Breaking News

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: Civil War News
May 1, 2012

Virginia Marker Ceremony To Honor Youngest Medal Of Honor Recipient

CHARLES CITY, Va. — The Vermont Civil War Hemlocks will dedicate a marker honoring 11-year-old Willie Johnston, the country’s youngest Medal of Honor recipient, in June at 150th anniversary commemorations of the Seven Days Battles and the first playing of Taps.The marker will be dedicated at Harrison’s Landing on Berkley Plantation during the weekend of June 23, 24 as part of the TAPS 150 event (see April issue story).Johnston was born to English immigrants who settled in New York state in the 1840s. His mother died shortly after his July 12, 1850, birth. Father William Johnston moved the family to Montreal, Canada, where he remarried, and then moved to northern Vermont....

Source: Tennessean
April 12, 2012

Franklin battlefield group nears grant deadline for pizza place

FRANKLIN Battlefield preservation group Franklin’s Charge is within striking distance of acquiring a strip mall anchored by a Domino’s Pizza to restore an area that was the epicenter of the 1864 Battle of Franklin.The group has less than 60 days to raise more than $300,000 so they can begin work on the Carter Cotton Gin Interpretive Park.An announcement today from the group explained what is at stake: “You can make great pizzas anywhere, but there’s only one epicenter of the Battle of Franklin, where nearly 10,000 casualties fell in five bloody hours and 11 medals of honor were won.”...

Source: NYT
May 3, 2012

Revere book discovered at Brown

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Day after day, a tall, shy woman weaves her way unnoticed through the earnest and learned campus swirl of Brown University. She enters the hush of a library, then promptly vanishes from sight.Down goes Marie Malchodi, 48, who attended but never graduated from Brown, down to the library’s subterranean warrens, where she works as a “book conservation technician.” She sweeps her long dark hair into a bun, pierces it with a paint brush, and starts her day, caring for ancient books and ephemera that are sensitive to the touch.A few weeks ago, Ms. Malchodi opened yet another leather-bound book, one of more than 300,000 rare volumes in the hold of the John Hay Library. With surgical precision, she turned the pages of a medical text once owned by Solomon Drowne, Class of ’73 (1773, that is.). And there, in the back, she found a piece of paper depicting the baptism of Jesus. It was signed:“P. Revere Sculp.”...

Source: Post Star
April 28, 2012

Surveys call into question location of fighting on Fort Ann's Battle Hill

FORT ANN -- State officials confirmed Saturday recent archaeological surveys found no evidence of a battle at the site of a proposed mine on Battle Hill, throwing the actual location of the Revolutionary War skirmish in question.Gino Vona, owner of Big Boy Construction, wants to develop a 50-acre mine with Troy Topsoil on his 160-acre parcel atop the mound where English forces met scattered Continental units that were fleeing Fort Ticonderoga on July 8, 1777.At a roundtable forum hosted at Fort Ann Central School by project opponents Saturday, State Department of Environmental Conservation officials said the archaeological analysis at the site found no artifacts, like buttons, cartridges or flints, indicating the battle occurred at the site of the proposed surface mine....

Source: Montreal Gazette
April 30, 2012

Car museum in legal battle over Kennedy assassin's tombstone

The Historic Auto Attractions Museum of Roscoe, Ill. counts among its attractions a John Dillinger getaway car, one of Adolf Hitler's staff cars and limousines used by Josef Stalin and Evita Peron. It also happens to house Lee Harvey Oswald's tombstone, displayed in a room devoted to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.The Chicago Tribune reports that Dallas pub owner David Card says the stone is rightfully his....

Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 28, 2012

Belgrano survivors remember sinking

It was perhaps the most controversial episode of the Falklands War and brought its single heaviest loss of life.Thirty years later, the sinking of the General Belgrano cruiser, with the deaths of 323 Argentine crewmen, still arouses deep emotions and fierce debate.Despite its advancing years, the vessel was the most potent in the junta's navy. After it was sunk on May 2, 1982, by two torpedoes fired by HMS Conqueror, a nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine, no Argentine vessel left port again during the conflict.The government of President Cristina Kirchner has made the anniversary the deadline for its threat to international oil companies that it will take action against them for "illegally operating" in Falkland waters....Across the country, meanwhile, ex-combatants are marking the 30th anniversary with ceremonies of remembrance. For Ruben Volpe and Gustavo Altoe, emotions will be particularly raw – as teenage conscripts on national service, they were among 770 survivors rescued from life rafts.The vessel had entered the British 200-mile exclusion zone around the islands on May 1, but left the next day and was sailing away when it was hit, said Mr Volpe, a naval artilleryman....

