Secret HistoryS


Archaeology

Humans may have arrived in Australia 15K years earlier than previously thought


New Scientist
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
indigenous australians
© Howell Walker / National Geographic CreativeWhen was north Australia settled?
Humans may have arrived in Australia 15,000 years earlier than we thought. Artefacts found in the north of the country suggest that the region was occupied 65,000 years ago - which raises all sorts of questions about how the country's first inhabitants interacted with wildlife and what became of them.

Until recently, the oldest evidence of human occupation in Australia came from 50,000-year-old stone artefacts found in a rock shelter in the country's north.

Now Chris Clarkson at the University of Queensland and his colleagues have found artefacts dating back 65,000 years in a different rock shelter - this one in Kakadu National Park in the far north of the country. The artefacts include fireplace remains, stone axes, grinding stones, ground plant matter and ground ochre - a type of red pigment commonly found in ancient rock art in northern Australia. Clarkson's team calculated the age of the artefacts by dating charcoal and quartz grains buried in the same layer of sediment (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature22968).

Comment: Further reading: Aboriginal Australians descended from early migration of modern humans out of Africa

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Die

Truth vs Hollywood: Author claims Hitler let British troops escape Dunkirk 'to sue for peace treaty'

Nicole Stinson
The Express, UK
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 21:24 UTC
dunkirk
© historyvshollywood.comThe Germans dropped flyers over Dunkirk in real life (left), but they weren't quite as menacing looking as the one dropped in the movie (right).
Author Stephen Davis while researching the Second World War for his latest novel, I Spy The Wolf, claims he may have uncovered the reason why Hitler infamously and mysteriously stopped advancing his troops at Dunkirk - a decision some say was a crucial break for the Allied Forces.

On May 24, 1940, the German army appeared to be winning the war as Allied Forces were surrounded by land at Dunkirk.

But instead of continuing the invasion, Hitler ordered his army to halt for three days, a decision that has puzzled historians for over 70 years.

Those three days allowed British troops to evacuate across the English Channel to Dover, in Kent before planning their offensive.

Now Mr Davis, speaking exclusively to the Express.co.uk, reveals what may have been behind the Nazi dictator's decision to halt.

He said: "When German forces began to trap British troops at Dunkirk, Mussolini, the Italian Dictator, informed Hitler that he intended to declare war against France and Britain.
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Blackbox

Media mogul Robert Maxwell asked Thatcher govt for $20bn to save Soviet Union


RT
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 15:50 UTC
Robert Maxwell
© BBCMedia mogul, 'left' MP, and spy Robert Maxwell
A Labour MP and media mogul, the late Robert Maxwell, attempted to secure a $20 billion loan from the British government to prop up the collapsing USSR, documents show.

A letter released by prime minister of the day Margaret Thatcher's private secretary, Charles Powell, revealed that Maxwell claimed to be acting on behalf of Mikhail Gorbachev's closest advisers when he visited the 'Iron Lady' at 10 Downing Street in March 1990.

In that meeting, the owner of Daily Mirror allegedly asked Thatcher to provide a massive state loan to the Soviet government to ensure that perestroika reforms would continue.

Comment: It's not that he was an agent 'for' the USSR, as such; he was a 'deep stater' who understood the importance of keeping the status quo going. Without the USSR, the Empire had to invent a new 'communist threat' in the form of Islamic terrorism.

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Document

Declassified 70 years later: Files reveal Winston Churchill thwarted King Edward VIII's Nazi plot to retake British throne


RT
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 14:15 UTC
Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), left, and the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII)
© Keystone / Getty ImagesWinston Churchill (1874 - 1965), left, and the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII).
Britain's wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill desperately tried to suppress documents that showed that the Duke of Windsor was a Nazi sympathizer and Hitler's pick for the head of a puppet regime in Britain.

A cache of newly declassified files released by the National Archives at Kew show that Churchill tried to block the publication of papers on former King Edward VIII's pro-Nazi views and willingness to deal with Adolf Hitler to win back his throne.

The dossier was compiled by the Nazi intelligence agencies, documenting the activities of the Duke and his wife, Wallis Simpson, during World War II.

King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 as he sought to marry Simpson, an American divorcee, causing a constitutional crisis. He left Britain to tour Nazi Germany later that year.

Comment: Churchill was also deeply involved in the intrigue surrounding Britain's war against Germany in 1914:

Book review: Hidden History, the Secret Origins of the First World War

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Book

Ten things you may not know about Orwell's '1984'

Anna Mathews
Intellectual Takeout
Thu, 06 Jul 2017 12:28 UTC
scene from movie 1984
Some argue Orwell's dystopian vision has finally arrived.

George Orwell's novel 1984 was incredibly popular at the time it was published, and it remains incredibly popular to this day. With multiple stars citing the book as one of their favorites - including Stephen King, David Bowie, Mel Gibson, and Kit Harrington - 1984 has been growing in popularity in recent years. The book reappeared on best-seller lists in early 2017, as some argued Orwell's dystopian vision had finally arrived.

Below are 10 facts you might not know about Orwell's dark novel.
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Magnify

Great game of politics: Book review of Hidden History, The Secret Origins of the First World War

Antony C. Black
Global Research
Wed, 19 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
hidden history first world war
A must-read
Of the many myths that befog the modern political mind, none is so corrupting of the understanding or so incongruent with historical fact as the notion that the wealthy and the powerful do not conspire.

