In 1948, a classified study completed at the Naval War College in Newport reconstructed the Battle of Midway hour by hour from track charts and plotting sheets, acknowledging that complete information, especially on the enemy, was not available. That document quietly became the foundation for the two books most Americans would ever read about the … Read more
In the autumn of 1942, the War Department published two articles about prisoner interrogation just two weeks apart, and they described what appeared to be two entirely different jobs. The first, dated October 8, carried the notes of a British intelligence officer who had spent the winter campaign in the Western Desert taking Germans prisoner. … Read more
A mother stood on the balcony of her 14th-floor Manhattan apartment and watched her 23-year-old son climb over the railing in front of her. She pleaded with him for nearly a full minute before he let go and fell to his death. That woman was Gloria Vanderbilt, the same woman who, as a 10-year-old girl, … Read more
On November 28, 1966, a sixteen-year-old girl arrived at the Plaza Hotel in an outfit so revealing that a biographer later described it as closer to nudity than to clothing. By the following morning, two of the most influential figures in fashion had already decided her face represented an entire era. Photographer Richard Avedon spotted … Read more
Am 28. November 1934 öffneten sich die Türen eines Leichenwagens vor einem Chicagoer Bestattungsinstitut. Die Männer im Inneren wussten nicht, was sie erwartete. Eingewickelt in eine billige, fleckige Decke lag der Körper von Lester Gillis – besser bekannt als Baby Face Nelson. Nur 24 Stunden zuvor war er J. Edgar Hoovers öffentlicher Feind Nummer eins … Read more
In der Popkultur ist er der lächelnde Revolverheld mit dem Lederhut, der durch die Wüste reitet, als wäre das Leben ein einziger Film. Die Rede ist von Billy the Kid, dem berühmtesten Gesetzlosen des amerikanischen Westens. Sein richtiger Name war William Bonney, und die Presse gab ihm den Spitznamen, unter dem wir ihn bis heute … Read more
Dr. Sarah Mitchell spent 30 years studying psychological archives at the National Institute of Mental Health before she stumbled across a photograph that would consume the next two years of her life. In the spring of 2019, while sorting through research files from the 1950s, a black-and-white image slipped from a folder and landed on … Read more
The mysterious death of Buddy Holly, the 22-year-old pioneer of rock and roll, has been re-examined as new documents and buried details have resurfaced around the crash that killed him, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper on February 3, 1959. The official account blamed bad weather and pilot error, but unanswered questions about the flight, … Read more
Lorne Greene did not set out to soften Ben Cartwright. When the Canadian actor took the role on Bonanza in 1959, the scripts presented the widowed rancher as a hard man—a rifle-wielding patriarch who decided who belonged on the Ponderosa. Greene could make that authority believable almost effortlessly. But he gradually resisted the colder version … Read more
Thuy Trang, the actress best known for playing Trini Kwan, the original Yellow Ranger on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, died in a car accident on September 3, 2001. She was 27 years old. Her death arrived at one of the most unlucky moments in modern history. She was buried on September 10, 2001, the day … Read more