t1703

Washington, D. C. — Calvin Coolidge Jr. , the 16-year-old son of President Calvin Coolidge, died at 10:30 p. m. on July 7, 1924, in the White House, killed by a staphylococcal infection that entered his bloodstream through a blister raised on his foot during a casual tennis game on the South Lawn just days … Read more

Thousands of German women who served the Nazi war machine as nurses, radio operators, and clerical staff faced a nightmare of double condemnation when captured by Allied forces during World War II, with their stories of suffering remaining buried in historical archives for nearly half a century. Newly examined testimony and declassified military records reveal … Read more

The shattered bridge over the Elbe River at Torgau became the unlikely stage for one of history’s most consequential handshakes on April 25, 1945, when American and Soviet lieutenants met across twisted iron and broken concrete to mark the effective end of World War II in Europe. The American soldiers who reached that bridge belonged … Read more

EINDHOVEN, Netherlands — In a briefing room that has since been dismantled and forgotten, a field marshal destroyed his own credibility with the American officer corps in less than forty minutes, and the man he humiliated said nothing more than the truth. The date was October 18, 1944. The location was 21st Army Group Headquarters, … Read more

Irma Grese, the youngest woman ever to be executed under British law, walked laughing from her cell toward the gallows at Hamelin Prison on the morning of December 13, 1945, less than an hour before the British hangman Albert Pierrepoint placed a white hood over her head and sent her through a seven-foot drop that … Read more