How a strange rumor of Walt Disney’s death became legend
When you hear "Disney on Ice," you may think of the wildly popular ice shows featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse and others skating in hockey arenas across the nation. But there's also the disturbing urban legend that Walt Disney’s corpse…
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Museums are curating an era of social movements in real time
As Black Lives Matter protests erupted in 2014 after a police officer killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in D.C. sent curators to collect t-shirts and gas masks -- artifacts it could…
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Why a library fire feels like an ‘attack on humanity’
In April 1986, fire raged through the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles, damaging or destroying more than a million books. Journalist and author Susan Orlean resurrects this nearly forgotten story in “The Library Book,” which also explores the emotional…
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In ‘These Truths,’ historian Jill Lepore weaves in underappreciated political stories
A new, single volume of history sets out to explore the experiment in government that is the United States. Jeffrey Brown sits down with award-winning Harvard historian Jill Lepore, author of “These Truths: A History of the United States,” to…
In Spain, a constitutional debate has arisen over the body of former dictator Francisco Franco. The new left-wing government wants to relocate Franco's remains, which lie in the Valley of the Fallen, a Spanish civil war monument near Madrid. But…
From July 21 to July 24, 1976, more than 2,000 members of the Pennsylvania chapters of the American Legion attended their annual state convention at a Philadelphia hotel. By Aug. 15, 182 Legionnaires who attended the convention were ill with…
Researchers are using the latest genetic sequencing technology to understand to a surprising degree the movements and interactions of very ancient humans. At the forefront of this revolution, David Reich is trying to answer very big questions, like "Who We…
Interviewing him in English at the table, I discovered that Sirhan had heard the news about Kennedy, but had gone to bed before the assassin’s name had been announced.
In "The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels," Jon Meacham tries to offer historical context and a sense of proportion for our current times. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is best known for his presidential biographies of Andrew…
