2003 2 April to May 2003

Week of 6-2-03

Treasures of Nimrud found in Iraqi vault; US says fewer than 50 items from the collection of the Iraqi National Museum's main exhibition are still missing.

Los Angeles marks the 35th anniversary of the death of Bobby Kennedy.

British Museum celebrating its 250th anniversary.

Historians Against the War decides to continue; will oppose empire-building.

State Department publishes a new book on the worldviews of Kissinger and Nixon.

Florida ballots saved from destruction.

Robert Caro jumps into fight over the use of the filibuster in Senate confirmation battles; opposes tampering with the rule.

Canada to build a $90 million museum devoted to history; a first.

The Sanctuary of Dionysus, a long-lost Greek temple, may have been discovered in Bulgaria near the Greek border.

A witness account of the attack on the Bismarck, the German battleship sunk 62 years ago today, has been discovered after lying hidden for decades.

New evidence in the death of the husband of Mary Queen of Scots.

Wreck of the HMS Beagle--Darwin's ship--discovered.

Little Brown withdraws Brian VanDeMark's book from stores as a result of plagiarism allegations.

Reputed Columbus Remains in Spain Exhumed; scholars to determine if Columbus was really buried in Spain.

Historian: Ben Franklin kite experiment never happened.

Food columnist accused of plagiarizing the history of various recipes.

Week of 5-26-03

Historian Brian VanDeMark accused by the NYT of plagiarism.

Concord, Mass. put on list of most endangered historic sites by the National Trust; noisy air traffic blamed.

Proposed restriction on FOIA is buried in Defense Authorization Act.

Bill introduced in Congress to outlaw the import of Iraqi cultural artifacts.

National Archives: Hope is lost that the 18 and 1/2 minute gap on the Nixon tape will ever be recovered.

Bush administration to award grants to churches that qualify as historic places raising First Amendment issues.

Arsenic tied to the death of"Mad King George."

Belgium for the first time is opening its archives for an official investigation of deportation of Jews during the Holocaust.

Abu Mazen denies he's a Holocaust denier.

Clinton is Americans' 3rd favorite president, behind Lincoln and Kennedy.

Showtime to air a movie in the fall by a White House insider about Bush's response to 9-11.

Clinton says presidents should be free to run for a nonconsecutive 3rd term.

Towns argue about the birthplace of Memorial Day.

UCLA professor creating a digital archive of cuneiform tablets from around the world, including Iraq.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to be replaced.

NYT: Looting of Iraqi ancient sites continues under the nose of US troops.

Historians assail University of Haifa for blocking a conference on the 1948 war.

Report: Oldest sculpture in history--400,000 years old--discovered.

McNamara speaks out against the Iraq war.

Week of 5-19-03

Schama signs 2 new BBC contracts; will tell the links between British and US history.

Army's version of looting in Iraq called into question.

New files show Klaus Fuchs hoped to keep his job as scientists even after being exposed as a spy.

Mobs of treasure hunters are tearing into Iraqi archaeological sites. (NYT)

Campaign to build a center to explain the history of Vietnam next to the Vietnam Wall is opposed by vets.

Kennedy family blasts conservative group that is using video of JFK to sell Bush tax cuts.

Archaeologists who last year unearthed the remains of a Bronze Age archer at Stonehenge said this week that they have found six more bodies near the mysterious ring of ancient monoliths.

AHA to absorb expected loss of $65,000 owing to the failure of company that fills journal subscriptions to libraries.

First history conference to be held on Black Panthers.

Archaeologists have discovered what they describe as a previously unknown ancient civilisation in Central America.

US Troops 'vandalise' ancient city of Ur (Guardian)

US court begins hearing cases tied to corporate reparations related to South Africa apartheid.

Scholars circulate petition on Capitol Hill to save funding for the NEH.

The Los Angeles City Council has voted to draft a law requiring every company doing business with the city to report whether it ever earned profits from slavery.

New Mexico county sheriff to investigate whether Billy the Kid had an accomplice in escape from jail.

Week of 5-12-03

Contrary to widespread belief, the antique books of Iraq's National Library were not stolen by thieves last month but were removed for safe keeping.

Brooklyn College to review CUNY decision to reward tenure to KC Johnson.

Bob Dallek discloses affair JFK had with a White House intern.

Week of 5-05-03

Update on FAS Secrecy and Security project.

Chief Powhatan's village unearthed.

Transcripts show copland cowed McCarthy.

AHA will no longer investigate allegations of wrongdoing.

Afghan government backs plan for an American-style university in Afghanistan.

Most Iraqi treasures are said to be kept safe.

Senate releases previously secret transcripts of Joseph McCarthy's hearings.

Week of 4-28-03

Historian claims Goya didn't paint Prado masterpieces long credited to him.

Find the greatest German - and no voting for Hitler; BBC exports its poll to Germany but Nazi era is a problem.

White House holds forum on American history; President Bush promises to seek $100 million for"We the People" initiative.

New underground railroad museum in Cincinnati--envisioned as a symbol of racial harmony--is dividing the community.

Attendance at this year's annual Monticello family gathering limited; Lucian Truscott IV claims it's to keep out Hemings's descendants.

A year after holding their first integrated prom, some students at Taylor County High School have decided to again hold a separate, private party for whites only.

Undersea survey may have found the Confederate ironclad the Virginia (the former USS Merrimack) that fought the Union's ironclad the Monitor in the 1862 battle that redefined naval warfare.

MSNBC: The White House is battling to keep a report on the terror attacks secret

U.S. promises to reopen Iraqi national museum within a few months.

German medical school, reversing policy, gives historians access to hospital's nazi-era records.

NYT: Looting may have been less severe at the Iraqi national museum than once feared.

