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Historical facts say that Islam has been imperialistic—and would still like to be, if only for religious reasons. Many Muslim clerics, scholars, and activists, for example, would like to impose Islamic law around the world. Historical facts say that Islam, including Muhammad, launched their own Crusades against Christianity long before the European Crusades. Today, Muslim polemicists and missionaries, who believe that Islam is the best religion in the world, claim that the West has stolen Islamic lands and that the West (alone) is imperialistic.One hardline Muslim emailer to me said about the developed West and the undeveloped Islamic countries: 'You...

On a typically misty morning in the west of Ireland, just outside the medieval town of Athenry, County Galway, archaeologist Declan Moore... is taking me to visit an unexcavated fulacht fiadh (pronounced FULL-ahk FEE-add), or fulachtaí fia in plural, the most common type of prehistoric archaeological site in Ireland. Better known as a "burnt mound" in the neighboring United Kingdom, where they are also found, there are nearly 6,000 recorded fulacht fiadh sites dotted around Ireland alone... When we arrive at the site, Moore shows me the basic features of a fulacht fiadh -- a horseshoe-shaped mound of soil and...

An archaeological bid to discover more about the hilltop where Ulster chieftains were crowned 700 years ago has uncovered artefacts dating back more than 7,000 years. Tullaghoge Fort in rural Co Tyrone was the place leaders of the dominant O'Neill clan came to be crowned from around the 14th Century to just before the arrival of the planters at the start of the 17th Century. Targeted excavation work around the picturesque tree encircled earthen mound ahead of the planned development of new visitor facilities hoped to find and preserve buried artefacts from that period -- but it ended up unearthing...

Neanderthal communities divided some of their tasks according to their sex. This is one of the main conclusions reached by a study performed by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)... which analyzed 99 incisors and canine teeth of 19 individuals from three different sites (El Sidron, in Asturias - Spain, L'Hortus in France, and Spy in Belgium), reveals that the dental grooves present in the female fossils follow the same pattern, which is different to that found in male individuals. Analyses show that all Neanderthal individuals, regardless of age, had dental grooves. According to Antonio Rosas, CSIC researcher at the...

Archaeologists investigating the Tuscan island of Elba have identified the remains of the villa belonging to the real-life individual that inspired one of the principal characters in the epic tale of Ben-Hur. Overlooking Portoferraio's bay, the once magnificent 1st-century B.C. villa has long been believed to have been owned by Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, portrayed as Ben-Hur in the Hollywood blockbuster starring Charlton Heston. Now in ruins, the property was known as Villa Le Grotte (the Caves) because of the shape of its vaulted facades facing the sea. While Ben-Hur was a fictional villain dreamed up in Lew Wallace's 1880...

It's strange that many people don't consider television shows, films, and video games to be "art" because of their violent and provocative content. But, have you ever looked at some of the most famous classical paintings? Some of the most famous paintings of the old world are downright vulgar. Nudity and disturbing images of violence such as deities eating babies whole, women having sex with animals, and even beheadings plaster the walls of art museums everywhere. Not only that, but these paintings are nearly priceless. People view them sipping on wine and possibly even adjusting their monocles. When you really...

ISIS is using a lot of strategies that they must have learned from Nathan Bedford Forrest. Upon reading history, the main tactics employed by Forrest were raw determination, speed, and deceit. ISIS does not have nearly the manpower the media here (which obviously delights in the killing) portrays. They don't have anything they claim to have. It's all a lie. Were we to have proper leadership (A general Sherman, for example) who could be turned loose on ISIS, it would all be over in a matter of weeks. As someone famously said, "You to have to kill enough of the...

The Air Force is working to get a B-52 bomber back into service after it sat collecting dust for seven years at the famous Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. On Feb. 13, the B-52H—with the serial number 61–0007—left the desert for its new home with the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. This is the first time the Air Force has “regenerated” one of these bombers from the Boneyard back to active duty.

Clayton Chipman saw the first flag raising. So did Harvey Kurz. Both were relieved and happy to see Marines had finally scaled Mount Suribachi four days after the Feb. 19, 1945, invasion of the hardscrabble, desolate island in the Pacific Ocean. Each looked at the American flag flapping in the wind and then returned to the business at hand — staying alive.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – It's been more than three decades since his landmark goal became the centerpiece of the U.S. Olympic hockey team's Miracle on Ice. For 60-year-old Mike Eruzione, it still seems like only yesterday. Eruzione says he's doing something every week that's associated with 1980, the year he scored a game-winning goal against the Soviet Union in the medal round at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. It was a bunch of college kids matched up against one of the best teams in hockey history. The United States triumphed with an improbable comeback 35 years ago.

Victor Arden and Phil Ohman and their Orchestra.

Oklahoma lawmaker seeks to do away with AP history courses, says they emphasize ‘what is bad about America’ Lawmakers argue that AP courses are similar to Common Core and that they violate legislation since Common Core was repealed last year.

Famous "Night-Stick in Cumerbund Shot" Mr. Rizzo was one of those seemingly larger-than-life figures, destined to be hero to some and villain to others. One view was that the former Police Commissioner and two-term Mayor was the last bastion against threats to middle-class residents of the city's row-house neighborhoods. The other view was that Mr. Rizzo was a barely educated former police officer who used a hard line on crime and tactics bordering on the dictatorial to suppress opposition and keep blacks out of middle-class neighborhoods. 'Tough Cop' Image That he was a "tough cop" -- an appellation that particularly...

The remains of a long-ago victim of the Graveyard of the Atlantic have been discovered on the beach off Corolla after this week’s rough surf. A pair of photos taken Thursday night show the remains of the wreck near Whalehead.

"We are looking at Eastern North America," said Milner. "Nowhere else in the world has similar archaeological data been compiled for such a large area." ... He notes that the popular view of warfare in small-scale societies in North America usually falls either at the extremes of excessively warlike or eternally peaceful. However, the reality, as seen in archaeological evidence, is the levels of warfare varied both through time and space... The researchers also looked at skeletal indications of conflict including embedded arrowheads, evidence of damage by stone axes or mutilation including scalping. Over an area that includes the East...

As maces crash into shields and battle axes cut into armor, knights are left wounded and bloodied on the battlefield. But while this scene appears reminiscent of a Medieval clash, these fights are happening in the U.S. with the launch of a new extreme sport in the form of a medieval fight club. The Armored Combat League of America (ACL) sees knights from different states face each other in battle, armed with maces and swords. The Armored Combat League of America has launched its own Medieval fight club, where people dress as knights in full armor and equip themselves with...

New York hits record 12-day stretch without murder amid cold snap in city Streak started on February 1 and ended on Friday, February 13 Temperatures were slightly below average Studies show crime ebbs during cold weather New York City's longest stretch without a murder in 20 years this month corresponded with unseasonably chilly weather outside. For 12 days - starting February 1 - not a single homicide was committed in America's biggest city. It was the longest streak without deadly violence since the New York Police Department began keeping records in 1994. The previous record, 10 days, was set last...

Commdr. Stephen Decatur, USN From Today in U.S. Military History: 16 February 1804 – Tripoli – Barbary Coast During the First Barbary War, U.S. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur leads a military mission that famed British Admiral Horatio Nelson calls the “most daring act of the age.” In June 1801, President Thomas Jefferson ordered U.S. Navy vessels to the Mediterranean Sea in protest of continuing raids against U.S. ships by pirates from the Barbary states–Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripolitania. American sailors were often abducted along with the captured booty and ransomed back to the United States at an exorbitant price. After...