Heinrich Himmler has long puzzled historians. As Reichsführer SS, he commanded an organization of some 900,000 men and controlled the police and security apparatus of Nazi Germany. Yet he never moved to oust Adolf Hitler and seize power for himself. That does not mean no such plot existed. In the final months of the war, … Read more
On October 20, 1968, under a gray autumn drizzle on the private Greek island of Skorpios, Jacqueline Kennedy walked down the aisle of the small Panagitsa church. The world's press watched from the Ionian Sea, stunned into silence. Five years after becoming America's icon of grief, the 39-year-old widow of John F. Kennedy was marrying … Read more
On June 23, 1972, Richard Nixon sat in the Oval Office as a secret tape recorder spun beneath his desk. H.R. Haldeman leaned forward, and Nixon gave the order that would eventually destroy his presidency. The Watergate arrests had just been reported. Five men had been caught inside the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Among them … Read more
The story has been told and retold across a dozen history channels, racking up millions of views between them. A German general is marched into a headquarters tent, expecting the courtesy officers extend each other even in war. Instead, the American commander doesn't stand up. A white bulldog growls. A revolver gets slammed onto the … Read more
On a damp autumn morning in 1974, an 84-year-old woman sat in a sunlit parlor in Hyannisport, Massachusetts. Her dress was tailored, her hair pinned into an immaculate wave, her back as rigid as iron. She was Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, matriarch of the most celebrated political dynasty in modern history. Rose had survived the violent … Read more
In August 1943, on the island of Sicily, General George S. Patton walked through a field hospital filled with wounded soldiers. He moved from bed to bed, shaking hands with men who had shattered legs, missing arms, and burns covering their bodies. Then he stopped at a cot holding a soldier with no visible wounds. … Read more
In October 1968, on the small Greek island of Skorpios, a wedding took place that was deliberately kept private. There was no press pool, no official photographers, and no estate witnesses. The woman walking toward the altar was the most recognizable widow in the world. The man waiting for her was not a senator, a … Read more
On December 19, 1944, inside a command room in Verdun, Dwight D. Eisenhower studied a map that was changing faster than his staff could update it. Overnight, the German army had torn a massive gap through the American lines in the Ardennes. Entire units had been pushed back, others were cut off, and the town … Read more
When Lyndon Baines Johnson died of a heart attack at his Texas ranch on January 22, 1973, the American public watched a carefully staged display of national mourning. Flags flew at half-mast, foreign dignitaries filled Washington National Cathedral, and military escorts carried the casket back to the family cemetery in Stonewall, Texas. The eulogies painted … Read more
In February 1945, on a secondary road near the Saar River in Germany, a supply convoy carrying fuel and ammunition for Third Army units came under attack at dusk. The ambush lasted eleven minutes. When it ended, four officers were dead, including the convoy's senior officer. Twelve soldiers were wounded. The two lead vehicles were … Read more