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Where the Buffalo No Longer Roamed

The Transcontinental Railroad connected East and West—and accelerated the destruction of what had been in the center of North America

Countess Markievicz in uniform with a gun, circa 1915

Daughters of Wealth, Sisters in Revolt

Gore-Booth sisters, Constance and Eva, forsook their places amid Ireland’s Protestant gentry to fight for the rights of the disenfranchised and the poor

1954 Aerocar listed for sale by Greg Herrick in Minneapolis

1954 Flying Car for Sale

A bargain for just $1.25 million. But, you’ll need both aviation and auto insurance

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The Woman Who Took on the Tycoon

John D. Rockefeller Sr. epitomized Gilded Age capitalism. Ida Tarbell was one of the few willing to hold him accountable

Michael Pupa is the only living person featured in an exhibit at the National Archives that tells the stories of the men, women and children who struggled to both enter and exit the U.S. from 1880 to the 1950s.

Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

Document Deep Dive: A Holocaust Survivor Finds Hope in America

Michael Pupa’s story, from orphan of Nazi Europe to American citizen, is a testament to the freedoms America offers

The farmer of the year 2031 works at his large flat-panel television (1931)

1931′s Remote-Controlled Farm of the Future

The farmer of tomorrow wears a suit to work and sits at a desk that looks oddly familiar to those of us here in the year 2012

At Dorney Lake, scullers try out for Britain’s Olympic women’s rowing team.

300 Years of Rowing on the Thames

There must be something in the water at Eton, where rowing rules as the sport of choice

Kayakers on the Thames in London go with the flow near Parliament and Big Ben.

The Long and Winding History of the Thames

Float down England’s longest river, from its origin in the Cotswolds to its ramble through London, a journey through centuries of “liquid history”

J. Allyn Rosser is an American poet and currently teaches at Ohio University.

Summer Olympics Look, a Poem

Poet J. Allyn Rosser’s new piece on watching the Olympic Games

The Games may not exist at all were it not for the perseverance of the Brits.

The Paris Olympics

The Little-Known History of How the Modern Olympics Got Their Start

Acclaimed sportswriter Frank Deford connects the modern Games to their unlikely origin—in rural England

The vice-presidential learning center features a sweatshirt worn by the young Dan Quayle.

The Vice Presidents That History Forgot

The U.S. vice presidency has been filled by a rogues gallery of mediocrities, criminals and even corpses

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Torch Song

Ode to an ancient summer rite, excesses and all

Jim Thorpe's epic performance in the 15 events that made up the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Summer Games remains the most solid reflection we have of him.

Why Are Jim Thorpe’s Olympic Records Still Not Recognized?

In 1912, Jim Thorpe became the greatest American Olympian of all time, but not if you ask the IOC

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Quite Likely the Worst Job Ever

A British journalist provides us with a window into the lives of the men who made their living from combing for treasures in London’s sewers

How Well Do You Know Your Vice Presidents?

Test yourself on our quiz of the famous, infamous and not-so-famous least powerful men in the country

The Top 10 Biggest Sports #Fails of All Time

For athletes on the world stage, nothing is worse than choking under pressure. Here are the 10 most memorable transgressors

Bill Gates

1987 Predictions From Bill Gates: “Siri, Show Me Da Vinci Stuff”

The co-founder of Microsoft worried that, in the information age, people would prefer synthesized reality

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The High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance

Frank Deford of Real Sports for HBO.

Frank Deford on Bloggers, the Olympics and 51 years of Sportswriting

The legendary writer for Sports Illustrated dishes on, among other things, the changing relationship between athletes and the journalists who cover them

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Surgery, Security and Sales: The Future of Closed-Circuit Television

Just as people were experimenting with the uses of broadcast TV in the 1930s, so too were they envisioning ways to utilize closed-circuit TV in the 1950s

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