Odds

When Bill Gates III wanted to cash in on all the work and effort he put into Microsoft, the computer software company he founded, he took advantage of something called an initial public offering, or IPO. Today the thirty-five-year-old Harvard dropout is worth $3.9 billion. What is an IPO and how does it work? An … Read more

Since most people don’t pay their credit card bills in full each month, the bank that issued the card usually can charge interest, and that money, called finance charges, constitutes by far the greatest percentage of income for the bank. But let’s say you are conservative with your credit, don’t run amok by overspending, and … Read more

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a vealer is “an immature bovine animal not over three months of age: the same animal after three months, and after having subsisted for a period of time on feeds other than milk, is classified as a calf.” Veal meat, then, comes from a younger animal than … Read more

We cannot make a gene, we can only emulate one. In fact, scientists are less interested in reproducing actual genes than they are in copying the stuff genes are made of, clumps of DNA that are the blueprints for manufacturing proteins and chemicals imperative for life. Formulated in 1985, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has … Read more

Credit card fraud wrenches millions of dollars every year from the credit industry. And even though that’s only a fraction of a percent of credit card issuers’ profits, most issuers, such as banks, are careful to review applications. Hypothetically you could call yourself Spot, so long as you paid your bills. But in reality, it’s … Read more

Whenever the U.S. house of representatives and the U.S. Senate are in session, their public proceedings are published in the daily Congressional Record. The Record was first published in 1873, and it continues to be the official account of congressional debate. Each house of the legislature maintains a staff of court reporters, who transcribe the … Read more

Nielsen media research, the company responsible for compiling information on America’s television viewing habits, employs a device called the Nielsen People Meter to get its figures. The electronic meter, which is about the size and shape of a small cigar box, is attached to each of a sample family’s television sets, and whenever a set … Read more

Jury selection isn’t just based on instinctive hunches. As the stakes of cases have increased, lawyers on both sides of a case are carefully weighing each potential juror and trying to eliminate those who may have predispositions against their client. It is a tricky task requiring rapid psychological analysis by lawyers, assistance from jury consultants, … Read more

At the Mercedes test track in Stuttgart, Germany, workers drive these elegant autos at high speeds through slalom courses. Going ninety miles an hour, the driver slams on the brakes and nimbly maneuvers the car through a series of orange pylons. Why don’t these pricey vehicles flip off course like so many Matchbox cars in … Read more

“We would hate for you to say so,” reports a Federal Election Commission official, “but basically there is no way to do it.” So, now that we’ve spilled the beans, what’s to keep you from registering to vote in every district from here to Kalamazoo? Well, a couple of things, foremost among them your unwavering … Read more

Although the average person might be slipped a counterfeit bill and accept it unawares, someone trained in detection can nearly always spot it instantly and effortlessly. Why? Because the government has made it all but impossible to precisely copy the real stuff. The distinctive markings of legitimate money are printed by steel engraved plates on … Read more

The years preceding the enactment of the Constitution saw the need for a stronger national government. The Congress that had been active since 1774 was weak, and while it technically had the right to coin money, regulate Indian affairs, declare war and peace, and appropriate funds, it had little power to carry out these responsibilities. … Read more

In the third century B.C., Eratosthenes needed no more than a gnomon, or shadow stick, to measure the whole earth, and his answer missed our contemporary, sophisticated measurements by only 5 percent. On the summer solstice, Eratosthenes stood at Alexandria with his gnomon. When the sun reached its zenith over Syene, a city 5,000 stades, … Read more

On October 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette, former Queen of France and Navarre, mounted an open tumbrel led by cart horses, her hands bound behind her. With a constitutional priest beside her, she was driven through the chill autumn morning from the Conciergerie, where she had been held prisoner, over the Pont au Change, toward the … Read more

The Aztecs smoked tobacco through a hollow reed or cane tube, and elsewhere in Central and South America the indigenous population rolled shredded tobacco in corn husks and other vegetable materials. The conquistadores who witnessed this returned to Spain with something resembling our present day cigar. Wealthy Spaniards smoked these cigars and often tossed the … Read more

