The possible futures predicted by fortune-telling happen just often enough to tantalize, preying on our deepest aspirations of catching a "big break."

Women's roles in the business world partly depended on their status as consumers in the early twentieth century.

Madame Helena Blavatsky was the 19th century's most famous and notorious occultist. She was also the godmother of the New Age movement. 

Extra Credit: Our pick of stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Antony Van Leeuwenhoek is considered the first microbiologist. Some of his original letters can be read here.

Procter & Gamble made its industrially produced soap the basis for a revival of an ancient craft, leading to a huge fad for soap carving.

Americans have been obsessed with the sexual character and moral rectitude, or lack thereof, of politicians from the beginning. 

In the 1920s, women's love of driving in auto-obsessed Los Angeles created traffic jams and a battle over women’s rightful place.

Johnny Appleseed was based on a real person, John Chapman, who was eccentric enough without the legends.

The solar system is apparently more crowded than we thought: astronomers have discovered a new dwarf planet. Some dwarf planets don't play by the rules.