2003 1-January to March

The OAH has approved a resolution in support of the right of dissent during war-time.

The month of April has been designated Confederate History Month by many of the counties and municipalities in Tennessee.

OAH executive board recommends that the organization approve a resolution protecting free speech.

104 House members demand firing of Columbia Assistant Professor DeGenova.

Historians at the annual meeting of the OAH press the executive board to pass a resolution in favor of free speech.

The Minnesota state legislature is set to hold an ethics hearing next week concerning one Republican member's repeated claims that homosexuals were not persecuted by the Nazis.

OAH convention opens in Memphis.

Court ruling in Clinton pardon case stregthens executive privilege.

C. Hansen, collected nuclear arms data, dies at age 54, of brain cancer.

Brinkley named Columbia provost in surprise move.

Iraqi irregulars take refuge in Holy Site--Tomb of Ali--in Najaf.

Week of 3-24-03

Japanese historians, breaking with tradition, are admitting their country's mistakes.

Peron's intelligence agency helped bring Adolf Eichmann and other war criminals into Argentina, documents reveal.

The oldest written fragment of the Nibelungen myth, an oral tale later standardized into the most famous Germanic text of the Middle Ages, has been found in a monastery in Austria.

Daniel Ellsberg arrested; says he hopes to inspire individuals in the government to release more information.

National Coalition for History charges Bush administration tried to slip its new secrecy order past the media to avoid scrutiny.

New Cold War Museum planned for a missile silo in Wisconsin.

Bush orders a 3-year delay in opening secret documents.

OAH adds session on Iraq war.

Al-Mustansiriya University--founded in the 13th century--hit by a bomb during strikes on Baghdad.

August Meier, authority on black American history, has died.

Ellsberg calls on US troops to disobey any order to use WMD in Iraq.

Week of 3-17-03

FBI recovers North Carolina's original copy of the Bill of Rights; thieves were trying to sell it to a museum.

Boston University criticized over plan to archive historical records of African leaders.

NSA wants exemption from FOIA requests.

Herbert Aptheker dies at age 87.

Ian Kershaw breaks with TV producers of the movie supposed to be based on his book about Hitler.

Bacterium helps trace migration of humans.

Greensboro Massacre of 1979 investigated by local Truth Commission.

Bulgaria for the first time celebrates how it saved all of its Jews from the Holocaust.

California Governor Davis criticized for the low-key apology he made to victims of the state's history of sterilizing thousands of mentally handicapped residents.

The NYC home FDR shared with his wife and mother is being renovated at a cost of $15 million.

Federal government continuing to rely on Supreme Court decision (1953) allowing state secrets that was based on false testimony.

National Security Archive says the federal government's infrastructure for processing Freedom of Information Act requests is in"extreme disarray."

Global media giant Pearson to finance an archaeological dig in California to determine if a buried ship confirms Gavin Menzies's claim that Chinese visited America before Columbus.

Week of 3-10-03

Peasant may have been the daughter Mao abandoned during the Long March.

California governor apologizes for history of state sterlization of the mentally ill.

Florida congresswoman has proposed that the government pay for families who might want to bring home from France the remains of Americans who fought and died in the world wars.

In new book historian Deborah Hayden asserts Hitler suffered from effects of advanced syphilis.

Conn. Gov. wants to close all 4 state history museums.

Memorial for MLK now estimated to cost $100 million.

Sen. Leahy introduces bill to narrow the list of exemptions to FOIA requests the government can use under the Patriot Act.

Study: Abortion Tied to Reduction in Crime

Scholar challenges theory that Michelangelo tried to destroy the Pieta in a fit of rage.

Israeli Arabs to visit Auschwitz to try to come to grips with Jewish angst in the Holcaust.

Slavery museum planned.

The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced that it has named David McCullough as the 2003 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities. (Subscribers only.)

European historians protest misuse of history in defense of a war in Iraq.

New evidence shows Japan was years away from making a large atomic bomb in 1945.

Smithsonian for the first time is cataloging all of its 13 million photographs.

British historian and TV star Andrew Roberts is writing the official biography of Henry Kissinger.

A court in India has ordered archaeologists to excavate the site of the demolished Ayodhya mosque to determine whether a Hindu temple ever existed there.

New Poll: Europeans rank Churchill, Leonardo da Vinci and, Joschka Fischer as"greatest."

Rosa Parks boycotts NAACP meeting because it's hosted by star of Barbershop movie.

Friends say it's impossible that Christopher Hill was a Soviet mole.

New Bush executive order covering the disclosure of old secrets wins support of historians.

Daniel Ellsberg says he wasn't consulted on movie about him.

Week of 3-3-03

Royal family suspected Blunt was a spy 30 years before he was caught.