When Christopher Columbus died in 1506, he adamantly believed that the scene of his adventures and exploration was eastern Asia. This conviction prevented his assigning a new name to the vast continents that by rights should bear his name. His error was the first in a chain of quirky occurrences through which a counterfeit letter … Read more

The story of the search for radium is a romantic and stirring one. Behind it is a woman who was passionately curious, daring in her convictions, and determined to work in an age hardly encouraging to professional aspirations among those of her sex. From a dilapidated shed, described by one German chemist at the time … Read more

Corn holds a vital spot in the birth of our country as the staple on which the first Pilgrims survived. With no farm animals and little aptitude for tracking game, the Pilgrims might all have starved (as it was, many of them did) had it not been for corn. Yet before landing on these wild … Read more

On Near Year’s Day, 1946, the Emperor of Japan addressed his people, now battered by war, shamed by defeat, and fearful for the position of their divine leader: “We stand by the people and we wish always to share with them in their moments of joy and sorrow. The ties between us and our people … Read more

For thousands of years stories circulated about a vast river without water concealed beneath the barren sands and dunes of the Sahara desert. Here, where rain falls only once in 30 to 50 years, the possibility of a riverbed seems ludicrous. But in November 1981 the space shuttle Columbia had a more penetrating look at … Read more

With his genial disposition, lack of political drive, and tastes for wine, women, and poker, Warren Gamaliel Harding was not only a startling choice in 1920 but one of the least qualified candidates ever nominated by the Republican or Democratic party. But the young politician from small town America, Blooming Grove, Ohio, had good looks, … Read more

As simply as possible, for the most economical and efficient production to date. The Model T was the car for the masses, the car that revolutionized the industry in its early days, that ten years after its appearance sold for an average of $400 retail while Ford netted over $80 million annually. “You can have … Read more

Time magazine was the child of two ambitious Yalies who grew up in a time and of a class that cultivated self-assurance and initiative. The first issue hot off the press in March 1923 appeared when the two men behind it were only 24 and 25. They were Henry Robinson Luce, born in China on … Read more

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 in the quiet, respectable town of Amherst, Massachusetts, and died there 56 years later, her genius as yet unrecognized, her manuscripts, like her life, safely hidden from the world. As daughter of the treasurer of Amherst College, Emily might have taken part in society but chose not to, turning … Read more

When Al Capone’s armor plated Cadillac with its bulletproof glass and tail gunner’s movable back window cruised along the streets of Chicago, people spilled into the streets hoping to catch a glimpse of Scarface. Inside, the king of the underworld reclined on silk cushions and puffed on a fat cigar, while his bodyguard, armed with … Read more

Attempts to map the earth began thousands of years before the birth of Christ. The first known maps were made by the Babylonians and the Egyptians, who transcribed information gathered from direct measurement of the ground. Babylonian ground plans, made for the purpose of taxing property, were inscribed on tablets of baked clay and date … Read more

No other gem in history has provoked such fascination and mystery as the deep-blue 45.52 carat Hope diamond. This stone, however rare and beautiful, allegedly brought evil and misfortune to all who wore it. That, legend claims, is why Louis XIV died in disgrace; Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette fell beneath the blade of the … Read more

What would the weather forecast be without a map of highs and lows? How could the weatherman guarantee us a sunny weekend or predict a blizzard if it weren’t for the barometer? This instrument is undoubtedly one of the meteorologist’s most useful tools, but there’s nothing magical or complex about it, its precursor was invented … Read more

When Superman speeds across the heavens to save Lois Lane or fearlessly dives and swoops around the skyscrapers of Gotham or over the San Andreas Fault, kids really believe he’s flying and many of the rest of us come close to believing, too. That’s because the moviemakers put a lot of effort into not only … Read more

Heinrich Schliemann, a self-made millionaire with a lifelong belief in the historical accuracy of the Greek classics, discovered ancient Troy, the site of the battles fought in Homer’s Iliad. Born in 1822 in Mecklenburg, Germany, Schliemann was introduced to the Iliad and the Odyssey by his father, a Protestant minister. As a boy Heinrich would … Read more

