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Past Imperfect

President John F Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and Texas Governor John Connally ride through the streets of Dallas, Texas prior to the assassination on November 22, 1963.

Inside the Autopsy Room: The Details Doctors Gathered About JFK’s Assassination

Sixty years ago, three pathologists at the National Naval Medical Center examined the president’s fatal wounds

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The Top Ten Doctor Who Stories for History Buffs

Fifty years after he was introduced to the world, the Doctor’s influence is bigger on the inside

An editorial that critiqued Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as “silly remarks.”

My Great-Great-Grandfather Hated the Gettysburg Address. Now He’s Famous For It

It’s hard to imagine anyone could pan Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address, but one cantankerous reporter did just that

Comrades now, veterans in gray and blue shake hands at the 1913 Gettysburg reunion, much of the old animosity healed after a half century of peace.

The Last Civil War Veterans Who Lived to Be Over 100… Or Did They?

As America prepared to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War, two centenarians told their tales — only one was telling the truth

Mary Rogers in the river, 1841

Edgar Allan Poe Tried and Failed to Crack the Mysterious Murder Case of Mary Rogers

After a teenage beauty turned up dead in the Hudson River, not even the godfather of detective fiction could figure out who done it

Saint Coronatus joined a convent in Heiligkreuztal, Germany, in 1676

Switzerland

Meet the Fantastically Bejeweled Skeletons of Catholicism’s Forgotten Martyrs

Art historian and author Paul Koudounaris elucidates the macabre splendor and tragic history of Europe’s catacomb saints

“Another Voice for Cleveland,” September 1884

President Cleveland’s Problem Child

Not even a specific allegation of philandering, illicit pregnancy and coverup barred Grover Cleveland from the White House

Edward Pickering and his female assistants, known as the “Harvard computers.”

The Women Who Mapped the Universe and Still Couldn’t Get Any Respect

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of women known as the Harvard Observatory computers helped revolutionize the science of astronomy

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The Football Star and the Wrath of his Would-Be Bride

What could a wounded woman do? For one thing, she could sue

John Surratt after he was captured

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The Family Plot to Kill Lincoln

Mary and John Surratt helped John Wilkes Booth assassinate Abraham Lincoln and then paid the ultimate penalty for their actions

George Fabian Lawrence, better known as “Stoney Jack,” parlayed his friendships with London navvies into a stunning series of archaeological discoveries between 1895 and 1939.

The Commoner Who Salvaged a King’s Ransom

A furtive antiquarian nicknamed Stoney Jack was responsible for almost every major archaeological find made in London between 1895 and 1939

From “The Marlborough-Vanderbilt Wedding”

How American Rich Kids Bought Their Way Into the British Elite

The nouveau riche of the Gilded Age had buckets of money but little social standing—until they started marrying their daughters to British nobles

Portrait of a young revolutionary: Friedrich Engels at age 21, in 1842, the year he moved to Manchester–and the year before he met Mary Burns.

How Friedrich Engels’ Radical Lover Helped Him Father Socialism

Mary Burns exposed the capitalist’s son to the plight of the working people of Manchester

Alexander Hamilton, painted by John Trumbull, c. 1806

Alexander Hamilton’s Adultery and Apology

Revelations about the treasury secretary’s sex life forced him to choose between candor and his career.

An Arab city of the early medieval period. Urban centers in the Middle East were of a size and wealth all but unknown in the Christian west during this period, encouraging the development of a large and diverse fraternity of criminals.

Islam’s Medieval Underworld

In the medieval period, the Middle East was home to many of the world’s wealthiest cities—and to a large proportion of its most desperate criminals

The Battle of Chapultepec, which resulted in a U.S. victory, was waged on September 13, 1847 in Mexico City.

Brainpower and Brawn in the Mexican-American War

The United States Army had several advantages, but the most decisive was the professionalism instilled at West Point

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The Civil War

The Curious Case of Nashville’s Frail Sisterhood

Finding prostitutes in the Union-occupied city was no problem, but expelling them was

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The Octogenarian Who Took on the Shoguns

A tribesman who led a doomed revolt against Japan in 1669 still inspires new generations of Ainu nationalists

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The Incredible Disappearing Evangelist

Aimee Semple McPherson was an American phenomenon even before she went missing for five weeks in 1926.

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The Desperate Would-be Housewife of New York

Not even a murder trial and the unmasking of her fake pregnancy stopped Emma Cunningham’s search for love and legitimacy

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