She was born into immense privilege, the ninth of ten children in an ancient Scottish noble family. Her childhood unfolded between two grand estates, St. Paul’s Walden Bury and Glamis Castle, where she was treated as the cherished youngest daughter. She absorbed two lessons early: that the world naturally arranged itself around her comfort, and … Read more
South Carolina was the Confederate state the North hated most, and the one Union forces most eagerly anticipated occupying. The Palmetto State had birthed secession and hosted the war’s first shots, and its fiery pro-slavery advocates were blamed for both. Many in blue uniforms held the state responsible for four years of death, destruction, and … Read more
On the evening of April 13, 1991, Bobby Borello stepped out of his house in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and walked toward his Lincoln Town Car. He was 47 years old, a made man in the Gambino crime family, and for years he had been the personal driver and bodyguard for John Gotti. Borello never heard the … Read more
Water has flowed through the stonework of Ollantaytambo for 600 years, not around it, but through it. Channels carved into the masonry of this Inca fortress in Peru’s Sacred Valley have always been visible to anyone looking. Fountains, carved conduits, and the integration of flowing water into walls and terraces are features no other Inca … Read more
On January 9, 1963, in Cleveland, Ohio, the city’s two largest newspapers had been silent for weeks. More than 2,400 workers were on strike, keeping the presses idle and the sports pages empty. In that quiet, team owner Art Modell picked up the phone and fired the only head coach the Cleveland Browns had ever … Read more
On January 14th, 1979, Tommy DeSimone walked out of his house in Queens, New York, and climbed into a car with two men he knew. He was 28 years old. He believed he was about to become a made man in the Lucchese crime family. Instead, he was driven to his execution. His body was … Read more
In January 1945, the U. S. Third Fleet slipped through Balintang Channel into the South China Sea—the heart of Japan’s maritime lifeline, where every barrel of oil from Borneo and Sumatra had to pass on its way to Japan’s refineries. The fleet was vast: about 90 ships, nearly 900 aircraft, and three fast carrier groups. … Read more
On the morning of June 17, 1945, American aircraft flew over the southern tip of Okinawa and dropped paper. The bundles scattered in the slipstream and drifted down across the last corner of the island still held by Japanese forces, where the remnants of an army were living underground. The leaflets had been falling for … Read more
Jane McCrea was killed and scalped by Native Americans near Fort Edward, New York, on July 27, 1777. The young woman, a British loyalist, was on her way to meet her fiancé, who served in General Burgoyne’s army. She walked into the middle of a skirmish between American forces and a band of Wyandot Indians … Read more
In October 2018, Princess Eugenie married at Windsor. After the ceremony, the photographer gathered the family in the Green Drawing Room for official portraits. Two people stood in the same frame for the first time since 1992: Prince Philip and Sarah Ferguson. It had been 26 years since the last photograph had included them both. … Read more