Hannibal, born in 247 B.C., grew up in Carthage during the First Punic War between the great powers of Rome and Carthage, rivals since the days long before when Dido of Libya had died of love for Rome’s Aeneas. At the tender age of nine, Hannibal vowed a sacred oath before his father, the renowned … Read more

In 1925, when Detroit was alive and well with a burgeoning auto industry, some car manufacturers were producing two-tone models. Flashy, yes, but a nightmare to paint. So the car makers turned to the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company 3M for a sturdy tape they could run along a seam while painting to keep clean … Read more

Paleontologists believe Neanderthal man to have lived in the world from 100,000 to 40,000 years ago, a period that began in a warm interglacial phase but included the last ice age (70,000 years ago) as well. Thus these primitive humans, found predominantly in Western Europe and the Mideast but as far north as southern Siberia, … Read more

Fifteenth century Europe, at last stirring from the sleep of the Middle Ages, was a place of exploration and invention. Universities opened their doors; drama’ and poetry flourished; a wave of humanism peaked in Italy and spread northward; Prince Henry the Navigator and Christopher Columbus set sail for new shores. In Germany, the city of … Read more

Although the principle and construction of the parachute might seem pretty elementary in these days of advanced aerodynamic technology, early experiments with the devices were feats of considerable daring, usually performed before breathless crowds at country fairs. Louis Sebastien Lenormand of France was the first to demonstrate his rustic canopy parachute in action when, in … Read more

When the five Marx brothers and their parents, grandparents, and miscellaneous relatives lived crammed together in a tenement on East 93rd Street in New York, it was Minnie, the boys’ mother, who was always plotting and scheming to get them onto the stage. A legend in show business, she had the energy and inspiration to … Read more

The largest man-made construction on earth, and, it is often said, the only one visible from the moon, the Great Wall of China began as many different walls linking already existing fortifications and watchtowers. During the period of the Warring Kingdoms (c. 500-221 B.C.), myriad principalities were subsumed under huge kingdoms, which inevitably fought and … Read more

Beethoven noted the first signs of deafness as early as 1801, when he was only 28, with numerous piano and chamber works behind him but only one symphony yet created. “Let me tell you,” wrote the young composer to Karl Friedrich Amenda, “that my most prized possession, my hearing, has greatly deteriorated.” He commented parenthetically, … Read more

In this century convention appears to have the upper hand with men’s clothes. The standard, acceptable uniform is dutifully worn by legions of businessmen pouring into offices five days a week, despite the buttoned collar that grows smaller with passing hours, despite the choking necktie cramping one’s style. For some, fumbling with a necktie at … Read more

In the popular legend, poor old Mrs. O’Leary’s cow takes the rap for the devastation of downtown Chicago, with a loss of 17,000 buildings and $200 million. The accused allegedly kicked over a lantern, which ignited the straw, the cowshed, and three and a half square miles of the city. No one else shouldered the … Read more

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was assembling his Cabinet in 1932, labor leaders had their own ideas about who should be Secretary of Labor. By the time the President met with them, however, his mind was made up. He, had not only rejected their choices, he had selected a woman: Frances Perkins. Eleanor Roosevelt sympathized with … Read more

Godwin, Earl of Wessex, scalped his enemies way back in the 11th century. Six hundred years later the Dutch and English brought the custom to North America, not as an official method of warfare, but as a bounty to ease the fury of the frontiersmen. Outlaws, runaways, and freethinkers were the early settlers of the … Read more

No one was more vigorously opposed to unions than Henry Ford. As waves of strikes disrupted factories across the country in the late 1930s, as General Motors and Chrysler made concessions, Ford stood firm, convinced to the bitter end that unions were controlled by “predatory money interests in New York.” The recalcitrant tycoon, by then … Read more

Although “wiener” and “frank” and “hot dog” are interchanged quite freely today, old-time sausage makers insist that originally Vienna’s wiener and Frankfurt’s frankfurter were two distinct breeds, the latter being more coarsely ground and highly seasoned. To confuse matters even more, the hot dog’s antecedent is called a wiener Wurst in Frankfurt and a Frankfurter … Read more

