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Stories from Jeff MacGregor

With the idle set at 54 percent of full throttle, drivers could unleash the car by merely stepping off the brake.

When a Jet-Powered Car Raced in the Indianapolis 500

The racecar tore up the track and dazzled fans at the legendary competition—and then vanished

OK Go for launch: Andy Ross, Tim Nordwind, Damian Kulash Jr. and Dan Konopka

How OK Go Has Revolutionized the Music Video

To pull off one of their most daring videos, they needed a borrowed Russian transport jet, spreadsheets and calculus, and a lot of motion-sickness medicine

The Curious George series has sold 10,000 times the initial print run.

When Curious George Made a Daring Escape From the Nazis

The authors of the children’s book series fled wartime France with the manuscript tied to their bikes

Construction on Lago d’Iseo, Christo says, was as challenging as “building a highway.”

The Inside Story of Christo’s Floating Piers

The renowned artist dazzles the world again, this time using a lake in northern Italy as his canvas

Meet Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Genius Behind “Hamilton,” Broadway’s Newest Hit

Composer, lyricist and performer, Miranda wows audiences and upends U.S. history with his dazzlingly fresh hip-hop musical

The New Yorker Editor Who Became a Comic Book Hero

The amazing tale of a determined art director who harnessed the powers of the greatest illustrators around the world to blow kids’ minds

From the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center

The Ill-Fated History of the Jet Pack

The space-age invention still takes our imaginations on our wild ride

Successes were matched by failures like the McLean Deluxe, made with seaweed to save calories.

Taking Stock of 75 Years of McDonald’s

Has the original fast-food restaurant finally reached the end of its success?

Houston's futuristic Astrodome is home of the first skybox and an animated scoreboard,150 yards wide.

Remembering the Astrodome, the Eighth Wonder of the World

Fifty years after its grand opening, the spectre of the Houston stadium still looms large

Diners eat lunch outdoors at the Osteria Margutta.

Rome’s Very Short Street With a Long, Magnificent History

Taste the food life on the Via Margutta, once home to Fellini and since 1953, the scene of Americans’ sweetest Roman Holiday

Coming to Terms With One of America’s Greatest Natural Disasters

Documentary filmmaker Bill Morrison plunges us into the Great Flood of 1927

Salvatore Scarpitta’s Sal Cragar, 1969.

When A Race Car Becomes a Work of Art

Salvatore Scarpitta’s automative wonder goes on view at the Hirshhorn

Getting to Know Whistler’s Father

Whistler’s mother is a superstar. But the painter’s dad has languished in obscurity—until now

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Why No One Will Ever Replace Richard Petty as the King of NASCAR

There’s a good reason why his stock car is in the collections of the American History Museum

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