Dick Gregory starts campaign to remove Richard Russell's name from the senate office building.

Sen. Lamar Alexander roasted back home after introducing a bill to restore civics; he lambasted multiculturalism.

President Bush signs executive order emphasizing importance of historic preservation.

Love letters of Mussolini which were to be disclosed have apparently been stolen.

Panel on Nazi art theft fell short, experts say.

Rep. Chris Shays investigating if the Bush administration passed classified secrets to Bob Woodward.

Geology discoveries confirm Homer's description of ancient Troy.

Italian Villa of the Papyri opened to visitors after being buried 2000 years.

Historians in Florida continue fight to save state library.

Controversy in Arizona over banning the word"squaw."

New Poll: Majority of all Russians believe Stalin's role in Russian history was positive, while only a third disagreed.

US Air Force lied to Supreme Court 50 years ago in ruling that led to adoption of"state secrets privilege."

New American Revolution Museum to be built at Valley Forge for $100,000,000.

Week of 2-24-03

Victims of Tulsa Race Riot sue.

Report tells how Austrians helped Nazis rob Jews during war.

Bristol's controversial past as slave trade center hobbling bid to become city of culture.

British Museum refusing to return China's Dunhuang Cave treasures and other stolen cultural relics.

Dutch investigation into Anne Frank's betrayer narrows list of suspects.

Islamic historian who teaches in Britain, Basheer Nafi, indicted in U.S.

Historians leading petition drive to stop Jeb Bush from closing the state library of Florida.

Pentagon planning on privatizing army military history; some claim"military history could be zeroed out entirely."

Air Force pulls 600 historical records from public access in light of 9-11 concerns about information regarding weapons of mass destruction.

Powell"not proud" of U.S. role in Chile coup.

Coalition of U.S. soldiers and members of Congress file federal lawsuit in Boston challenging Bush's authority to wage war absent congressional declaration.

US is being sued by Iran for supplying Iraq in 1980s with chemical weapons.

Vatican archives yield fascinating letters about Holocaust.

Mount Vernon has raised $60 million for new projects to highlight GW's career as a swashbuckling young hero adventurer.

Study concludes scientists stranded near North Pole in doomed expedition in 1881 resorted to cannibalism.

Huge cache of old documents found in NC reveal the history of land speculation from 1795 to 1920.

Some African Americans joining whites to celebrate the Confederacy.

Former Sen. Paul Simon warns politics could turn new Lincoln library into a mediocrity.

Historians rallying to save Mesopotamian treasures from destruction in event of war with Iraq.

British government watchdog warns too much emphasis is being placed in schools on studying Hitler.

Professor Chris Andrew to write official history of MI5.

Movement underway in California to make amends for history of sterilizing inmates and the disabled between 1909 and 1964.

A rusty, broken bell that may have come from Christopher Columbus' flagship--the Santa Maria--has been seized by police, days before it was to be auctioned for a starting bid of $1 million.

Historians worried the Hindu-nationalist ruling party is trying to rewrite history of India.

KC Johnson gets tenure in vote of the Brooklyn College Board of Trustees.

Week of 2-17-03

Wash Post says historian is wrong to suggest Justice Douglas didn't have a right to be buried in Arlington.

Albert Speer's son up for contract to rebuild Beijing.

Historians already planning for 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth in 2009.

Auction held to sell notebooks of France's last public executioner; chopped off nearly 400 heads.

Plan to canonize a black woman who founded an order of African-American nuns in the slave state of Maryland.

Controversy over move to canonize Rasputin.

Discovery Channel doc. says Roy Brown could not have killed the Red Baron.

Decision to celebrate Scotland's union with England controversial.

Jeb Bush wants to close the state library, putting historic records in jeopardy.

Remains of ancient Egyptian city found; pyramid builders lived there.

Two Philadelphia museums claiming they are the rightful owners of the head of Old Baldy, the horse upon which General George Meade rode during many of the Civil War's most infamous battles.

Scholars solve riddle of hoax involving a golden plate said to prove that Sir Francis Drake claimed California for England.

St. Valentine's head returned after theft.

Move afoot to turn Charles Darwin's birthday (Feb. 12) into a federal holiday.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue proposes a referendum on whether the Confederate battle emblem should be part of the state flag.

Soft Skull Press to reissue rev. edition of Bellesiles's Arming America.

Iran's Supreme Court on Friday revoked the death sentence imposed in November against the chairman of the history department at Tarbiat Modarres University, in Tehran. (Subscribers only.)

Week of 2-10-03

James Thomas Flexner has died.

Yugoslavia (quietly) goes out of existence.

NJ governor wants to drop all state funding for history to save money.

British celebrate the 400th anniversary of union of England and Scotland.

