The Blitz begins. (2011). The History Channel website. Retrieved 7:49, September 7, 2011, from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-blitz-begins. On this day in 1940, 300 German bombers raid London, in the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing. This bombing “blitzkrieg” (lightning war) would continue until May 1941. After the successful occupation of France, it was only a matter of time before the Germans turned their sights across the Channel to England. Hitler wanted a submissive, neutralized Britain so that he could concentrate on his plans for the East, namely the land invasion of the Soviet Union, without interference. Since June, English vessels in the Channel had been attacked and aerial battles had been fought over…

A version of this article appeared in print on August 5, 2011, on page C27 of the New York edition with the headline: Saving Scrapbooks From the Scrapheap. August 4, 2011  By EVE M. KAHN Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site Eleanor Roosevelt in 1928 with Frank Landolfa, a craftsman at Val-Kill Industries, the subject of a show in Woodstock, N.Y. Woody Guthrie saved paperwork documenting his peripatetic life, from utility bills for New York apartments to fliers protesting shanty demolitions in Seattle and lyrics for folk songs performed at a Los Angeles radio station. He and his family put some of the artifacts in scrapbooks, but that did not fend…