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The Dark Past of Valentine's Day

Roman festival involved voluntary beatings for fertility

(Newser) - Valentine's Day may seem awash in saccharine, wine, and roses, but its origins are darker than its modern-day Hallmark reality—they lie partially in the pagan Roman celebration of Lupercalia, a fertility festival wherein bachelors sacrificed a goat and dog, ripped the skin off, and whipped women with them. Women...

Russia Ignores Tolstoy Centennial
Russia Ignores
Tolstoy Centennial
Jan 8, 2011 12:14 PM CST

Russia Ignores Tolstoy Centennial

Literary giant saddled with controversy 100 years on

(Newser) - On the 100th anniversary of his death, one of the world’s most celebrated authors hardly got a nod from his home country. Leo Tolstoy died Nov. 20, 1910, having been excommunicated a decade earlier by the Russian Orthodox Church. For decades, the Soviets saluted him (ignoring his Pacifism and...

Virginia's History Texts Riddled With Errors

Historians discover loads of mistakes in Five Ponds books

(Newser) - Did you know that colonial Virginians commonly wore full suits of armor? Or that New Orleans started off the 1800s as a US harbor (rather than a Spanish one)? These are just a few of the dozens of errors historians have found in Virginia’s textbooks. Virginia ordered a review...

Columbus Was Polish King's Son: Historian

We've had it wrong 500 years, says researcher

(Newser) - Christopher Columbus’ origins have long been shrouded in mystery—was he Italian? Spanish? Greek? None of the above: In fact, his father was a Polish king, argues Columbus expert Manuel Rosa in a new book. Rosa holds that the adventurer's father was Vladislav III, who was not killed in 1444...

Textbook Says Thousands of Slaves Fought for South

Author Joy Masoff read about it on the Internet

(Newser) - A Virginia 4th-grade textbook has come under fire for claiming that thousands of slaves fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War—something an overwhelming majority of historians say isn’t true. The book’s author, Joy Masoff, isn’t a trained historian, and says she did most of her...

1 in 5 Kids Thinks Buzz Lightyear Was First Man on Moon
Buzz Lightyear Was 1st Man on Moon: 20% of Brit Kids
more staggering studies
Oct 8, 2010 4:28 AM CDT

Buzz Lightyear Was 1st Man on Moon: 20% of Brit Kids

Survey finds kids in UK know more about celebrities than history

(Newser) - Another day, another staggering study on British knowledge, this one focused on the wee ones. A fifth of children ages 6 to 12 believe the first person to walk on the moon was actually Toy Story spaceman Buzz Lightyear, not Neil Armstrong, according to a survey of thousands of schoolchildren....

Treasure Hunters Flock to Sleepy French Town

But Rennes-le-Chateau locals think they're 'pitiable'

(Newser) - No treasure has ever been found in Rennes-le-Chateau. But Remy Martinez is convinced it’s there. He believes, he tells the LA Times , that Visigoths hid vast wealth under the tiny French town, in an underground labyrinth that also contains an ancient Jewish temple and the body of Jesus Christ...

Americans Flunk History
 Americans Flunk History 
happy independence day
Jul 2, 2010 2:36 PM CDT

Americans Flunk History

One-quarter of Americans don't know who got the short end of Revolution

(Newser) - On July 4th, Americans from all walks of life will gather to celebrate their independence from … someone or other. According to a new poll, more than 1 in 4 Americans can’t name England as the country the colonists fought in the Revolutionary War, CNN reports. That figure includes...

Texas OKs More Conservative HS Curriculum

Social studies, history guidelines influence teaching of millions

(Newser) - The Texas State Board of Education adopted new social studies and history guidelines today after an ideological debate over academic standards that drew intense scrutiny. The board gave the curriculum a more conservative bent by dictating how political events and figures will be taught to some 4.8 million primary...

