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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: history

history stories: 91 news summaries

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Opinion

Lincoln's Failings Offer Modern Lesson

Politicians must learn to face their flaws,
not exult in strengths

Jun 6, 08 7:58 AM CDT
(Newser) - Abraham Lincoln had his dark days. For a while, Lincoln was mercury-pill-popping, sleep-deprived wreck who briefly considered suicide. “Lincoln went Crazy,” wrote friend Joshua Speed. “It was horrible.” Lincoln, of course, grew out of it, facing his flaws in a way today’s leaders ought to... More »

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politics • history • Abraham Lincoln • sin

OPINION

Shoot at the Facts,
Not at the Messenger

Noonan, finding book believable, urges shift in debate on McClellan's work

May 30, 08 5:21 PM CDT
(Newser) - Scott McClellan isn't someone Peggy Noonan found herself admiring, she writes in the Wall Street Journal, but she did end up “believing him" after finishing his memoir. He didn’t pen his story to make friends or salvage his image, but rather to set the record straight as he... More »

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history • Scott McClellan • Peggy Noonan • George W. Bush

10 Score Later, America Still Loves Lincoln

As bicentennial nears, an industry springs up around Honest Abe

May 19, 08 4:36 PM CDT
(Newser) - Honest Abe may be gone, but an industry of books, debates, and a Spielberg biopic are all alive and well. With Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial coming next year, all three White House hopefuls have invoked his name, and the US Mint is issuing pennies to honor states where he lived. "... More »

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Steven Spielberg • America • publishing • history • Abraham Lincoln • history of democracy

Collosal Squid Has World's Biggest Eyes

They're the size of dinner plates, 'largest ever recorded'

Apr 30, 08 7:27 PM CDT
(Newser) - With eyes bigger than dinner plates and orange-sized lenses, a colossal squid being dissected by New Zealand scientists boasts the biggest peepers of any animal—and larger relatives could lurk in the deep, the Telegraph reports. It's "certainly not the largest specimen out there," said one marine biologist,... More »

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science • giant squid • history • marine biology

New China Museum Fuels Tibetan Anger

Beijing gallery pushes official version of Chinese history

Apr 17, 08 11:59 AM CDT
(Newser) - China is accelerating construction of a number of museums ahead of August's Olympics, but one is sure to cause serious consternation: the first museum in Beijing devoted to Tibet. Antiquities and historical documents will be used to underline the claim that Tibet is an integral part of China, the New ... More »

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China • museum • history • Tibet • Dalai Lama • Tibetan independence • Woeser

Behold
the Mighty
Medicine Ball

Weighty exercise aid goes back a lot longer than you'd think

Apr 14, 08 12:22 PM CDT
(Newser) - The thunk of a medicine ball may evoke images of football players doing strength and resistance training, but its history reaches far beyond the advent of modern fitness regimens. ESPN the Magazine chronicles the medicine ball through the ages, from gladiators' workouts to Renaissance medical texts to the earliest days... More »

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athlete • history • Romans • fitness • Matt Ryan • military training • strength training • medicine ball

MUSEUM REVIEW

 This Just In: Newseum Opens 

Relocated institution's self-glorifying quality leaves reviewer cold

Apr 11, 08 4:43 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Newseum reopens today in its new, $450 million home off the National Mall, and reaction to the enterprise is mixed. Granting that the interactive, artifact-laden presentation of the history of news is a good mix of education and entertainment, Edward Rothstein of the New York Times also describes it... More »

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media • Washington DC • journalism • museums • National Mall • history • Newseum • Freedom Foundation

 Top 10 Historically Flawed Flicks 

10,000 BC, Gladiator, and 300 top Yahoo's list of historical misfires

Apr 1, 08 1:10 PM CDT
(Newser) - Most historical films forgo a few facts for dramatic flair, but these flicks leave truth to the cutting room floor. Yahoo lists the most inaccurate movies ever:
  1. 10,000 BC: Woolly mammoths weren't around to help build the pyramids.
  2. Gladiator: Emperor Commodus didn't kill his dad... chickenpox did.
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
film • list • history • Elizabeth: The Golden Age • movies • 10,000 BC • 2001: A Space Odyssey • Braveheart • The Patriot • Memoirs of a Geisha • Gladiator • 300 • The Last Samurai

'Tudors': Flashy Fiction Is Far From Fact

Historians balk at steamy soap, but fans aren't deterred

Mar 30, 08 7:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - In the battle of fact versus flair, it’s pretty obvious which side “The Tudors” comes down on. Showtime’s steamy period soap opera, which premiers its second season tonight, trades a chubby, tight-wearing Henry VIII for slim, sexy Jonathan Rhys Meyers. “It’s sloppy filmmaking,” one... More »

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Showtime • soap operas • history • sexy costumes • Jonathan Rhys Meyers • Anne Boleyn • Henry VIII • The Tudors • period drama

 WWII Ship Found After 66 Years 

Legendary HMAS Sydney sank in battle with German raider

Mar 17, 08 11:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - A legendary Australian war ship sunk in the Indian Ocean by a German raider during World War II has been found nearly intact after 66 years, the Australian PM confirmed today. The HMAS Sydney sank after a 30-minute battle with the Kormoran in Australia's greatest tragedy at sea. The wreckage... More »