While moviegoers across the country flocked to the films of Humphrey Bogart to swoon over his aloof machismo or be dazzled by his daring, teenaged Betty Bacal stood in the shadows of the streets of Brooklyn, as yet unknown. Hanging out in front of Sardi’s, she sold a theatrical sheet, Actor’s Cues, and brazenly introduced … Read more

In the early days of atomic physics, the overriding concern was the search for knowledge, pure and simple, unencumbered by the controversial moral and political ramifications that since 1945 have surrounded the atomic bomb. In the forefront of the drive to reveal the secrets of the atom was one of the greatest physicists of all … Read more

The violins of Antonio Stradivari are renowned throughout the world for their perfect proportions, vigorous and bright tonality, responsiveness, and remarkable flexibility in the hands of different musicians playing continually new music throughout the ages. The gifted instrument maker, who lived in the town of Cremona in northern Italy, did not, however, spring out of … Read more

For many years James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, was the authority on the age of the earth. Calculating from the genealogy of patriarchs in the Old Testament, the Irish prelate pronounced in 1648 that the world was created in 4004 B.C. So convinced was he and nearly everyone else of the divine origin of the … Read more

Marrying the notorious blonde with the gargantuan ego was probably the worst move Frank Wallace of Long Island ever made. Mae West was decidedly unfit for monogamy. Wallace, on the other hand, was blinded by her skirt-swishing dance numbers and her imagination in the sack. He didn’t realize why she agreed to marry, and even … Read more

Potato chips were originally called Saratoga chips after the site of their discovery. In the late 19th century a Native American named George Crumb worked as chef for Moon’s Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York, where a fashionable crowd convened to take the waters of the spa. A persnickety guest reportedly disliked the cut … Read more

At about 3:30 A.M. on November 4, 1953, Dylan Thomas staggered from the White Horse Tavern to his hotel room in the Chelsea section of New York and announced to his girl friend, Liz Reitell, “I’ve had eighteen straight whiskeys. I think that’s the record.” That, at any rate, became the legend. Today students, writers, … Read more

On October 1, 1929, a wrecking crew of 700 arrived at the stately Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to begin demolition of what had been a fashionable center of New York social life for 36 years. On this site, imbued with tradition, several leaders of big business would build the tallest skyscraper to date, one surpassing others in … Read more

The first attack came on May 24, 1940. Leon Trotsky, the powerful revolutionary and political strategist, Lenin’s comrade and appointed successor, had been living in exile for 11 years. Though his health was failing, he continued to work feverishly from behind the high walls of his villa in Coyoacan, Mexico, writing and plotting worldwide revolution. … Read more

Nestled in the mountains surrounding Bogota, Colombia, lies a rather unspectacular lake called Guatavita. But a very strange ritual was once performed here, one that caused Spaniards and Englishmen alike to forsake the comforts of home, battle alligators and jaguars and cannibals, suffer scurvy and starvation, and lose their way in the torrid jungles, all … Read more

With the demise of his first marriage in the early 1920s, Hughes abandoned himself to 30 years of rampant promiscuity—bizarre and often underhanded. Enamored of Hollywood, he was equally smitten by its leading ladies. Marian Marsh, Jean Harlow, Ava Gardner, Lana Turner, Ida Lupino, and Carole Lombard were all associated with the tall and mysterious … Read more

According to Arab legend, a lone shepherd named Kaldi was roaming the hills with his herd of goats sometime around A.D. 850. One day he found his usually quiet herd behaving very strangely: old and young alike frolicked and cavorted, scampered up and down the rocky slopes bleating excitedly. The bewildered shepherd hid and watched … Read more

John Quincy Adams, who served as President from 1824 to 1828, was noted for his austere reserve and cold manner. Critics labeled him an aristocrat and tyrant. Even Anne Royall, the caustic newspaperwoman who left no scandal concealed, no political machine unscathed, found Adams a difficult man to get to. Time and again she pounded … Read more

