In 1725 a Dutch East India Company bookkeeper was convicted of sodomy, put ashore alone on a bare volcanic island in the mid-Atlantic, and left there. The diary he kept was found, printed, and rewritten until almost nothing of him remained.
Marooned: The Diary Of Leendert Hasenbosch, Left To Die On Ascension Island Read More »
From a German commanders’ conference in August 1942 to a fountain left standing in a wrecked square: the battle for Stalingrad in photographs, taken by both sides, in chronological order.
Horrifying Photos From The Siege Of Stalingrad Read More »
In 250 CE, a Gothic leader named Cniva led his forces across the Danube, sacked one of Rome’s great Balkan cities, and destroyed an imperial army in the marshes at Abritus, killing the emperor Decius and his son. Then he disappeared from the record entirely.
Cniva: The Gothic King Who Killed A Roman Emperor And Vanished From History Read More »
In the movies, gladiators fight until one is dead and the emperor’s thumb decides the rest. The real arena was deadly, but gladiators were expensive to train, and most walked away from any given fight.
Did Roman Gladiators Really Fight to the Death? Read More »
In April 1989, Rudy Linares held staff in a Chicago pediatric ICU at gunpoint while he disconnected his brain-damaged son’s ventilator. A grand jury later refused to indict him for murder.
The Chicago Father Who Took His Son Off Life Support at Gunpoint Read More »
In the middle of Argentina’s 1990 World Cup knockout match against Brazil, Brazilian defender Branco drank from a bottle handed over by Argentina’s staff and began to feel dizzy. Years later, Maradona laughed about it on television.
The “Holy Water” Scandal: Did Argentina Drug Brazil at the 1990 World Cup? Read More »
In the 1920s, zoologist Ilya Ivanov won Soviet state funding to try to cross humans with apes. The experiments failed — but it was politics, not biology, that finished him.
The Soviet Scientist Who Tried to Create a Human-Ape Hybrid Read More »
On September 2, 1944, anti-aircraft fire set George H.W. Bush’s plane alight over Chichijima, and a submarine pulled him from the sea. Eight other American airmen captured near the island were never seen alive again.
George H.W. Bush Escaped Chichijima. Eight American Airmen Didn’t Read More »
Roman builders mixed their concrete hot, leaving reactive lime inside it — so when water later found a crack, the crack sealed itself. A company called DMAT is now selling the same trick.
Roman Concrete Healed Its Own Cracks. A Startup Is Bringing It Back. Read More »
From the smoke over Battleship Row to the surrender deck of the USS Missouri: fifty photographs of the Pacific war, in chronological order, taken by Navy photographer’s mates, Marine combat correspondents, Signal Corps crews and a few Japanese naval aviators.
50 Photos From The Pacific Theater Of WW2 Read More »