Source: Daily Mail (UK)
May 2, 2012

Hitler was a bad speller

A newly uncovered postcard written by Hitler during World War I suggests that the Nazi dictator wasn't great at spelling.The postcard was written by the former Fascist leader as he recovered from a war wound in a Munich hospital in December 1916.In it he makes the mistake of spelling the German word 'sofort', meaning 'immediately', with double 'f' instead of one....

Source: The Yeshiva World
April 27, 2012

Suspected Nazi War Criminal Works As Beekeeper In Canada

Ormstown, Quebec – Propped up by a shovel that acts as his cane, Vladimir Katriuk putters about his wooded lot in rural Quebec, lovingly caring for his bees and appearing to have few worries other than this season’s honey yield.But a prominent Jewish human-rights organization insists there’s much more to the cordial 91-year-old beekeeper — whom they allege is of the world’s most-wanted Nazi war criminals.The Simon Wiesenthal Center recently ranked Katriuk No. 4 on its top-10 list of suspected former Nazis, after a new study alleged he was a key participant in a village massacre during the Second World War....

Source: WebWire
April 26, 2012

Archive releases UK plan to kill Hitler

Los Angeles, California (April 26, 2012) BACM Research – PaperlessArchives.com has announced the publishing of the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) report on Operation Foxley, The British plan for the assassination of Adolf Hitler.   To see read the complete description, see sample pages, or to obtain the documents go to:   http://www.paperlessarchives.com/wwii_operation_foxley.html   In 1944, the office of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), reduced plans to assassinate Adolf Hitler, that formed Operation Foxley, to a report. The plan to assassinate Hitler was drawn up by a SOE agent code named LB/X, whose true identity is still kept a secret.   The report gives details of Hitler’s daily routine and eating habits; aerial photographs, drawings of Hitler’s Alpine retreat, details of assassination methods, sketches of SS Guard uniforms, agents’ disguises and "guest" workers. The report provides intelligence on Hitler’s alpine retreat at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, documentary and photographic evidence is provided concerning his limousines and trains.  

Source: Haaretz
April 27, 2012

Swiss banks erased records of Jewish accounts

Swiss banks systematically hid and destroyed records of bank accounts from the Holocaust period, thus preventing their owners from claiming their money and assets, according to a lawsuit set to be filed next week.During the Nazi regime in 1933-1945 some 7 million bank accounts were created in Switzerland. An estimated 60,000 of them were opened by Jews in a bid to salvage their property from the Nazis, with the intention of reclaiming it after World War II.Years later it emerged that the records of some 3 million of these accounts had disappeared and been destroyed....

Source: Time Magazine
May 3, 2012

Dino-killing asteroid didn't act alone

There's never a good time to get clobbered by an asteroid — something the dinosaurs discovered in the worst way possible. It was 65.5 million years ago that an asteroid measuring 6 mi. (10 km) across, slammed into the Earth just off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, blasting out a 110 mi. (180 km) crater and sending out a cloud of globe-girdling debris that cooled and darkened the world. That spelled doom for species that had come to like things bright and warm. Before long (in geological terms, at least) the dinos were gone and the mammals arose.That's how the story has long been told and it's still the most-widely accepted theory. Now, however, a study led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and published in Nature Communications suggests that the asteroid may not have affected all dinosaur species equally. Some, including the well-loved triceratops and duck-billed dinosaurs, might have been on their way out already and were simply hastened to the exit by the asteroid blast. The reason for their weakened state — and the way the investigators discovered it — provide both new insights into the fate of the dinosaurs and new methods with which to study their world....

Source: WaPo
May 2, 2012

Ex-Obama GF letters in new bio

Vanity Fair magazine has published an excerpt from Washington Post reporter David Maraniss’ upcoming biography of the president entitled “Barack Obama: The Story.” (Regular Fix readers know how excited we have been/are about this book, which goes on sale next month.)The six page excerpt focuses on two of Obama’s early girlfriends.One, named Alex McNear, Obama met at Occidental College before he transferred to Columbia. She came to New York for a summer, the start of a long-distance, letter-based relationship in 1982.Maraniss got a hold of many of the letters they exchanged....

Source: Science Magazine
May 1, 2012

Ancient American Skeletons Safe From Reburial, But Only for the Moment

A federal court judge in San Francisco granted a temporary restraining order Friday to prevent the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), from handing over 9000-year-old human bones to Native Americans, in the latest twist in an unusual custody battle for two human skeletons that are among the earliest found in the Americas. Three University of California professors filed a lawsuit last week to prevent UCSD from transferring the bones, which have been described as better preserved than those of the Kennewick Man, another ancient skeleton that has been the center of debate and lawsuits.The restraining order will be in effect until Friday, 11 May, when Judge Richard Seeborg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California will decide whether to extend it until the case is settled, according to Jim McManis, an attorney in San Jose, California, who represents the professors pro bono....