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Australia • Germany • shipwreck • sailor • Indian Ocean • history • World War II • Kevin Rudd • sonar • discovery

Teachers Rip UK Iraq Lessons as 'Propaganda'

School proposal ignores casualties, 'rewrites history'

Mar 14, 08 8:57 AM CDT
(Newser) - On the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, a row has erupted in Britain over a controversial school lesson plan about the conflict drawn up by the country's defense ministry. The National Union of Teachers is up in arms over the proposal and is threatening a boycott over what... More »

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Iraq • propaganda • United Kingdom • school • history • school lessons • teacher

NEW RELEASE

Boleyn No History Lesson

Historical soap opera adds spice to the Tudor court

Feb 29, 08 11:02 AM CST
(Newser) - The Other Boleyn Girl is anything but a dry history lesson about the 16th century, critics say—don't take it too seriously, and you'll be all right. It "probably shouldn't be the way in which high-school kids learn about Henry VIII and his court, but it's a fun movie,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
England • movie review • history • Scarlett Johansson • Natalie Portman • 16th century • Anne Boleyn • Henry VIII • movies

Don't Know Much About History...

US teens have big holes in history, lit education: study

Feb 26, 08 7:00 PM CST
(Newser) - US teens know little history and less literature, says a study out today. Only 52% of 17-year-olds could name the theme of George Orwell's 1984, and 43% knew when the Civil War was fought. Students faired far better on topics that schools cover, however, such as Pearl Harbor and Martin... More »

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education • literature • history • student • Martin Luther King Jr. • Civil War • George Orwell • Pearl Harbor

Germans Find Hidden Nazi Gold

Gold pinpointed in cavern, stolen chamber of the czars could be nearby

Feb 20, 08 7:44 AM CST
(Newser) - Treasure hunters in Germany have announced they've found a secret stash of Nazi gold in an underground cavern and they believe it could be from the looted Amber Room of the Russian czars, Der Speigel reports. Instruments have detected what could be 2 tons of gold in the cavern near... More »

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Russia • Germany • Nazi • treasure • history • World War II • czar • gold • Amber Room • Luftwaffe • discovery

JFK Treasure Trove Revealed

Long-lost files, Ruby's and Oswald's personal effects appear in public

Feb 18, 08 3:35 PM CST
(Newser) - Numerous items related to the JFK assassination were revealed to the public today after having spent years forgotten in a Dallas courthouse safe, the Dallas Morning News reports. Brass knuckles and a holster belonging to Jack Ruby were in the safe, as was a lucrative contract signed by Ruby prosecutor... More »

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Dallas • John F. Kennedy • Lee Harvey Oswald • history • memorabilia • JFK assassination

Dallas DA Finds Stored
Docs on JFK Slaying

Materials include transcript that could fuel conspiracy theories

Feb 17, 08 5:35 PM CST
(Newser) - Dallas County officials have uncovered a batch of JFK assassination materials, including a transcript between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald that one expert laughed off as a likely fake. Other items include correspondence, records of the Ruby trial, and a gun holster, the Dallas Morning News reports. More »

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Dallas • John F. Kennedy • Lee Harvey Oswald • history • memorabilia • JFK assassination • Jack Ruby • Craig Watkins • conspiracy theory • Robert F. Kennedy

Arsenic Wasn't Napoleon's Waterloo: Study

Military diet, not murderous Brits, likely killed the little emperor

Feb 13, 08 7:24 AM CST
(Newser) - Rumors that Napoleon Bonaparte was poisoned with arsenic have persisted since he died in exile 187 years ago on the island of St. Helena. Italian scientists now say they've established that the French emperor's death had more to do with bad French army food than murderous British guards, the Daily ... More »

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cancer • France • history • Napoleon • Napolean Bonaparte • arsenic • St. Helena

Turks Find Hitler's 'Lost Fleet'

Three German U-boats located in Black Sea

Feb 4, 08 2:25 PM CST
(Newser) - Three World War II U-boats, known as "Hitler's lost fleet," have been discovered off the Turkish coast, the Telegraph reports. A Turkish team combined archival research with sailor interviews and sonar technology to find the wreckage, part of the six-boat fleet that dogged Russian ships in the Black... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Germany • Adolf Hitler • Black Sea • sailor • Nazi • history • World War II • submarine • Romania • U-boats • Hitler's lost fleet • sonar • discovery

Gandhi Family Scatters Ashes

60 years after assassination, pacifist gets traditional burial in sea

Jan 30, 08 6:49 PM CST
(Newser) - An urn of Mohandas Gandhi's ashes was poured into the Arabian Sea today by his great-granddaughter, the Guardian reports, finally giving the Indian pacifist a traditional Hindu burial 60 years after he was assassinated. Dozens of such urns had been distributed across India after Gandhi's death, allowing a connection with... More »

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India • history • anniversary • funeral • Mahatma Gandhi

A Man, Not a Soundbite

Historians fear King's life has been forgotten

Jan 21, 08 4:54 PM CST
(Newser) - In the decades since his death, Martin Luther King Jr. has been transformed from a flesh-and-blood figure into a one-dimensional icon. Historians fear memory has frozen King on the Washington Mall in 1963, reducing him to a soundbite and a “symbol that people use and manipulate for their own... More »

MORE ABOUT:
race relations • history • segregation • Martin Luther King Jr.

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