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)
October 28, 2008
A former slave who took the government of Niger to court for failing to enforce its own anti-slavery laws won her case on Monday in what campaigners said was an historic judgement.
Hadijatou Mani, 24, was born to a mother who was herself a slave and thus immediately became the property of her mother's master, a practice still widespread in the West African nation, according to Anti-Slavery International.
Her "owner" then sold her on to another slave master for
Source: http://www.jacksonville.com
October 21, 2008
The lingering controversy over whether to drop the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, which celebrates a former Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader, should come to an end early next month.
The Duval County School Board decided Tuesday to vote on the issue at its monthly board meeting on Nov. 3. The meeting is open to the public and will have a public comment period.
"The board will discuss it and vote on it - the same night," Chairwoman
Source: AP
October 28, 2008
The fictional King Solomon's Mines held a treasure of gold and diamonds, but archaeologists say the real mines may have supplied the ancient king with copper.
Researchers led by Thomas Levy of the University of California, San Diego, and Mohammad Najjar of Jordan's Friends of Archaeology, discovered a copper-production center in southern Jordan that dates to the 10th century B.C., the time of Solomon's reign.
The discovery occurred at Khirbat en-Nahas, which means "
Source: NYT
October 27, 2008
LANDORF, Germany — Seventy years ago next month, rioters wreaked havoc on their Jewish neighbors, destroying and burning thousands of synagogues, businesses and homes across the nation.
W. Michael Blumenthal, the former United States treasury secretary who now is the director of the Jewish Museum in Berlin, was 12 then, but still has sharp memories of the night of Nov. 9, 1938. Looters destroyed his parents’ store in Berlin, and his father was among the 30,000 men from 16 to 60 roun
Source: Education Week
October 28, 2008
The Chicago Annenberg Challenge, chaired from 1995 to 1999 by Barack Obama, is being portrayed by John McCain's campaign as an attempt to push radicalism on schools.
The project undertaken in Chicago as part of a high-profile national initiative reflected, however, mainstream thinking among education reformers. The Annenberg Foundation's $49.2 million grant in the city focused on three priorities: encouraging collaboration among teachers and better professional development; reducing
Source: Times (UK)
October 28, 2008
42-33: a panel of experts from The Times has ranked every one of the Commanders-in-Chief - and here are the very worst:
42. James Buchanan
1857-61 (Democratic)
A poll of American historians recently selected Buchanan’s failure to prevent the American Civil War as the greatest single mistake made by any president and our panel agree that he was the worst ever President.
Despite being a northern man, Buchanan had strongly southern principles and he struggled to maintain
Source: Times (UK)
October 28, 2008
Malnourishment in the womb causes genetic changes that can still be seen when people reach middle and old age, according to new research that shows how strongly environmental influences can interact with the human genome to shape health.
A study of children born during the Dutch “Hunger Winter”, a famine that struck at the end of the Second World War, has found that some still bear its lasting genetic legacy more than six decades on.
The results offer some of the best
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
October 28, 2008
The Christian prayer has opened each day of parliament for more than a century, as part of a tradition inherited from the British during colonial rule.
But Harry Jenkins, speaker of the house, has questioned the relevance of the prayer in an increasingly secular and religiously diverse nation.
He said MPs and members of the public had repeatedly raised the issue with him since he took office in February.
"One of the most controversial aspects of the pa
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
October 27, 2008
Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the economic research institute Ifo, urged Germans not to search for "scapegoats" amid the current financial crisis, which he said was the result of "an anonymous system error."
Referring to the dire financial crisis of the 1930`s, which Hitler blamed on the Jews, he added;"At the time the search for scapegoats focused on the Jews; today it is the managers.
His comments immediately sparked an uproar. The secretary gen
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
October 28, 2008
Spain's largest holiday resort is as important as Stonehenge, the Acropolis and the Taj Mahal, the expert said.
Located in the province of Alicante, the town is a popular location for families and young people seeking a high concentration of bars and clubs.
Each year 1.5million Britons visit the Costa Blanca resort.
Professor Philippe Duhamel, a geography expert from the University of Angers in France, said: "Benidorm is the Dubai of Europe. It is u
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
October 28, 2008
Buried a thousand feet below Naica mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico, the cave was discovered by two miners excavating a new tunnel for a commercial lead and silver mine.