They do.

They conspire continually, habitually, effectively, diabolically and on a scale that beggars the imagination. To deny this conspiracy fact is to deny both overwhelming empirical evidence and elementary reason.

Nevertheless, for the astute observer of the 'Great Game' of politics, it is an unending source of wonderment to stumble across ever more astounding examples of the monstrous machinations of which wealthy and powerful elites are capable. Indeed, it is precisely here that authors Docherty and Macgregor enter the fray and threaten to take our breath away entirely.

Thus, the official, canonized history of the origins of the First World War, so they tell us, is one long, unmitigated lie from start to finish. Even more to the conspiratorial point is the authors' thesis that - and to paraphrase a later Churchill who figures prominently in this earlier story - never were so many murdered, so needlessly, for the ambitions and profit of so few.

In demolishing the many shibboleths surrounding the origins of the 'Great War' (including 'German responsibility', 'British peace efforts', 'Belgian neutrality' and the 'inevitability' of the war), Docherty and Macgregor point the finger at what they argue is the real source of the conflict: a more or less secret cabal of British imperialists whose entire political existence for a decade and a half was dedicated to the fashioning of a European war in aid of destroying the British Empire's newly emerging commercial, industrial and military competitor, Germany.

Comment: This summary video by one of the co-authors of the book explains how it was ensured that the German army was provided with foodstuffs through the C.R.B. from late 1914 onwards, thus prolonging the war by at least two years.


See also: Book review: Hidden History, the Secret Origins of the First World War

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Roses

Melting Swiss glacier reveals bodies of couple who disappeared 75 years ago

Matthew Diebel
USA Today
Tue, 18 Jul 2017 12:24 UTC
Remains of Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin
© Getty Images
The bodies of a Swiss couple who disappeared 75 years ago in the Alps have been found at the edge of a melting glacier, local media reported.

Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin, the parents of seven children, went to milk their cows in a meadow in the Valais canton on Aug. 15, 1942, then vanished without a trace.

"We spent our whole lives looking for them, without stopping. We thought that we could give them the funeral they deserved one day," their youngest daughter, Marceline Udry-Dumoulin, 79, told Le Matin, a newspaper in Lausanne.

"For the funeral, I won't wear black," she added. "I think that white would be more appropriate. It represents hope, which I never lost."
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Red Flag

Unsuspecting residents of San Francisco were part of one of the largest human experiments in history

Kevin Loria
Business Insider
Tue, 04 Aug 2015 14:54 UTC
San Fran fog
© cognitive libertyThe north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge is seen surrounded by fog
San Francisco's fog is famous, especially in the summer, when weather conditions combine to create the characteristic cooling blanket that sits over the Bay Area.

This was just the start of many such tests around the country that would go on in secret for years. But one fact many may not know about San Francisco's fog is that in 1950, the US military conducted a test to see whether it could be used to help spread a biological weapon in a "simulated germ-warfare attack." This was just the start of many such tests around the country that would go on in secret for years.

Comment: Read more about the "simulated germ-warfare attacks" in Kevin Loria's article: Clouds of secrecy: Over and over again, the military has conducted dangerous biowarfare experiments on Americans, without their knowledge

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Archaeology

Perfectly preserved mummies cocooned in copper, fabric and birch bark unearthed in Russia's far north


RT
Tue, 18 Jul 2017 15:54 UTC
Copper-covered mummies unearthed in Russia’s Far North
© Alexander Gusev
A perfectly-preserved mummy of an adult bound in copper plates from head to toe has been dug up in Russia's Far North, alongside the mummy of a "tiny" baby. The discoveries could shed unique light on medieval burial and medical practices.

The remains were found near Zeleny Yar archeological site in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, which was discovered in 1997, and has since been the source of dozens of rare finds.

"This year's field season has been highly successful. We've opened 10 graves, five of which were never looted in ancient times. For a memorial like Zeleny Yar this is unusual,"said Aleksandr Gusev, a researcher from the Scientific Center for the Study of the Arctic (SCSA), who led the expedition.
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Info

Declassified Russian documents reveal Polish gratitude for WWII liberation


RT
Tue, 18 Jul 2017 14:07 UTC
Poland Red Army Nazi Russia Soviet Union Memorial
© Alexey Vitvitsky / SputnikMemorial to Red Army soldiers re-unveiled in Poland
The Russian Defense Ministry has declassified documents on the war in Poland in 1944-45, which describe Nazi atrocities and the positive attitude of the Polish people toward their liberators.
"The historical documents declassified in July 2017 have never been published in open sources and were only available to a limited circle of specialists," read a statement by the Defense Ministry's press service.
It also noted that all documents, such as field reports, certificates and telegrams show that the Poles' attitude toward Soviet military servicemen was good. For example, a telegram from the Polish Patriots' Union states that Polish citizens fighting on the Soviet side - in the so-called Armia Ludowa, or People's Army - "have created a bridge that unites two brotherly nations."

Comment: Further reading: 'Never again': Western amnesia on WWII as NATO replicates Nazi Germany

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