English Patient Skirt-Chaser Was Actually Gay

New letter reveals truth about Count Laszlo

(Newser) - Count Laszlo de Almásy, the Hungarian adventurer depicted as a carousing ladies' man in The English Patient, was gay, according to love letters recently discovered in Germany. The letters show that Almásy had relationships with everyone from a Wehrmacht officer to Egyptian princes, according to the Heinrich Barth...

German Chapel Becomes Neo-Nazi Shrine

Church built with stones quarried by Jewish slaves

(Newser) - A German chapel built using ruins from Hitler's luxury retreat has become a hit with neo-Nazis. The Bavarian government only recently acknowledged that marble blocks and stones quarried by Jewish slaves in Hitler's Berghof in Berchtesgaden were used to build Wegmacher Chapel in 1997. Now leather-jacketed "pilgrims" with shaved...

Would You Support a Gay Baseball Commissioner?

Poll asks Americans revealing questions

(Newser) - Would you be OK with a gay baseball commissioner? How about a quarterback? Those are just a couple of the random-yet-revealing questions asked in the new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll. In that question, for example, 62% said they’d be OK with the quarterback, and 61% with the baseball commissioner,...

CNN Duped by 140-Year-Old Hot Dog

Relic stunt was in tradition of 'Coney Island ballyhoo,' historians say

(Newser) - CNN happily ran a story recently on a 140-year-old hot dog and bun discovered intact, encased in ice, during demolition of the restaurant where the first hot dog was supposedly made. But the news network apparently forgetting that not everything is as it seems on Coney Island. The “1st...

California May Claim Moon as 'Historical Resource'

Space fans want to protect landing site

(Newser) - California wants to protect the junk the Apollo 11 astronauts left behind from careless future visitors to the moon. If a state panel approves a proposal to declare the landing site an official historical resource, California would become the first state to protect the location. New Mexico and Texas are...

Porn Confluence Moves Mag to Change Name

Spam filters often blocked The Beaver ; it'll be Canada's History

(Newser) - Canada’s second-oldest magazine is changing its name after finding itself at an unfortunate intersection with Internet pornography. Like many print publications, history publication The Beaver is struggling to add readers, and its name often leads spam filters and other safeguards to block its content. It will relaunch in April...

Army Historians Fault Early Afghan War Strategy

Forces were undermanned, and planning was shoddy

(Newser) - The US missed out on chances to stabilize Afghanistan early in the war because it devoted too few troops and too little planning to the conflict, write Army historians in an official chronicle of the conflict. "It should have become clear” in late 2003 “that the coalition presence...

The Last Decade in 7 Merciful Minutes


 The Last 
 Decade in 
 7 Merciful 
 Minutes 
IF ONLY DEPT.
Nov 25, 2009 10:41 AM CST

The Last Decade in 7 Merciful Minutes

Some great unpleasantness goes by with pleasant quickness

(Newser) - Oh, the aughts had their moments, what with disputed elections, terrorist attacks, invasions, and Rickrolling. If you, like most, can't remember anything else that happened, the Frisky has a treat for you: Newsweek's condensed version of the past decade in 7 short minutes. Spoiler alert: Barack Obama becomes the first...

'Tear Down This Wall' Not So Confrontational

Reagan 'defeated' Soviets with diplomacy, not bravado

(Newser) - Prepare to see a lot of clips in the coming days of Ronald Reagan declaring, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall’s fall is days away, and in our collective memory, Reagan brought it down with sheer bravado. But that’s...

Archeologists Find Mini-Stonehenge

'Bluehenge' is a mile away, but all the rocks are gone

(Newser) - Archeologists have found what amounts to Stonehenge-lite located about a mile from the larger monument. This one—dubbed Bluehenge—probably won't be as much of a tourist draw for one important reason: all the rocks are gone. But based on holes in the earth, scientists say 27 enormous rocks once...

Pair's Remains May Date to Trojan War

Find in ancient Troy could date to 1200 BC

(Newser) - In a discovery one professor calls “electrifying,” archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a couple believed to have lived during the Trojan War era in Turkey’s ancient city of Troy, Reuters reports. “If the remains are confirmed to be from 1200 BC it would coincide with...

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