The final months of World War II in Europe were marked by desperation and chaos. As the war turned decisively against Germany, the Nazi regime scraped together every available resource to defend the homeland. This included drafting the very young and the very old into military service. Among the most shocking aspects of this period … Read more
Among the most infamous figures of World War II were the leaders of the Einsatzgruppen, the mobile killing units that followed the German army into the Soviet Union. In the years after the war, several of these men were sentenced to death for their roles in the murder of over a million civilians. Their trials … Read more
The construction of New York’s first subway was one of the most public and dangerous engineering projects in American history. It was built by cutting open the busiest streets in the country from the top down, holding the city’s own gas and water lines in midair, and blasting through solid rock under buildings full of … Read more
The Wehrmacht, the German army of World War II, was widely regarded as one of the most disciplined and professional fighting forces of the twentieth century. Rooted in traditional military values, its soldiers were often heavily armed and easily recognized by their field-gray uniforms and steel helmets. They were a formidable enemy for any Allied … Read more
As Allied forces swept through German-occupied territory and into Germany itself in the final months of World War II, they encountered vast, barbed-wire encampments that defied comprehension. These were the concentration and extermination camps established by the Third Reich beginning in 1933. Initially used to hold political prisoners, these sites eventually became the scene of … Read more
A single gunshot ended the life of cereal magnate Charles William Post on the morning of May 9, 1914, in his Santa Barbara mansion. The 60-year-old founder of the Postum Cereal Company, one of America’s wealthiest men, had been suffering from severe abdominal pain for months. An operation at the Mayo Clinic in March had … Read more
By the mid-1950s, the Theodore Hamm Brewing Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, had become the fifth-largest brewery in the United States. It was a remarkable rise for a brand that began with a butcher, a saloon, and a defaulted loan, and it was powered by clean artesian water, a memorable jingle, and a cartoon bear … Read more
The world remembers Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as a fashion icon with a bright smile, and as the tragic wife who crawled across the trunk of a blood-soaked limousine to retrieve fragments of her husband’s skull. But behind the velvet curtain of Camelot lay a much harsher reality: a marriage marked by relentless infidelity, secret drug … Read more
George Kelly Barnes, the man history remembers as Machine Gun Kelly, rose from a failed college student to one of the most notorious criminals of the Prohibition era. His nickname came from his preferred weapon, the Thompson submachine gun, but his most infamous act was the kidnapping of Oklahoma City oil tycoon Charles F. Urschel … Read more
In the summer of 1972, Coca-Cola made an unprecedented move. It launched Mr. Pibb, a new drink with the same brown color and spiced flavor profile engineered specifically to compete with Dr. Pepper, and introduced it first in Waco, Texas—Dr. Pepper’s birthplace and stronghold. Dr. Pepper sued immediately, and a federal judge ordered Mr. Pibb … Read more