Indonesian human rights commission looking at Suharto's history of oppression.

Walt Rostow dies.

Survivors of the Danish resistance denounce a new WW II documentary that claims Danes were responsible for deaths of thousands of German children.

New dam in Iraq threatens priceless ruins with flooding.

CBS to air film about Salem Witch Trials.

Scientists confirm that an asteroid the size of a bus hit near Rome in the fifth century with the force of 15 Hiroshima bombs; struck the mountains.

Scientists say evidence does not support story of Noah's Flood.

7,000 year old boat purportedly found in Kuwait; oldest ever, if verified.

Vets protesting History Channel's refusal to broadcast a film about the myths of the Vietnam War.

Ramsey Clark has drawn up articles of impeachment against President Bush.

NC congressman says the internment of Japanese in WW II was ok.

FOIA suit to obtain secret documents concerning the sinking of the USS Liberty

The head of an Indian university resigned on Thursday after a panel found that he had engaged in"word by word" plagiarism of a physics professor at Stanford University. (Subscribers only.)

Week of 2-3-03

Controversy in Mexico over a textbook that revealed the truth about a 1968 massacre of students.

Gypsies given right to sue IBM over company's Nazi ties.

Gladiator bones indicate the fighters trained and were in excellent physical shape.

UK report on Iraq was plagiarized.

American Studies Association issues statement warning of"the storm of attacks on intellectual freedom" since 9-11.

Clinton waives right to withhold Presidential records reflecting confidential advice.

Historian claims Justice William O. Douglas lied about serving as a private in WW I.

Controversy that the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance has never recognized the Armenian genocide of 1915.

Vatican set to make a limited release of archives related to the controversial papacy of Pius XII.

King Edward VIII wanted to ask British people to let him stay on throne; text of planned speech revealed.

Secret tapes made by the Queen Mother. Her real opinions on the Royal Family

Oldest surviving periodical in history--the London Gazette--putting archives online.

Koizumi's visit to shrine that honors Tojo is seen as provacative by Japan's neighbors.

Age-Old Nationalist Hero Gets a Demotion in China; Beijing decides that a 12th century general long revered for his loyalty is no longer PC.

Government in Hungary tries to close down museum that exposes history of oppression under Nazi and communist regimes.

Questions raised about study done by pro-gun economist John Lott.

New Bush budget for 2004 provides record funding for history.

South Korean textbooks for the first time acknowledge role of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung in battling Jpanese colonialism.

Move afoot to revive the name of Stalingrad on the 60th anniversary of the WW 2 battle.

Week of 1-27-03

Wallis Simpson was unfaithful to Edward VIII.

More controversy over the proposal to build a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Richmond.

A Spanish art historian has uncovered what was alleged to be the first use of modern art as a deliberate form of torture.

Ruins of 4,300-year-old prehistoric city found in China.

New Kennedy tapes released; 15 hours.

9th Circuit judge amends brief to exclude Bellesiles citations in gun case.

Holocaust Memorial Day.

Historians attack new book by Solzhenitsyn, which claims Jews played a significant role in Soviet repression in the Bolshevik Revolution and Soviet purges.

More evidence that Edward VIII sympathized with Hitler.

News media discovers Aborigines in Australia were slaughtered hundreds.

Disclosure: The U.S. Army trained 19 Iraqi military officers in the United States in offensive and defensive chemical, biological and radiological warfare from 1957 to 1967.

Israeli historian says that Nasser's son-in-law tipped off Israel about the impending Egyptian attack that led to the 6 Day War.

No Poles will be prosecuted in connection with the Polish massacre of Jews uncovered by a historian in a book published last year.

Amateur historian says that poet Robert Burns belonged to"scandalous religious sect."

National Geographic doing a winter swimsuit edition; looks at the history of topless suits.

ABC News: Laundries run by the Irish Catholic Church"were virtual slave labor camps."

Library of Congress opens the national registry of sound.

Canada's York U. Faces Debate Over Free Speech and 'Campus Watch' Web Site; involves Daniel Pipes.(Subscribers only.)

Hugh Trevor-Roper has died.

Week of 1-20-03

Historian who presided over NY museum that was looted is replaced by a chemistry teacher.

Last known Confederate widow feted at banquet; she's 96.

A movement is growing to include in the WTC plans a building Gaudi designed for NYC that was never built.

Parents shocked after Danish scout camp features Nazis chasing Jews.

Chicago passes a law that requires companies to disclose whether they ever profited from the slave trade.

Historians' anti-war petition attracts over 1,000 signers.

Pentagon suspends panel of historians who declassify old records.

10 historians rally to side of gay couple prosecuted in Texas under anti-sodomy law.

Court dismisses claim of slave laborers.

