t3003 On November 22, 1963, Robert F. Kennedy was having lunch beside the pool at his home in McLean, Virginia. He had celebrated his thirty-eighth birthday just two days earlier. His children were nearby, and his wife, Ethel, was with him. Then the phone rang. On the other end of the line was J. Edgar Hoover, … Read more
On July 20, 1944, Adolf Hitler met with Italy's fascist leader Benito Mussolini, just hours after German military officers attempted to assassinate him at the Wolf's Lair, his East Prussian headquarters in Rastenburg. The plot marked the culmination of efforts by several groups within the German resistance who hoped Hitler's death would trigger an anti-Nazi … Read more
Joachim Peiper was a German SS officer and the main perpetrator of a series of atrocities committed between mid-December 1944 and mid-January 1945. These killings became known as the Malmedy massacre, during which SS officers and soldiers deliberately participated in the killing, shooting, and torturing of some 350 unarmed American soldiers and about 100 Belgian … Read more
At 12:30 p.m. on November 22, 1963, shots rang out in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. President John F. Kennedy was struck by two bullets and rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital. At 1:00 p.m., doctors pronounced him dead. Ninety-eight minutes later, at 2:38 p.m., Lyndon Baines Johnson stood in the cramped 16-foot cabin of the … Read more
In October 1914, a British admiral with more than four decades of distinguished service was forced from his post as First Sea Lord. The charge against him was not incompetence but birth: he had been born in the German Grand Duchy of Hesse rather than on British soil. Within three years, his family would erase … Read more
Sarah Ferguson has been a fixture of the British tabloids since the day she got engaged to a prince in 1986. The papers called her Freebie Fergie almost from the start. Four decades later, the nickname has changed, but the coverage never really stopped. She was born Sarah Margaret Ferguson on October 15, 1959, in … Read more
L’appel est arrivé à 16 h 47, et je me souviens de l’heure exacte parce que je venais de vérifier l’horloge du tableau de bord en me disant que nous serions rentrés avant 17 h. C’était ce genre de fin de journée, ordinaire, où rien ne laissait présager que le sol allait se dérober sous … Read more
Na oslavě u příležitosti mého synova odchodu do důchodu zvedla moje žena Renee obálku, kterou jsem připravoval třicet let, a před všemi ji označila za ostudu. Nezvedl jsem hlas. Nebránil jsem se. Jen jsem došel na konec stolu, zvedl obálku, kterou upustila na podlahu, a odešel zadními dveřmi restaurace ven. Venku u parkoviště seděl na … Read more
Poprvé jsem si všimla, že něco není v pořádku, až když Petra přerovnala Betinu kuchyni. Ne že by se mě ptala. Prostě přišla, přestavěla pár skříněk, posunula kořenky, vyměnila utěrky. Bylo to, jako by se měla k čemukoli vyjádřit. Bette byla mrtvá teprve čtyři měsíce a tahle žena, kterou jsme znali ani ne dva roky, … Read more
Tvář mého manžela mezitím stihla projít všemi odstíny, které jsem u živého člověka nikdy neviděla. Z červené do fialové a pak do nějaké šedivé, která neměla s lidskou kůží nic společného. Do telefonu jsem skoro zašeptala, abych nepřitáhla pozornost. „Musíte přijít. Ihned. ” Hlas na druhé straně se zadrhl. „Copak se děje? Co je s … Read more