Today in History - Oct. 14 Oct 6, 2009
In 1066, Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings. In 1890, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas. (OregonLive, OR -- News)
UK mammals have 'Celtic fringe' Oct 1, 2009
"And so one could suggest that the human Celtic Fringe was set up by exactly the same sort of events that set up the animal Celtic Fringe. He suggests that the Celtic Fringe has since been reinforced culturally by different sets of people occupying the fringe areas and also what is now England, for instance the Romans, Anglo Saxons and Normans. "This fits well with studies that others are doing on human genetic patterns and with the growing idea that the Celtic genetic type has been there a very... (BBC News -- Science)
The road to insurrection Sep 14, 2009
The English Rebel: One Thousand Years of Trouble-Making from the Normans to the Nineties. By David Horspool. (The Economist)
A lesson in imperial paranoia Jul 29, 2009
They construed the Pashtun tribesmen who inhabited Waziristan as the new Normans, a dire menace to London that threatened to overturn the British Empire. The young Winston S Churchill even wrote a book in 1898, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, about a late-19th-century British campaign in Pashtun territory, based on his earlier journalism there. (Asia Times Online)
D-Day+ 65 years: Obama set to make Normandy landing Jun 6, 2009
Other taboos being broken include the bad behavior of Allied soldiers toward local Normans, and the killing of POWs. "Germans did kill war prisoners, but for years, no one ever talked about the German POWs killed by Allies," Thiebot says. (Christian Science Monitor)
Sicily at the Mediterranean crossroads May 1, 2009
Other can t-miss glories of the Palermo area from the time of the Normans are the fortress-looking churches that hide eerily realistic golden mosaics: The Monreale Duomo, perched high on a barren, prickly-pear studded mountain; the Martorana church in Palermo, across from the mosque-looking, red-domed church of San Cataldo; and the Cathedral at Cefalu, standing sentinel over the medieval fishing village. ANTIQUITY ALIVE: Ancient Greek colonizers snapped up the best vistas in Sicily. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Travel)
Albanian jewel Apr 4, 2009
Butrint's later history was turbulent, amid power struggles between Byzantium and its Western enemies - Normans led by Robert Guiscard, Angevin French under their dour King Charles of Anjou, scheming Venetian politicians and the banner of Islam borne by the victorious Ottoman Empire. Since 1912 it has been part of independent Albania. (BBC News -- Europe)
Pastiimes - Whitng's towering effort Feb 19, 2009
In Eastern England have lived Saxons, Danes and Normans all of pushing, enterprising stock and certainly we find those characteristics in our ancestors in New England. One feels at home in the region of Old Boston. (Marshfield Mariner, MA)
Y Chromosome And Surname Study Challenges Infidelity 'Myth' Feb 12, 2009
Hereditary surnames were introduced to Britain by the Normans at the time of the conquest. The practice of using hereditary surnames filtered down from Norman noble families to all classes of society so that by the fourteenth century people in many classes had surnames and by the sixteenth century it was rare not to have one. (Science Daily)
Study debunks illegitimacy 'myth' Feb 12, 2009
Hereditary surnames were introduced to Britain by the Normans at the time of the conquest. The Y chromosome is a package of genetic material that, like a surname, is inherited from father to son more or less unchanged. (BBC News)
