Weekly Update

We send out an e-mail update on a weekly basis to everyone who has signed up to receive them. From here on out, we’re also posting them in our blog. Please let us know what you think by posting your comments below. Thanks!

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Perhaps the most interesting thing this week is that an HC contributor found a document in the National Archives showing that, two days before 9/11, the military practiced responding to a simulated hijacking by suicide terrorists targeting New York. The document also mentioned a number of other previously-unknown hijacking-response exercises, and has been written up at the contributors’ blog.
Read more.

There are also several additional entries in the 9/11 Timeline, about the 9/11 Commission and the day of the attacks.
Read more.

The Domestic Propaganda Timeline focuses on the back-and-forth of Sonia Sotomayer’s nomination to the US Supreme Court, and Karl Rove instructs readers that the word “empathy” is actually code for “liberal activism.”
Read more.

The Economic Crisis Timeline marks the 30th bank failure in the US this year, which was Silverton Bank in Atlanta.
Read more.

Lastly, a contributor to the A. Q. Khan Timeline highlights possible Saudi funding for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program.
Read more.

Thank you for being part of the History Commons!

Grant Recipients Rockin the Commons

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Three of our recipients are busily adding entries, kicking butt, and, no doubt, gnashing their teeth while they learn the system. Excellent. The other four are preparing to jump in; expect lots of new entries by new contributors over the next few days and weeks.

Maybe this is a bit juvenile, but I know I was secretly thrilled at the first entry I had posted. Why not do a little justified backslapping?

Veteran readers, if you’ve ever had an itch to become a History Commons contributor, now’s a great time to do it. There are seven new contributors all learning the ropes together, and hopefully helping one another in the process. You can be part of this “next wave” of Commons contributors, taking the site into the new millennium. Join this band of information activists today.

Mini-Grant Recipients: Part III

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m posting the new grant recipients’ intros as I get them e-mailed to me. Batting fourth and posting under the moniker “River Ledger,” I’ll let him speak for himself from here on out.

Meet the Grant Recipients, Part II

Today we have the next of our recipients to take a bow. I’ll reprint what she sent me for posting:

Yvonne Shine (HC username 99 Percent Pure) is a freelance researcher/writer living in Los Angeles. Yvonne will be documenting the Events Leading Up to and Contributing to the Current Financial Crisis. Yvonne’s first timeline post, Royal Bank of Scotland Warns of Global Stock and Credit Crash can be viewed under the 2008 Credit Crisis timeline.

We’re glad that Yvonne chose to share her talents for investigation and writing with us. Keep an eye on the Credit Crisis timeline for more of her work.