Source: SF Gate
May 2, 2012

Syria's heritage threatened by turmoil

On its towering hilltop perch, the Krak des Chevaliers, one of the world's best preserved Crusader castles, held off a siege by the Muslim warrior Saladin nearly 900 years ago. It was lauded by Lawrence of Arabia for its beauty and has been one of the crown jewels of Syria's tourism.But it has fallen victim to the chaos of Syria's uprising and the crackdown against it by President Bashar Assad's government. Recently, gunmen broke into the castle, threw out the staff and began excavations to loot the site, says Bassam Jammous, general director of the Antiquities and Museum Department in Damascus....

Source: Discovery News
May 2, 2012

'The Scream' Could Set Record at Auction: Big Pic

The painting is of a man holding his head and screaming under a streaked sky. It "has become a modern symbol for human anxiety," the Wall Street Journal said.Some experts believe it could bring in far more than the $80 million predicted -- "as much as $150 million," according to Time....

Source: Discovery News
May 2, 2012

Dogfight Over Buried Spitfires in Burma

After a 15-year treasure hunt, a farmer and aviation enthusiast struck gold, uncovering as many as 20 World War II-era Spitfire planes buried in Burma at the end of World War II -- a find he may lose to the British Donald Trump.In April FoxNews.com reported the discovery of the priceless booty, a squadron of the legendary planes perfectly preserved in the chests they were shipped halfway around the world in. They were waxed, wrapped in greased paper and tarred to protect against the elements. They were then buried in their shipping crates, rather than let them fall into enemy hands.The long-lost planes were discovered after a $200,000 quest by aviation enthusiast David Cundall.British prime minister David Cameron sent a business delegation to Burma after the planes in late April -- and he brought along wealthy real estate developer Steven Boultbee Brooks instead of him....

Source: LiveScience
May 2, 2012

Stonehenge's lecture hall acoustics

The stone slabs of England's Stonehenge may have been more than just a spectacular sight to the ancient people who built the structure; they likely created an acoustic environment unlike anything they normally experienced, new research hints."As they walk inside they would have perceived the sound environment around them had changed in some way,"said researcher Bruno Fazenda, a professor at the University of Salford in the United Kingdom. "They would have been stricken by it, they would say, 'This is different.'"These Neolithic people might have felt as modern people do upon entering a cathedral, Fazenda told LiveScience....

Source: Science Daily
May 1, 2012

Skeletons Found at Mass Burial Site in Oxford Could Be 10th-Century Viking Raiders

ScienceDaily (May 1, 2012) — Thirty-seven skeletons found in a mass burial site in the grounds of St John's College may not be who they initially seemed, according to Oxford researchers studying the remains.When the bodies were discovered in the grounds of the college in 2008 by Thames Valley Archaeological Services, archaeologists speculated that they could have been part of the St Brice's Day Massacre in Oxford -- a well documented event in 1002, in which King Aethelred the Unredy ordered the killing of 'all Danes living in England'.However, a new research paper, led by Oxford University, has thrown up a new theory -- that the skeletons may have been Viking raiders who were captured and then executed....

Source: Lee White for the National Coalition for History
April 30, 2012

NEH Seeking Bridging Cultures Proposals for Community Colleges

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is seeking proposals for a cooperative agreement to develop and administer a national or regional (multistate) project to advance the role of the humanities at community colleges through curriculum and faculty development focused on the theme of Bridging Cultures. The deadline for submitting proposals is August 14, 2012, for projects beginning February 2013.Successful applicants will work in partnership with NEH to develop and implement a curriculum and professional development project for faculty members from community colleges across the United States or in a multistate region. The project will help community college faculty and administrators create new courses on Bridging Cultures themes or topics; design new course sequences, concentrations, and core curricula; or conduct scholarly research that will improve faculty preparation and enrich teaching.For more information, including an application form visit the NEH website, or contact the staff of NEH’s Division of Education Programs at 202-606-8380 or ccrfp@neh.gov.

Source: Lee White for the National Coalition for History
April 30, 2012

National Archives Seeking Applicants for Summer Institutes

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) recently announced its annual institutes for educators in the summer of 2012. Primarily Teaching: Original Documents and Classroom Strategies will be held at seven of the agency’s locations.The National Archives at Chicago, Chicago, IL, June 18–22, 2012The National Archives at Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, June 25–29, 2012The Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, KS, July 16–20, 2012The National Archives Building, Washington, DC, July 23–27, 2012The Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, TX, July 23–27, 2012The National Archives at Boston, Waltham, MA, July 23–27, 2012The National Archives at Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, July 23–27, 2012Primarily Teaching is designed to provide access to the rich resources of the National Archives for educators at the upper elementary, secondary, and college levels. Participants will learn how to research historical records, create classroom materials based on the records, and present documents in ways that sharpen students’ skills and enthusiasm for history, government, and the other humanities.