Known as Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) it contains some of the world's largest known natural crystals–translucent beams of gypsum as long as 36 feet and softer than human nails.
The crystals thrived in the cave's extremely rare and stable natural environment. Temperatur
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
October 28, 2008
Jonathan Humbert, of Northamptonshire-based J.P.Humbert Auctioneers, said his three-day sale which included the controversial items, raised a total of £90,000.
The death head ring itself sold for £2,200 and a selection of Nazi daggers and swords fetched hammer prices of £200 to £800. A Nazi pin badge made as much as £180.
Mr Humbert said they also sold an original 8ft by 4ft Nazi war ensign from Second World War German pocket battleship The Admiral Graf Spee, for £550.
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
October 28, 2008
In a discovery straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, archaeologists believe they have uncovered one of the lost mines of King Solomon.
The vast copper mine lies in an arid valley in modern-day Jordan and was created in the 10th century BC - around the time Solomon is believed to have ruled over the ancient Hebrews.
The mines are enormous and would have generated a huge income for the king, who is famed for bringing extraordinary wealth and stability to the newly-u
Source: Spiegel Online
October 28, 2008
A Vienna tram driver was sacked on Monday a day after barking "Sieg Heil" down the intercom at passengers. When a number of them protested vehemently against his use of the Nazi greeting, the 35-year-old driver said in a broad Viennese accent: "Can't you take a joke?"
He apologized to them, but was nevertheless sacked without notice by the Vienna transport company which called his behavior "unspeakable." The Vienna state prosecutor's office said it may
Source: Spiegel Online
October 28, 2008
Brother Martin, a stout man, was sitting on the toilet in the Wittenberg Monastery, wearing the black robe of the Augustinian Order, when he was suddenly struck with the fundamental concept of his reformist body of thought.
Martin Luther himself noted, in two after-dinner speeches (Nos. 1681 and 3232b), that Protestantism was born in the sewer: "The spiritus sanctus imparted this creation to me on dis cloaca."
Nevertheless, historians have warmed to Luther's
Source: Deutsche Welle
October 28, 2008
A Canadian judge has refused to review an order to revoke the citizenship of a former Nazi death-squad collaborator. The Federal Court in Vancouver rejected Helmut Oberlander's claim that the Canadian government had erred in finding him complicit in atrocities during World War II. The court also ruled that he had hid his involvement when applying for Canadian citizenship in 1960. The decision means Oberlander can be expelled from the country. The 84-year-old man, who was born in the Ukraine, ser
Source: History Today
October 28, 2008
If the Cuban Missile Crisis had happened in the summer of 1961, rather than 1962, the outcome would have been a nuclear exchange.
These were the words last night of British politician Lord Owen, formerly Foreign Secretary David Llewellyn Owen of the Labour and Social Democratic parties. At a talk based on his new book, In Sickness & In Power: illness in heads of government during the last 100 years, Owen went on to explain:
"Kennedy had been receiving daily inj
Source: KOMO
October 27, 2008
Spend a few minutes talking with Jim Shipman and it's obvious that he is passionate about history.
So, when he retired five years ago he started to research Civil War veterans buried here at Evergreen Cemetery.
He easily points out markers for those who fought in the war, and other local historical figures such as Emma Yule, the first school principal in Everett.
Then a fellow researcher gave him a name: Rachel Wolfley.
"I had a name, I
Source: AFP
October 26, 2008
"Historic" might be the most overused word of the White House race, yet the spellbinding plot twists of 2008 have undeniably made this campaign one for the ages.
Conventional wisdom lies in tatters after a race which shattered glass ceilings of race and gender, obliterated fundraising records and stretched the electoral calendar to hitherto undreamed of lengths.
When voters write the final chapter of a compelling political year on November 4, either Barack Ob
Source: CNN
October 24, 2008
The great paddlewheel turned the Ohio River water to a froth as the Delta Queen steamboat, a floating National Historic Landmark, departed Cincinnati, Ohio, on its final schedule.
The boat is a throwback to the 1800s and the era of Mark Twain, when thousands of steam-driven paddlewheelers plied the Mississippi River system.
The Delta Queen is the last of those operating as overnight passenger boats on U.S. waterways, giving riders a 19th-century experience on cruises c
