Realizing just how much the world changes in a period of fifteen years, the world of 1957 was considerably different than the world of 1942 on this day. In 1942 Russia was an ally against Germany and the Axis plague eager to dominate Europe. In 1957 a divided Germany was now our ally against the "evil empire" of Russia and the Soviet Union.

So in 1957, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer visited Washington in an effort of seek continued support from the Eisenhower administration and to bolster Adenauer's position with the West during the upcoming elections in West Germany. Facing a bitter election fight at home, Adenauer was keen on receiving assurances from Washington that support, economically as well as militarily would continue and increase. And also some sign, however small, that the possibility of reunification of the two Germany's would become a possibility.

Commenting on the meeting as well as an observation over the upcoming British Elections was Cedric Foster, a regular newscaster/commentator for the Mutual Broadcasting System on May 31st, 1957.

News on May 31, 1942 may not have seemed like it at the time, but it marked a decided change in how the war would be waged from the air.

News reports on this day told of the first massive RAF bomber raid on the German city of Cologne the night before. Some 1,000 planes, the most of any air raid, and the first of what would become a new policy of mass bombing of cities throughout Germany, left the city almost totally destroyed. Fires could be seen some 150 miles away. RAF losses were reported at 44, which was a surprisingly small number in lieu of the damage inflicted on Germany.

In other news - From Moscow came reports the Germans had claimed to retake the industrial city Kharkov and that the much anticipated Spring Offensive was underway.

Fighting around Libya was continuing with German Field Marshall Rommel aiming to take Tobruk and staging an attempt to cut off British supply lines at the Suez Canal.

From Belfast came reports that U.S. troops, isolated from news of the war were starting to pass rumors, allegedly supplied by "Lord Haw-Haw", that the war was going badly for the allies and that the need arose for some method of supplying the American troops with useful information on news of the war, rather than propaganda.

From Washington came word that the former War Production Chief during World War One, Bernard Baruch, had been tapped to repeat his performance in this war. News also came of Chinese reports that the Pearl Harbor attack was originally intended to be one of two major attacks on U.S. targets. The other being The Panama Canal. But the Japanese aircraft carrier reportedly heading to the area was sunk somewhere in the Eastern Pacific, and the raid was thwarted.

News also came of an Allied Oil Tanker was sunk in Tampico Harbor in Mexico, under suspicious circumstances. Since Mexico had declared War on the Axis a day earlier, it was widely believed this was the work of sabotage.

And that's what was going on this May 31st in 1942, as broadcast by The NBC World News Roundup.

Kind of a mess on this particular May 31st in 1978. The world was distracted with finances and violence. On the domestic front it was disclosed that Consumer Prices had hit an all-time high for everything from beef to lettuce. Inflation was skyrocketing and homeowners were taking the worst of the drubbing. Internationally, the NATO summit concluded with stinging denunciations of Communist involvement in Africa, the Soviets and Cubans being singled out. In return, Soviet Premier Brezhnev condemned the action by taking to the airwaves and offering a long and lengthy dirty laundry list of Imperialist contretemps as rebuttal. Meanwhile, the Civil War in the former Belgian Congo, now renamed Zaire (and since re-renamed Congo) got the ire of the French and Belgians who sent in troops to quash the uprising, but not without wholesale massacres of Europeans still living there. On this day Morocco sent in its first contingent of troops to act as peacekeepers while French and Belgian forces withdrew. The UN decided to extend its peacekeeping mission in the Golan Heights, since it was deemed a success. Egyptian President Sadat pledged to keep Middle East peace negotiations alive, despite qualms and rejections from the Israelis.

On Capitol Hill a proposal was put forth by Congress to offer Tuition Tax Credits to students and Senator William Proxmire concluded the all-volunteer Army wasn't going to be a success if it didn't encourage recruitment and training of more females.

For scandals, it was Italy's turn and specifically the Italian Opera Houses, as a financial scandal triggered the arrests of over 29 people, mostly prominent figures from such institutions as the La Scala, Turin and Naples Operas. And the age-old Sicilian tradition of knee-capping finally went international with the first such case reported from the streets of Berlin.

What a day, as reported on The CBS World News Roundup for May 31, 1978.

(Rashomon - how many ways to interpret an event? Can we count them?)

With the events in the Middle East of the last 24 hours, and reading the comments posted about it, it seems there are as many ways to interpret an event as incidents taking place in the event itself. I was reminded by one writer to my colleague David Neiwert's post that "as many as sixteen" and "at least sixteen" held wildly different connotations. And were these observations based on the fog of events, the political beliefs of the players, or the simple choice of words? And how these observations translate into reactions on the parts of the viewers and listeners.

So I thought I would take a quick roundup of the English speaking broadcast media throughout the world and get a sampling of how the event was interpreted. Certainly isn't scientific. Some of the reported is decidedly slanted (i.e. the Israel National Radio segment is an extreme example), but you get an idea of just how many views can be had when an international incident takes place.

Let's start with the BBC World Service Newshour, probably one of the most widely listened to broadcasts throughout the world and how they saw it.

RTE, the national radio network of Ireland offers their interpretation of events, which coincide with a member of the Irish government taking part in the flotilla and how the Irish view this event.

CBC's Hourly newscast from 12 noon (EDT) today. Israeli Prime Minister Natanyahu was visiting Canada before his arrival in the U.S. later this week, which was cut short because of the event.

ABC Radio National's PM newscast gives their view on the event.

Closer to the source, Kol Israel, considered the more moderate of Israeli news outlets gives a matter-of-fact description of events in their 10:30 am newscast

And finally, Israel National Radio considered (even by them) to be the most right wing and extreme of radio outlets in the world, offers their views on the event with a 45 minute wrapup.

Somewhere in all of this is probably where the truth of the event lies. The Turkish media, broadcasting the event live and non-stop since it broke does not have English broadcasts available. Needless to say, the event will continue to unfold over the next several hours and days and no doubt the opinions and observations will grow and galvanize as well.

One event seen six different ways.