Retropod

The first campus shooting 21.10.2019 4:15 ↓

A professor at The University of Virginia was fatally shot by a student in 1840.

The origins of the Unknown Soldier 18.10.2019 6:08 ↓

The story of how the anonymous soldier came to rest inside the famous tomb is almost as unknown as his identity.

America and warfare were never the same after World War I 16.10.2019 4:55 ↓

Along with staggering death tolls, the "Great War" generated memorable literature, geopolitical upheaval, hope, disillusion, the Russian Revolution and the seeds of World War II.

The campus massacre before Kent State 15.10.2019 5:09 ↓

The first mass police shooting on a U.S. college campus happened two years before the Ohio National Guard opened fire on student protesters at Kent State University.

Mark Twain's complicated relationship with the typewriter 14.10.2019 5:23 ↓

Mark Twain first laid eyes on a “newfangled typing machine,” as he called it, sometime in the early 1870s.

The presidential pardon the country never forgot 11.10.2019 5:21 ↓

When Gerald Ford took over the presidency after Richard Nixon’s resignation, he soon made a controversial choice: he pardoned Nixon.

How the Greeks once used a lottery system to select government officials 10.10.2019 5:30 ↓

Some believed that a lottery was more democratic than a vote.

Mary Ann Van Hoof and her Marian apparitions 09.10.2019 6:04 ↓

In 1950, Mary Ann Van Hoof gathered an estimated 100,000 people to see the Virgin Mary on a farm in Necedah, Wisconsin.

Close encounters with the Capitol's Demon Cat 08.10.2019 4:22 ↓

From the mid-1800s to well into the 20th century, the Capitol’s Demon Cat was the top dog of Washington ghost stories.

New York's mad bomber 07.10.2019 7:20 ↓

In 1956, New York City’s bomb squad used criminal profiling to catch a terrorist known as “The Mad Bomber.”

The unstoppable Fannie Lou Hamer 04.10.2019 5:42 ↓

Civil rights crusader Fannie Lou Hamer rivaled Martin Luther King Jr. in her command of audiences.

The photographer and the busboy 03.10.2019 5:25 ↓

Photographer Boris Yaro shot the haunting photograph of Bobby Kennedy lying fatally wounded in the arms of Juan Romero, a busboy.

The time America invaded Britain 02.10.2019 4:16 ↓

In 1777, Captain John Paul Jones hatched a plan to take the American Revolution to Britain’s shores.

Abraham Lincoln says he owes everything to his 'angel mother' and 'mama' 01.10.2019 5:27 ↓

President Abraham Lincoln had two loving and supportive mothers in his lifetime. The second helped him cope with the tragic loss of the first.

The search for the anonymous author of a 1996 political novel 30.09.2019 5:47 ↓

Before an unnamed senior official in the Trump administration published the opinion piece, “I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration" in the New York Times, another mysterious anonymous author lit up Washington.

Woodrow Wilson's secret letters to another woman 27.09.2019 5:55 ↓

Family and friends had known about the president’s intimate relationship with Mary Peck for years, but whispers about their involvement were growing.

The body of Emmett Till 26.09.2019 4:03 ↓

Emmett Till’s mother opened his casket and sparked the civil rights movement.

The origins of the Waterloo teeth 25.09.2019 4:29 ↓

More than 50,000 soldiers died during the Battle of Waterloo, but their teeth lived on.

In the 1850s, navigating Ice Alley was deadly for ships 24.09.2019 5:21 ↓

Despite warnings of icebergs, the John Rutledge set sail from Liverpool, England, to New York.

How the teddy bear was born 23.09.2019 4:46 ↓

In the fall of 1902, a year into his presidency, President Teddy Roosevelt set off to Mississippi for a bear-hunting vacation. It ended differently than planned.

The Saturday Night Massacre 20.09.2019 4:46 ↓

The one night that changed President Nixon’s fate has stuck with us as a reminder of the limits of presidential power.

How a solar eclipse made Albert Einstein famous 19.09.2019 4:54 ↓

It may be hard to believe, but one single event rocketed Einstein to fame.

How a renovation made the Supreme Court a friendlier place 18.09.2019 4:29 ↓

One simple change to how the Supreme Court bench was designed made a world of difference to how the justices communicated.

The heroine of Lime Rock Lighthouse 17.09.2019 3:59 ↓

Ida Lewis saved as many as 25 people during her service at the lighthouse. But her deeds have largely been forgotten.

The assassin who wore braids and killed Nazis 13.09.2019 5:15 ↓

Freddie Oversteegen was 14 when she joined the Dutch resistance.