history – News Stories About history - Page 11

Apr 17, 2008 11:59 AM CDT

New China Museum Fuels Tibetan Anger

Beijing gallery pushes official version of Chinese history

(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 Antiquities and historical documents will be used to underline the claim that Tibet is an integral part of China, the New ...

Behold
the Mighty
Medicine Ball

Apr 14, 2008 12:22 PM CDT

Behold the Mighty Medicine Ball

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

(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...

This Just In: Newseum Opens

MUSEUM REVIEW

Apr 11, 2008 4:43 PM CDT

This Just In: Newseum Opens

Relocated institution's self-glorifying quality leaves reviewer cold

(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...

Top 10 Historically Flawed Flicks

Apr 1, 2008 1:10 PM CDT

Top 10 Historically Flawed Flicks

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

(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:

10,000 BC: Woolly mammoths weren't around to help build the pyramids.
Gladiator: Emperor Commodus didn't kill his dad... chickenpox did.
300: Spartan

...

'Tudors': Flashy Fiction Is Far From Fact

Mar 30, 2008 7:00 PM CDT

'Tudors': Flashy Fiction Is Far From Fact

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

(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...

WWII Ship Found After 66 Years

Mar 17, 2008 11:53 AM CDT

WWII Ship Found After 66 Years

Legendary HMAS Sydney sank in battle with German raider

(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...

Teachers Rip UK Iraq Lessons as 'Propaganda'

Mar 14, 2008 8:57 AM CDT

Teachers Rip UK Iraq Lessons as 'Propaganda'

School proposal ignores casualties, 'rewrites history'

(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...

Boleyn No History Lesson

NEW RELEASE

Feb 29, 2008 11:02 AM CST

Boleyn No History Lesson

Historical soap opera adds spice to the Tudor court

(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,...

Don't Know Much About History...

Feb 26, 2008 7:00 PM CST

Don't Know Much About History...

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

(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...

Germans Find Hidden Nazi Gold

Feb 20, 2008 7:44 AM CST

Germans Find Hidden Nazi Gold

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

(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...

JFK Treasure Trove Revealed

Feb 18, 2008 3:35 PM CST

JFK Treasure Trove Revealed

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

(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...

Dallas DA Finds Stored
Docs on JFK Slaying

Feb 17, 2008 5:35 PM CST

Dallas DA Finds Stored Docs on JFK Slaying

Materials include transcript that could fuel conspiracy theories

(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.

Arsenic Wasn't Napoleon's Waterloo: Study

Feb 13, 2008 7:24 AM CST

Arsenic Wasn't Napoleon's Waterloo: Study

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

(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 ...

Turks Find Hitler's 'Lost Fleet'

Feb 4, 2008 2:25 PM CST

Turks Find Hitler's 'Lost Fleet'

Three German U-boats located in Black Sea

(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...

Gandhi Family Scatters Ashes

Jan 30, 2008 6:49 PM CST

Gandhi Family Scatters Ashes

60 years after assassination, pacifist gets traditional burial in sea

(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...

A Man, Not a Soundbite

Jan 21, 2008 4:54 PM CST

A Man, Not a Soundbite

Historians fear King's life has been forgotten

(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...

Curtain Rising on
Anne Frank, the Musical

Jan 7, 2008 10:25 AM CST

Curtain Rising on Anne Frank, the Musical

Creator compares teen's life to tragic opera

(Newser) - A first-of-its-kind musical adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank will take the stage in Madrid next month, the Guardian reports. The Spanish-language play gained the approval of the Anne Frank Foundation, which closely guards the rights to the story of the doomed Jewish teenager; a spokesman says the work...

'08's Ball Brightest in 100 Years

Dec 31, 2007 2:41 PM CST

'08's Ball Brightest in 100 Years

Times Square orb hits centennial

(Newser) - The ball you watch drop in Times Square at midnight will be twice as bright as any of its predecessors, the New York Times reports, to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The first ball rang in 1908 with 216 light bulbs stuck to its 5-foot iron frame. Tonight, 1,200 pounds...

Gulags in America?
Hoover Tried

Dec 22, 2007 5:56 PM CST

Gulags in America? Hoover Tried

He sought approval to jail 12,000 'disloyal' citizens without trial

(Newser) - J. Edgar Hoover wanted to round up 12,000 Americans he deemed disloyal in 1950, suspend habeus corpus, and lock them up in military and federal prisons, the New York Times reports. In a newly declassified letter, the FBI chief urges President Truman to approve the plan and tell the...

WWII Plane Found Under Beach

Nov 15, 2007 8:05 AM CST

WWII Plane Found Under Beach

65 years after crash, plane uncovered on Welsh coast

(Newser) - Sixty-five years after its crash landing, a World War II fighter plane has emerged from under the sand on the Welsh coast. The American P-38 "Lightning" fighter, which made an emergency "belly landing" in shallow water after it ran out of fuel, was buried in the sand, with...