Armenians demand LA Museum of Tolerance recognize 1915 genocide by Turkey; vow to continue protests.

THE POPE has beatified a 17th-century friar, Marco d'Aviano, who played an important part in driving the Muslim Ottomans out of Europe.

Mount Vernon has lowest attendance in 56 years.

Philadelphia cemetery for Ben Franklin and other founding fathers reopens to the public.

Archaeologists in Iraq believe they may have found the lost tomb of King Gilgamesh - the subject of the oldest"book" in history.

Fortune Magazine: Rumsfeld was director of a company that wanted to build the nuke reactor for North Korea in 1990s; allegedly lobbied for Washington's approval.

Georgia acts to drop Confederate emblem from the state flag.

D-Day Memorial plagued by scandal; in the red.

World's great museums meet in London to help rebuild the Iraq National Museum.

Carl Bernstein blasts journalism professor whose class concluded Fred Fielding was Deep Throat.

Hillary Clinton's memoirs to hit bookstores June 9; 576 pages and $28. 1 million copies printed.

More than 100 looted Iraqi artifacts have been returned to the U.S. military.

Campaign to to revoke the 1932 Pulitzer Prize awarded NYT reporter Walter Duranty; accused of pro-Soviet bias.

Drudge Report hails publication of Sidney Blumenthal's inside account of the Clinton White House.

Historians and others petition to protest Castro's Cuban crackdown.

Week of 4-21-03

Historians clear three suspects of betraying Anne Frank.

NSA may release documents in connection with USS Liberty incident.

Scholars at New York University are digitizing all books printed in Afghanistan between 1871 and 1930 to save the content from possible destruction.

A collection of more than 90,000 rare manuscripts about the history and heritage of India's declining Parsi community has been discovered.

Jack Shirley, a legendary former CIA official who helped run America's failed"secret war" in Laos, has died at his home in Thailand.

Georgia legislature still arguing about the new flag for Georgia; senate approves a bill the house may reject.

Media celebrating the 50th anniversary of discovery of DNA by Watson & Crick.

Some Iraqi treasures being returned to the national museum.(NYT)

Cost of new visitor center at the U.S. Capitol to cost more than $100 million more than expected.

Historians rally to support Wisconsin Historical Society.

Many Studies by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) are now available on the Internet.

FBI says stolen Iraqi artifacts are already showing up for sale.

Pentagon Memo: Troops were told to guard museum.

New BBC drama about the"Cambridge Spies" is assailed as KGB propaganda.

Archivists warn that records related to the oppression of the Iraqi people are being deliberately destroyed.

Historians decry the looting of Iraqi heritage.

Ancient village uncovered in Illinois; from 600 to 800 AD.

Week of 4-14-03

Britons to retrace the doomed Northwest Passage through the Arctic.

UPI: In the six months since a limestone bone box bearing the inscription"James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" was announced to the world, evidence mounts that the ossuary is authentic and that the"Jesus" is indeed the rabbi of Nazareth.

Confederate Museum in New Orleans has lost title to the building where it's been located for over 100 years.

German deep sea divers have discovered parts of the wreck of the Goya, an ocean liner which sank in 1945 with thousands of refugees aboard.

David Duke heading for prison after being wined and dined on a celebrity tour in Arab countries.

Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal says his work is done and he's closing his files.

Israeli Kings No Myth, new research indicates.

National Museum of African American History and Culture issues report to Congress; want to build a museum on the national mall in Washington, D.C.

Scholars sign petition to UN to safeguard the Iraqi national heritage.

Citing"the wanton and preventable destruction" of Iraq's National Museum of Antiquities, the chairman of the President's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property has submitted his resignation to President Bush.

Stanford students petition to sever ties with Hoover Institution.

Estranged wife of Neil Bush--brother of the president--plans to write a tell-all book about the Bush family.

Israeli investigators said Tuesday that they have found a new technique to measure the age of ancient metal artifacts.

South Africa said today that the government would pay reparations totaling $85 million to more than 19,000 victims of apartheid crimes.

Senator Robert Byrd agrees to co-sponsor Senator Lamar Alexander's history initiative; David McCullough speaks in favor of the bill.

Another library set ablaze in Baghdad. That makes 3 institutions looted and burned. Shocked reporter:"I saw the looters."

Library of Congress is helping the government in the war on terrorism.

Gourd fragments unearthed in Peru have pushed back clear evidence of religion in the Americas by a thousand years, to 2250 BC.

More details about the sacking of the Iraqi national museum.

The national library of Iraq, which contains numerous original documents, is on fire.

Week of 4-7-03

Looters ransack the Iraqi national museum.

The executive producer of a CBS miniseries about Adolf Hitler's rise to power has been fired after giving an interview in which he compared the current mood of Americans to that of the Germans who helped Hitler rise to power.

Polish archeologists search for famous Ringelblum Archive.

The oldest existing fragments of the Nibelungen Song, the most famous Germanic text of the Middle Ages, have been discovered by historians.

Jimmy Carter to write a novel set during the Revolutionary War.

Japanese high court: Japan does not have to compensate or apologize to a Korean woman forced into sexual slavery during WW II.

Historian Robin Winks dies, age 72.

Cheney defends openness of the administration; discounts criticism by librarians and others.

Budget cuts threaten Wisconsin Historical Assoc.; AHA rallies to its defense.

Columbia resists call by Republican congressmen to fire Nicholas DeGenova

Pulitzer Prizes awarded to Robert Caro and Rick Atkinson

Woodward/Bernstein papers go to the University of Texas; will be open within a year.

Daniel Pipes nominated by President Bush to serve on the board of directors at the U.S. Institute of Peace.