In the summer of 1921, two 17-year-old identical twins moved into a New York apartment with a famous name and little else behind it. Their father was an American consul on a government salary, and their pedigree came from their mother’s side—a Union cavalry general who died in Chile and a Chilean grandmother. The newspapers … Read more
In 1929, Joseph Stalin defeated his political rivals and became the principal leader of the Soviet Union. Determined to transform a largely agrarian country into an industrial power, he launched a massive program of forced collectivization. Millions of peasants were compelled to give up their land and join state-controlled collective farms. Those who resisted were … Read more
On Tuesday I drove to Fort Harrison with a thermos of beef stew, and my four-year-old was strapped into the back seat. I thought I was doing something small and sweet. Teddy had spent twenty minutes that morning helping me stir the pot. He stood on his little stool in his socks, so focused his … Read more
Vernon Miller was the only positively identified gunman in the Kansas City Massacre, a violent shootout that killed five men in 1933, yet his path to that moment began years earlier in small-town South Dakota. Born in Kimball, South Dakota, on August 25, 1896, Miller moved to Huron in 1914, where he worked as an … Read more
Quando avete cominciato a stare insieme? Mi hai bloccato ovunque, sei sparita, ed è colpa sua. Di mio padre. Questo non ti riguarda. Papà, gridò Nico, mettendosi davanti a lui. Che diavolo sta succedendo? Mi devi una spiegazione. Saurin lo guardò con calma. È esattamente quello che sembra. Sto corteggiando Sienna. I pugni di Nico … Read more
Ich hatte nicht vorgehabt, zu lauschen. Das Gespräch war beendet, zumindest dachte ich das. Eish hatte meiner Tochter Verena am Telefon gesagt, dass ich das Haushaltsgeld auf unser Gemeinschaftskonto überwiesen hätte. Sie hatte sich bedankt, in diesem süßlichen, hohen Tonfall, den sie immer anschlug, wenn sie etwas von mir brauchte. Sie sagte, sie müsse kurz … Read more
On March 15, 1939, six months after the annexation of the Sudetenland, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia in violation of the Munich Agreement. Adolf Hitler arrived in Prague, and on March 16 he established the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia by proclamation from Prague Castle. Konstantin von Neurath, … Read more
Walk past Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in Manhattan today, and you will see the Empire State Building and the steady stream of tourists waiting for the observation deck. What you will not see is any trace of the fact that for 72 years before the skyscraper was built, that corner held a brownstone where … Read more
Teri Garr built a career on physical precision, so when her own legs began to betray her in the early 1980s, she spent nearly two decades searching for answers. By the time she publicly revealed her multiple sclerosis diagnosis on national television in October 2002, Hollywood had already started to write her off. She called … Read more
La première fois que j’ai vraiment compris ce qui se passait chez moi, c’est le soir où Derek et Madison sont venus me trouver avec leurs boîtes en carton déjà prêtes dans le couloir. Ils voulaient que je leur cède la chambre principale. Pas une suggestion, pas une discussion. Une décision qu’ils avaient déjà prise … Read more