniors.

Papers of the late Justice Harry Blackmun to be released March 4.

Self-published book by a veteran reveals rare images of American prisoners in Japanese prisoner camps.

Scholars disagree about the authenticity of stories attributed to Henry James in a new anthology.

Jerusalem's walled Old City has a weak foundation, and a strong earthquake could smash sites sacred to Jews and Muslims, a geological survey shows.

Activists pushing Timex to include an exhibit in the company museum in Connecticut to remember the women who died from licking the paint brushes used to make the light-up watch dials.

Nearly 75 years later, Alabama finally establishes a historic marker to note the event that put Scottsboro in the history books.

A salvage operation in Uruguay to be launched to raise the wreck of the German battleship Graf Spee, which spread terror across the south Atlantic at the start of the second world war.

Reports out of Germany indicate officials plan to release the terrorist who hijacked TWA Flight 847 in 1985.

Professor insists that the James ossuary is authentic.

Lincoln Memorial video revised after conservatives complained that it was lopsided, including too many gay rights marches. Now conservatives are aghast that gay groups complained.

US government denies fraud was used in a 1953 case that established the right of officials to withhold vital secrets from the courts; but affidavits suggest fraud may have been committed.

Week of 1-19-04

A federal appeals court Tuesday ruled that a New York state law barring public demonstrators from wearing masks is valid under the U.S. Constitution and does not violate Ku Klux Klan members' free speech rights.

Some Israelis are upset that when the state's chief rabbis met the Pope on their first visit to the Vatican, they failed to ask him a question that devout Jews around the world want answering: what about the Jews' ancient Menorah, which the church is suspected of possessing.

NYT to revamp the Book Review, focusing on non-fiction, in a radical break with the past.

The chalice has Hermann Goering's name inscribed on it A Nazi chalice thought to have belonged to Hermann Goering may be auctioned for more than �1m after a series of legal battles.

VANDALS have desecrated a Holocaust memorial near Vienna with an electric saw and spray-painted the German word for"lie" over an informational plaque describing Nazi-era crimes.

Peabody Museum finds Lewis and Clark artifact, lost for a century.

Filmmaker of Fog of War denounces Eric Alterman in a blistering attack; Alterman responds that the filmmaker doesn't understand history.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry is opening to the public thousands of declassified files from the early years of the People's Republic of China, including manuscripts of late premier Zhou Enlai.

The 86-year-old alleged leader of a Nazi unit which killed at least 164 villagers in Slovakia during the second world war was arrested in Munich.

Germans feud over fate of countryside barracks called Vogelsang, which were used to brainwash Hitler's elite; Nato no longer using the site.

Pope to beatify 'buffoon' who was Austria's last emperor; critics suspect political agenda behind campaign.

A huge British archive of World War II aerial reconnaissance photos, including pictures of the D-Day landings in Normandy, now on-line; includes 5 million Royal Air Force photos of Western Europe.

Controversy continues about the accuracy of the Da Vinci Code.

Historians assail Ridley Scott's new film about the Crusades, saying it panders to Osama bin Laden ilk.

McNamara explains why he decided to cooperate with filmmaker of The Fog of War.

New book by Kevin Phillips about the Bush dynasty getting lots of media attention.

The Da Vinci decoding: Book sparks a quest for knowledge.

Reporters says she knew Thurmond's daughter's story but could never get her to confirm it; indeed, she denied it.

Indians upset that ancient Indian rock drawings are drawing visitors in Washington State.

New book: Michelangelo didn't paint the Sistine Chapel while laying on his back.

A French archaeological team has retrieved more than 1,000 bronze artifacts, including statues and busts of Pharoanic gods and goddesses, from the site of an ancient port city off Egypt's northern coast.

Week of 1-12-04

New edition of The Story of Little Black Sambo embroiled in controversy.

Beginning today people the world over will be able to listen to interviews with former slaves through the online presentation"Voices From the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories" on the Library of Congress's American Memory Web site.

Intelligence budget for the US disclosed for 1972-73 by scholar who found the long-secret numbers buried in the papers of Rep. George Mahon, a former member of the House Appropriations Committee.

A unique collection of scientific devices from the heyday of Arabian civilization will open in Frankfurt.

Greek fight to win back marbles might be in vain.

Laura Bush history initiative,"Preserve America," is slated to receive $10 million under the Bush budget. The money will help a small number of local communities preserve their history.

A team of experts from the University of Birmingham has discovered what may be one of the most important archaeological sites of the last 50 years, in a riverbed in Croatia; Items recovered from the river include more than 90 swords, a Roman legionnaire's dagger complete with sheath, more than 30 Greco-Illyrian helmets, plus numerous items of jewellery, axes and spearheads.

Conrad Black's company paid US$12-million for photos, letters, memos and other artifacts that once belonged to Franklin D. Roosevelt, far more than the US$8-million previously reported by company officials.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a review of all history textbooks after one controversial book asked students to debate whether he was a dictator running a police state.

