In 1962, a penthouse suite on the 34th floor of the Carlyle Hotel in New York was never officially rented, according to hotel records. Yet security guards knew the suite was being used at least three to four times a month. The pattern rarely changed. Secret Service agents arrived first to check the suite. A … Read more
Am Morgen des 27. April 1945 stand Oberfeldwebel Karl Brommann in seinem Jagdpanther in einer flachen Bodenmulde drei Kilometer westlich von Schillersdorf, am Westufer der Oder, etwa 19 Kilometer südwestlich von Stettin. Es war 5:47 Uhr. Brommann reinigte das Okular des Sehrohrs mit einem ölgetränkten Lappen. Der Lappen war grau, das Öl dünn, das Glas … Read more
Die NS-Kriegsverbrecherin Ilse Koch, einst als „Hexe von Buchenwald” bekannt und wegen ihrer brutalen Herrschaft über Häftlinge in den Konzentrationslagern Sachsenhausen und Buchenwald berüchtigt, ist am 1. September 1967 in ihrer Zelle im Frauengefängnis Aichach durch Suizid aus dem Leben geschieden. Sie wurde 60 Jahre alt. Die einstige Ehefrau des Lagerkommandanten Karl Otto Koch erhängte … Read more
In February 2024, photographic restorer Dr. Amara Johnson accepted a digitization project from the Virginia Historical Society. She specialized in recovering damaged 19th-century images using high-resolution scanning and digital enhancement. Most of her work involved repairing tears, removing stains, and adjusting exposure on portraits faded by decades of poor storage. The photograph arrived at her … Read more
Nina Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck Bowes-Lyon is not a name most people know. She was not a queen, not a princess, and not a figure who appeared on commemorative plates or tea towels. Yet she was, by any honest measure, one of the most consequential women in twentieth-century Britain. She was the mother of the Queen Mother, … Read more
Ten American Marines fought more than 100 Japanese soldiers on a trail above the Lunga River on Guadalcanal on November 30, 1942. The engagement lasted about half an hour. Not one of the 10 Marines was hurt. The confrontation was the result of a month-long patrol through the island’s interior by the 2nd Marine Raider … Read more
On July 27, 1962, Marilyn Monroe checked into the Cal-Neva Lodge on the California-Nevada border for what was supposed to be a relaxing weekend getaway. She checked out on July 29, 48 hours later. What happened during those two days has never been explained. The security cameras that covered every inch of Frank Sinatra's luxury … Read more
On October 22, 1983, at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, two correctional officers were killed in a single shift by members of one gang. The facility was the toughest in the federal system, the successor to Alcatraz. Inside the Control Unit, the most restrictive housing complex in America, a prisoner named Thomas Silverstein … Read more
On the evening of Saturday, October 12, 1957, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson was at home in his apartment on 150th Street in Harlem, reading Langston Hughes in his armchair. Four telephones sat on a table against the wall, one for each corner of his criminal empire. But between 7 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays, those phones … Read more
WASHINGTON — A seemingly innocent 1853 photograph of two teenage girls seated together on a plantation veranda has triggered a national historical reckoning after curators at the National Museum of American History discovered that what appeared to be an elegant anklet worn by the enslaved girl in the image was, in fact, a decorative shackle … Read more