On September 2, 1945, eleven Japanese officers crossed the deck of the USS Missouri with their ceremonial swords still at their sides, their faces unrNaN
At dawn on September 2, 1945, eleven Japanese officers crossed the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Their uniforms were immaculate, their ceremonial swords at their sides, their faces expressionless. They believed they had preserved their dignity. What they did not yet understand was that General Douglas MacArthur had already taken it, not … Read more
In the winter of 1884, surveyor Ransom Threlkeld climbed into the Kentucky hills to chart a road through a gap the locals called Sable Gap. The company map promised an easy crossing, and the inn…
The road through Sable Gap appears on any map worth the paper it is printed on as the easy way across. That is the first thing a man learns about it. For many, it is the last thing they ever learn. The road is not difficult. That is the whole problem with it. A hard … Read more
On February 13, 2017, 14-year-old Libby German and 13-year-old Abby Williams were dropped off at a hiking trail near Delphi, Indiana, on a day off from school. Libby carried her phone. Somewhere…
The afternoon of February 13th, 2017, started like so many others for fourteen-year-old Libby German and her best friend, thirteen-year-old Abby Williams. They had a day off from school, and they planned to spend part of it the way they had spent plenty of other afternoons: outside, together, walking the Delphi Historic Trails, a scenic … Read more
In July 2024, a private plane lifted off from Mexican soil carrying Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel who had evaded captNaN
The most powerful drug trafficking organization in the history of the Western Hemisphere is collapsing in real time. Ten current and former Mexican government officials, including a governor, a vice attorney general, police chiefs, and prosecutors, have been federally indicted in New York City. The head of security for the entire state of Sinaloa was … Read more
In 1942, Japanese carrier officers looked at American flight decks and saw recklessness: fueled planes parked in the open, bombs and torpedoes moved aNaN
In the early morning of June 4, 1942, American dive bombers plunged out of the sky over the Japanese carrier force north of Midway Atoll. Within six minutes, three of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s finest carriers—Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu—had been struck by bombs that tore through their flight decks. All three were doomed. The fires … Read more
In 1923, in the remote Louisiana bayou town of Richelieu Bend, a guide named Prosper Thibodeau vanished, leaving his pirogue tied to the dock and his NaN
In the summer of 1923, a commercial fisherman named Vernon Galloway walked into the sheriff’s office in Richelieu Bend, Louisiana, and reported something deeply wrong. Prosper Thibodeau, a local guide, had been missing for three weeks, and Vernon had found his camp deep in the Atchafalaya Basin. The camp was untouched. His bedroll lay neatly … Read more
In 1955, Dorothy Dandridge became the first Black woman ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, for Carmen Jones. Three days later, FoxNaN
Dorothy Dandridge had been dead for decades when the account of her final years began to settle into a grim arithmetic. She was the first Black woman ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and she died with two dollars and fourteen cents in her bank account. The story of how she arrived … Read more
When armed raiders stormed Ravenwood Plantation in 1863 and left its master bleeding on the porch, the woman everyone called cursed did the unthinkable: Naomi Carter ran toward the man who owned…
The shot missed Mercer by inches and shattered a porch lantern behind him. Glass burst against the wall. Darkness jumped across the steps. Mercer fired back. The bullet struck Whitlock high in the chest and drove him backward against the door frame. His pistol fell first, then his knees. Eleanor screamed and caught at his … Read more
In 1872, French hairdresser Marcel Grateau accidentally turned his curling iron upside down and created the Marcel wave, the soft, cascading style Josephine Baker wore and that dominated two…
She pressed the paper against the iron and held her breath. If it burned, the tongs were too hot, and her hair would be next. That was the professional standard for stove-heated Marcel curling tongs in the 1870s, a test that separated a perfect wave from a scalded scalp. In 1872, the French hairdresser Marcel … Read more
On February 29, 1944, the Sakito Maru was torpedoed while carrying 3,080 men of the 18th Infantry Regiment to Saipan. Only 1,688 came out of the sea aNaN
Twelve lookout stations stood along the shore of Saipan, built the year before the Pacific War began, funded by a Japanese naval appropriation that officially listed them as lighthouses. Each came with barracks, a command post, an ammunition shed, and a man with binoculars watching a vast stretch of empty water. But that money bought … Read more