In July 1817, a farmer named John Langden struck the first shovel into a field in Rome, New York, with no ceremony and almost no crowd. The president had opposed the project, the Army Corps of…
In July of 1817, a farmer named John Langden stood in a field in Rome, New York, and struck the first shovel into the ground. There was no ceremony, no crowd. A few local officials watched, along with a contractor named Benjamin Wright, who had surveyed the route, and a handful of Irish laborers hired … Read more
In November 2016, a 9mm bullet tore through the exterior wall of a Knoxville home and struck sixteen-year-old Emma Walker as she slept, killing her inNaN
On a freezing November morning in 2016, a 16-year-old girl lay asleep in her suburban Knoxville bedroom while a single 9mm bullet tore through the exterior wooden wall and struck her behind the left ear with fatal precision. Emma Walker, a popular honors student and cheerleader at Central High School, had been navigating the final … Read more
In November 1966, Paul Snyder left for his night shift in Calumet City, Illinois, leaving his 18-year-old wife Karen home with their two-month-old dauNaN
On the evening of November 12, 1966, Paul Snyder left his job at the railroad in Calumet City, Illinois, and headed home with growing dread. His wife, Karen, had not answered the phone, and his parents, who lived just a few houses away, had found the door locked and the house silent. As Paul approached, … Read more
On October 3, 1952, in Milwaukee, Dwight Eisenhower deleted 74 words from a speech defending George Marshall, the mentor who had made his career possible. Eisenhower was campaigning in Joseph…
The presidential seal was still fresh in his memory when the rail cars pulled away from the capital, carrying Harry Truman back to the small town in Missouri where his story had begun. He had said his farewells, stepped off the stage of American power, and now stood on the real platform of that train, … Read more
In February 1969, five engineers walked out of IBM in Huntsville, Alabama, and started a company with $39,000 of their own money. They had no product,NaN
In February 1969, five engineers walked out of IBM’s Federal Systems Division in Huntsville, Alabama, and founded a company with little more than a thesis: that interactive computer graphics on a screen could replace the drafting tables and paper blueprints of American industry. The lead engineer, Jim Medlock, put $39,000 of his own money into … Read more
On July 1, 1888, thirty silver-haired veterans of the 142nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry returned to a grove beside the Lutheran Theological SeminaNaN
On July 1, 1888, thirty aging veterans gathered in a grove beside the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg to remember their service. Twenty-five summers earlier, they had fought side by side on that very ground as members of the 142nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. It was their first reunion in Gettysburg. They listened to a moving … Read more
On April 14, 1944, Royal Navy crews opened the valves on a hollow concrete box the size of a six-story building and watched it sink into the Hamble estuary. It was 180 feet long, weighed 4,500…
On the morning of 14 April 1944, a Royal Navy crew opened the seacocks in a hollow concrete structure the size of a six-storey apartment block and watched it sink into the shallow waters of the Hamble estuary on England’s south coast. The concrete walls were four feet thick. The interior was a series of … Read more
In the summer of 1882, Octave Chanute stood at the edge of a wooded valley in McKean County, Pennsylvania, calculating a drop of 301 feet to the creek below. His employer, the Erie Railroad,…
In the summer of 1882, in McKean County, Pennsylvania, Octave Chanute stood at the rim of the Kinzua Creek valley, looking down 301 feet to the creek bed below, and ran the calculations that made the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway trust him with its most audacious work. The valley was half a … Read more
On August 19, 1812, British sailors aboard HMS Guerriere watched American cannonballs strike the side of the USS Constitution and bounce off. Some whispered the ship was made of iron. It was not….
On the morning of August 19, 1812, the British frigate HMS Guerriere sailed under light winds in the North Atlantic, roughly 750 miles southeast of Halifax, when her lookout spotted a sail on the horizon. Captain James Dacres felt no alarm. The Guerriere carried forty-nine guns and a crew of 272 seasoned sailors of the … Read more
In January 1981, two children walked into the woods off Highway 157 near Shreveport and found a young girl buried under leaves, a kitchen knife stuck in the ground beside her. She had been there…
On March 5th, 2015, Sheriff Julian Whittington stood before the cameras in Bossier City with the victim’s sister beside him. He had been waiting to say this for thirty-four years, one month, and five days. The waiting was over. Carol Anne Cole was coming home. The sister, Jeannie Phelps, had flown down from Michigan. For … Read more