The surprise discovery of what has become known as the" cupboard of shame" has led an Italian court to put three German ex-SS officers on trial for their part in the massacre of 560 Italians in a Tuscan village in August 1944.

For the first time, archaeologists have discovered a preserved lion skeleton in an ancient Egyptian tomb, demonstrating the exalted reputation enjoyed by the king of beasts more than 3,000 years ago.

New Mexico reopens case of Billy the Kid; body to be exhumed January 27.

El Paso statue honoring the Spanish explorer Don Juan de O�ate is so controversial the city has decided to call it, simply,"the Equestrian."

25 years later, Cambodia is proposing to put the leaders of Khmer Rouge regime on trial.

After reviewing documents dating back 36 years, the State Department has concluded that Israel's attack on a U.S. spy ship in 1967 was an act of gross negligence for which it should be held responsible.

Computer scientist publishes findings raising suspicions that the mysterious Voynich manuscript, whose indecipherable text has long baffled scholars, was a hoax.

Kevin Phillips in new book charges that 4 generations of Bushes are behind our complicated involvement in the Middle East oil kingdoms, creating vast conflicts of interests.

$9 million being spent to save and restore Paul D. Philippoteaux's gripping tableau of the Battle of Gettysburg, a 19th century painting that is longer than a football field an the neight of a five-story building.

US can't keep the unabomber's papers; kust return them or sell them.

Controversy Over Canada's plan to publish a book that trumpets the role of its navy in the anti-terrorism war; critics say it's propaganda.

Week of 1-5-04

AHA Business Meeting unanimously approves resolution sponsored by Historians Against the War (HAW) affirming the rights of free speech.

Over opposition of Yale history department chairman, the AHA Business Meeting approves a resolution critical of Yale's campaign to stop the formation of a union for graduate students; first amendment rights emphasized.

Work on dozens of Olympic-related sites, from venues to highways, has touched off a flurry of archaeological excavations attempting to beat the bulldozers.

Hooligans rampage through India's illustrious Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, destroying an invaluable ancient book and ms. collection.

National Park Service controversy after officials agree to put on sale at bookstore a Creationist account of the formation of the Grand Canyon; the book claims the Grand Canyon is just a few thousand years old, not more than 5 million years old as the NPS claims.

THE discovery of bones of soldiers killed nearly two centuries ago in the Battle of Salamanca--the Duke of Wellington's crushing victory in Spain--is fuelling a campaign to prevent construction of a highway.

William Wallace, the 14th century Scottish hero popularized in the film Braveheart, to receive a final burial as a result of a historian's campaign; coffin will be empty.

Aided by a Republican-controlled Congress, President Bush is on track to become the first chief executive since John Quincy Adams in the 1820s to complete a full term without vetoing one bill.

Rome finally plans to erect a proper memorial to recognize U.S., British and Canadian troops who liberated Italy from the Nazis.

Artist, in a first, is using the raising of the Confederate H.L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy vessel, to create an accurate painting of the vessel.

A renowned German art historian said he was still very much alive yesterday, after one of the country's most prestigious newspapers was tricked into announcing his death by the fraudulent placing of an advertisement in its births, marriages and deaths section.

Divers ready to find out if a vessel sunk near Rhode Island is Captain James Cook's Endeavour.

New Swiss law takes effect pardoning citizens who were penalized � even jailed � for helping Jews escape from Nazi Germany nearly six decades after the fact and too late for many who died with the burden of misplaced shame.

Internationally recognized orthopedic surgeon from Ukraine, says the story of Joan of Arc emerging from poverty, answering God's call to save France, then being burned at the stake, is a cover for intrigue and double-cross at the highest levels of the French court; bases conclusion on examination of corpses in French royal tombs.

Archaeologists investigating one of the largest campaign camps in Britain have suggested that the military might of Rome may have drastically reduced the numbers of the indigenous people of Scotland, leaving large swaths of the country empty for hundreds of years.

John Toland, dead at age 91; biographer of Hitler.

US soldier takes the time to learn the history of Iraq's tribes; he's celebrated by Iraqis as the only soldier who understands them.

British media note that a letter by Ivan the Terrible to Queen Elisabeth might have landed him in prison; the letter is included in a new collection.

AN Iron Age chariot unearthed at an Edinburgh building site has been proved the oldest in Britain.

Until last year, few Americans felt drawn to museum shows featuring Mesopotamian antiquities. But the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad in April focused new attention on this ancient civilization, and its glories are now the subject of two lavish shows.

Canada stops the Pentagon from using an obscure clause in the Jay Treaty to recruit Intuit Indians in Canada for the US military.

Toledo Blade ombudsman blasts NYT's Tiger Force story, claiming the paper did a disservice to vets for claiming that the Tiger abuses were common.

Some historians upset with the decision of the AHA to honor Sen. Robert Byrd.(Click down page to reach story.)