Revolutionary Writer Maxim Gorky’s NYC Sex Scandal
In 1906, Russian Bolshevik writer Maxim Gorky was given a warm welcome in the United States. Then the American media manufactured a scandal about his girlfriend.
Baking Vs. Roasting
We cook bread, meat, and vegetables much the same way: in our ovens. So why do we say we "bake" bread, but we "roast" meat and veggies?
The Long-Lost Locust
The 1874 locust swarm was estimated to be twice the square mileage of the state of Colorado. Why don't locusts swarm anymore?
Hollywood’s Asian American Heroes
Asian American detectives played by actors Anna May Wong and Keye Luke had a minor but notable place in 1930s and 40s Hollywood.
Fingerprints and Crime
The first criminal conviction based on fingerprint evidence took place in Argentina on 1892, thanks to a police official inspired by eugenics.
Susan Fenimore Cooper, Forgotten Naturalist
Susan Fenimore Cooper, known as her father James Fenimore Cooper's secretary, is now being recognized as one of the nation's first environmentalists.
Atoms for… Peace?
Iran's nuclear program is in the news, again. But what's the backstory on how the country went nuclear in the first place?
John Snow and the Birth of Epidemiology
Even though this physician pre-dated germ theory, he was able to track a London outbreak of cholera to one particular water pump.
Was Mark Twain a Con Man?
A man named Samuel Clemens received funds from the radical abolitionist Boston Vigilance Committee in 1854. It may have been Mark Twain, pulling a prank.
How to Memorialize Motherhood
Every statue tells a story, often long forgotten. San Francisco's Pioneer Mother Monument in Golden Gate Park was greeted with disappointed by the woman who originated it.