Retropod

Weeks before Thanksgiving, 1959, cranberries were declared unsafe to eat. The race was on to save America’s favorite holiday side dish.

No women served on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991. The ugly Anita Hill hearings changed that.

For many, memories of that devastating day quickly revert to that silent, flickering sequence captured by Abraham Zapruder. It is as chilling as it is familiar: the approaching convertible, the waves of a crowd about to lose its innocence.

During World War II, around 80 Russian women took to the skies and risked their lives to fight against the Germans.

The history of subpoenas, and the fiery congressional hearings that have captivated Americans for centuries began with a Founding Father raising his hand to say, “Investigate me!”

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy devastated the nation. But the day before the shooting was just a normal day. It was particularly calm and uneventful for the gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Once a party drug, ketamine has found its way into modern medicine.

Four years before Amelia Earhart ever got into a plane, Ruth Law was already making a name for herself in the skies.

Sexual harassment has been existed in showbiz as long as there have been bright lights.

Back in the 1830s, Jim Crow wasn't yet a symbol of inequality. He was a fictional character in minstrel shows who, to entertain his audiences, performed in blackface.

After receiving complaints about carriages driving too fast, Washington D.C. policeman William H. West arrested a presidential speed demon.

For decades, the boundary between Mexico and the United States was little more than an imaginary line in the sand.

If you work in an office without offices, with just about everyone working in a large spare space full of stylish desks, straight lines and papers stored in a credenza, then you have met Florence Knoll Bassett.

A full year after the King James Bible was printed in 1631, people discovered an error.

After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, John Surratt traveled across three continents, wore disguises and used fake names for nearly two years to escape authorities.

Pinball was once so vilified that it was banned in cities across the United States.

When Eugene Cernan walked on the moon, he didn’t know he’d be the last astronaut to make the journey.

In the early days of the House, some congresspeople thought hats had no place atop the heads of representatives debating the great issues of the day. Hats, they argued, weren’t dignified.

When Alexander Hamilton argued in favor of lifetime tenures for Supreme Court justices, he probably didn’t foresee them living past their prime.

Lego started as a company that made wooden toys, and grew into an empire of plastic building blocks.

John Calhoun’s rodent experiments revolutionized the way we think about social behavior and the impact of growing populations.

Presidents throughout history have visited battlefields to better grasp conditions, reverse public doubt and signal that the country took war efforts seriously.

White House maid Elizabeth Jaffray not only cleaned up after presidents, she had an amazing insight into their appetites.

Fritz Kuhn was the leader of the pro-Nazi group known as the German American Bund. He was a hero to his audience, and a scourge on the world to most others.

After being fired from his job for being gay, Frank Kameny took his battle for equality to the nation’s highest court.