Historians in Australia call on the government to apologize to Turkey for Gallipoli.

Germany has started to destroy the giant concrete Siegfried Line, Hitler's defensive wall against an Allied attack.

David Irving refused visa to visit daughter in Australia; lacks character says government.

Recession of 2001 never officially declared over--and may not be.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS in China have turned to the CIA and a hoard of wartime spy photographs taken by the Japanese to rediscover a past erased by the Cultural Revolution.

A Top Secret internal history of Soviet security agencies has recently been published online by the Harvard Project on Cold War Studies. The 1977 document, which remains classified in Moscow, was obtained from Latvian archives. The 639 page official history provides an account of the KGB and its predecessor agencies from 1917 through the mid-1970s.

A private investigation into the unsolved murder of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986 claims that an agent of South Africa's apartheid government carried out the assassination, news reports said on Monday.

CHEMICAL warfare was invented by a 19th century Scottish naval hero, more than a century before the mustard gas attacks of the first world war, experts will reveal for the first time in a new documentary this week.

Archaeologists from the University of Geneva have discovered a pit full of large monuments and finely carved statues of the Nubian kings known as the black pharaohs.

One of the last living links with the American Civil war of the 1860s has been broken with the death of the last known widow of a soldier who fought on the Union side.

Users of a well-known roommate-matching service in Manhattan say that after signing up with the service they began receiving e-mail messages from a Holocaust-revisionist Web site run by the service's founder.

People upset with National Park Service plan to erect a permanent security perimeter around Independence Hall.

Scientists are challenging a recent theory that Noah's epic story - setting sail with an ark jam-full of animal couples - was based on an actual catastrophic flood that suddenly filled the Black Sea 7,500 years ago.

Israeli geologists said Monday they have examined a stone tablet detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon that, if authenticated, would be a rare piece of physical evidence confirming biblical narrative.

Israeli historian suspicious that a recently discovered black stone inscription, which confirms his theory about the Book of Kings, is a forgery.

Week of 1-13-03

Christian group leader recommends that parents rip out the sections in California textbooks that include material they find offensive.

Berkeley to allow Emma Goldman fundraiser to use controversial quotes.

Public campaign to persuade the government of Portugal to posthumously clear the name of Arthur Barros Basto, a Jewish army captain driven out of the Portuguese military on trumped-up charges in the 1940s; called the Portuguese Dreyfuss.

Scientists said yesterday that they had discovered the remains of a 2,400-year-old ship at the bottom of the Black Sea — the oldest shipwreck ever found in the sea.

Clinton the choice of students to head Oxford.

Senate to add portraits of Wagner and Vandenberg to wall celebrating greatness.

4-Year celebration to mark bicentennial of Lewis & Clark expedition.

History Channel announces it will be helping finance a program to assist in teaching history.

CBS going ahead with series on Hitler as a young man dfespite protests.

Philanthropist, heir to a Nazi-tainted fortune, caught in controversy as he refuses to pay into the Holocaust fund.

The wife of the Central European Bank chairman claims Israeli occuptation of the West Bank is"worse than the Nazi occupation."

Week of 1-6-03

British PM Edward Heath considered redrawing the borders of Northern Ireland and moving half a million people.

Papers of British PM Edward Heath released after 30 years; creating a stir.

Jon Wiener to co-host chat room about Bellesiles at upcoming OAH meeting.

Knopf decides to stop selling Bellesiles book; editor says Bellesiles is"sloppy" but did not fabricate evidence.

Historians to begin briefing members of Congress and staffers on the historical background of important issues in the news.

CA GOP leader apologizes for circulating an essay suggesting that it would have been better if the South won the Civil War.

Historians rally at AHA convention against a war with Iraq; 667 sign petition.

Week of 12-30-02

Film-makers are fighting to be first over the top with a movie about the original and most rapacious western imperialist of them all - Alexander the Great.

The academic job market in history is supposed to be booming, thanks to a wave of faculty retirements. And departments are hiring, but a weak economy has meant they're not hiring quite as much as expected. (Subscribers only.)

Welsh government saves 15th century ship that could have been among the first to cross the Atlantic.

A British stockbroker known as the"British Schindler" after he saved hundreds of children from Nazi death camps is to be honoured with a knighthood.

The 82 people murdered in Manhattan during 2002 represented the fewest recorded murders in any year since the 19th century, a crime watchdog group said Tuesday.

Bellesiles panel called off at upcoming AHA meeting.

More controversy in Australia over Aboriginal history at the national museum.

Historian becomes the first official professor of beach studies in Australia.

NY State identifies every shipwreck at the bottom of the Hudson River but refuses to disclose their locations for fear of triggering a Gold Rush in plundering.