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Past Imperfect

Soldiers arrest Gavrilo Prinzip, assassin of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.

World War I: 100 Years Later

The Origin of the Tale that Gavrilo Princip Was Eating a Sandwich When He Assassinated Franz Ferdinand

Was it really a lunch-hour coincidence that led to the death of the Archduke in Sarajevo in 1914—and, by extension, World War I?

Paul Robeson, in 1942, leads Oakland shipyard workers in the singing of the National Anthem

What Paul Robeson Said

Pablo Fanque: expert equestrian, tightrope walker, acrobat, showman–and Britain's first black circus owner.

Pablo Fanque’s Fair

The showman whom John Lennon immortalized in song was a real performer—a master horseman and Britain’s first black circus owner

The Great Pyramid: Built for the Pharaoh Khufu in about 2570 B.C., sole survivor of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, and arguably the most mysterious structure on the planet

Inside the Great Pyramid

No structure in the world is more mysterious than the Great Pyramid. But who first broke into its well-guarded interior? When? And what did they find?

Ty Cobb

The Knife in Ty Cobb’s Back

Did the baseball great really confess to murder on his deathbed?

Mrs. Grace Humiston, a.k.a. "Mrs. Sherlock Holmes"

“Mrs. Sherlock Holmes” Takes on the NYPD

When an 18-year-old girl went missing, the police let the case grow cold. But Grace Humiston, a soft-spoken private investigator, wouldn’t let it lie

None

One Man Against Tyranny

Charles Steinmetz, circa 1915

Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the Wizard of Schenectady

His contributions to mathematics and electrical engineering made him one of the most beloved and instantly recognizable men of his time.

Anne Bonny (left) and Mary Read, as rendered in A General History of the Pyrates

If There’s a Man Among Ye: The Tale of Pirate Queens Anne Bonny and Mary Read

Renowned for their ruthlessness, these two female pirates challenged the sailors’ adage that a woman’s presence on shipboard invites bad luck

Elis the pedlar, a Welsh packman working the villages around Llanfair in about 1885.

The Last of the Cornish Packmen

An encounter on a lonely road in the furthest reaches of the English West Country sheds light on the dying days of a once-ubiquitous profession

Left: Lisa and Minter Dial, on their way to the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. Right: Minter's ring

Minter’s Ring: The Story of One World War II POW

When excavators in Inchon, Korea discovered a U.S. naval officer’s ring, they had no knowledge of the pain associated with its former owner, Minter Dial

One of the larger pieces of Yapese stone money. Quarried in Palau, these giant coins were transported to Yap on flimsy outrigger canoes at considerable human cost – until O'Keefe took over their manufacturing.

David O’Keefe: The King of Hard Currency

The Irish American immigrant made a fortune by supplying the giant stone coins prized by Yap islanders

Murray Hall at the ballot box

The Mystery of Murray Hall

Hall realized his death would set off a national political scandal, inspiring the genuine wonder that he had never been what he seemed

Kersey in 1957. Although Jack Merriott's watercolor presents an idealized image of the village – it was commissioned for use in a railway advertising campaign – it does give an idea of just how 'old' Kersey must have looked to strangers in the year it became central to a 'timeslip' case.

When Three British Boys Traveled to Medieval England (Or Did They?)

A 1957 “time traveler” recalls “a feeling of unfriendliness and unseen watchers which sent shivers up one’s back”

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