At 4 A.M. on March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward and Baron Edouard Stoeckl, Russian Minister to the United States, signed the Treaty of Cession, by which Alaska passed from Russian to American hands for a mere $7.2 million, culminating three weeks of intense negotiation carried on in unusual secrecy. Seward rushed … Read more

Chaplin’s trademark, the derby cocked on his head, thick swatch of a moustache, and gargantuan shoes, was the result of Mack Sennett’s request that he “get into a comedy make-up” for Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914). With a little ingenuity, he concocted the outfit in a dressing room while Fatty Arbuckle and Chester Conklin … Read more

Johann Sebastian Bach was the third choice of the Council of Leipzig, definitely not the most desirable of the six applicants who turned up in 1722 to compete for the enviable post of music director in Leipzig. Georg Philipp Telemann was indisputably the star. As the prestigious music director and cantor of Hamburg, and a … Read more

Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated on April 6, 1814, and the Allies attempted to determine his fate, according to the Treaty of Fontainebleau, signed six days later. The Emperor (who might still call himself that) was to assume sovereignty not over an empire but over the little island of Elba, lying between Corsica and the western coast … Read more

On April 10, 1912, the magnificent Titanic, called unsinkable, steamed slowly away from Southampton on her maiden voyage with her cargo of aristocrats, her lavish dining rooms, suites, and cafés. She picked up passengers at Queenstown, then turned her bow westward toward New York, with 1,316 passengers and 891 crew members. Nearly 900 feet long, … Read more

“Quickly” is the answer to this question, before Napoleon could change his mind. In the early 19th century, New Orleans was already a vital port, strategically located at the mouth of the long Mississippi. Early settlers in the West shipped nearly a third of their produce in flatboats along its tributaries and down the river … Read more

There may be just one basic way to conceive a child, but people over the ages have concocted an array of ways not to. The human race has seen fit to control its numbers for diverse reasons, be it shortages of food in Neolithic times or eugenics in ancient Sparta, and the means to this … Read more

Hovering over the steep Pleistus Valley and shielded by rugged Mount Parnassus is the ancient sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. Here at the crossroads of several trade routes, men of the mercantile world would meet and exchange wares. Others would come to seek the wisdom of the fabled oracle, the frenzied prophetess through whom Apollo … Read more

It was not the searching eye of an astronomer but the enormously complex calculations of mathematicians that made Neptune known to the world. If skeptical at first, people were dazzled when the new planet was finally seen and the computations thus confirmed. This was the first planet to be discovered mathematically, and the method seemed … Read more

Since the 19th century, the Mason-Dixon line has represented the demarcation between North and South, the front where opinions clashed on the incendiary issue of slavery. In Civil War days, the line ran along the Maryland-Pennsylvania border and westward along the Ohio River to the Mississippi. But Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon actually had no … Read more

The fight to save the endangered whooping crane began as early as the 1930s. Since then the struggle has acquired a certain mystique, exemplifying the recent awareness that man cannot live at the expense of other creatures. The United States government and the National Audubon Society initiated studies and programs to aid the majestic cranes, … Read more

The statutory mile (as opposed to the slightly longer nautical mile) has an unlikely and seemingly arbitrary length of 5,280 feet. The measurement derives from ancient Rome. As walking was then the primary mode of transportation, the Romans measured a distance in paces-2 steps to the pace, a pace spanning about 5 feet, thus milia … Read more

No one throughout the ages has enjoyed so sublime a tomb as that of King Khufu, builder of the magnificent Great Pyramid of Giza. The son and successor of King Snefru and Queen Hetepheres, Khufu reigned for 23 years, a period marked by economic stability and artistic progress. The able and energetic King erected several … Read more

“That’s where the money was,” quipped Willie. At dawn on March 9, 1950, the most notorious criminal in the country, number one on the FBI’s “Most Wanted” list, Willie Sutton, was getting ready for work. In his refuge on Staten Island, the Actor stood before the mirror staining his skin a dark olive, thickening his … Read more

Obviously, somebody wanted to get rich. And that somebody was not the McDonald brothers, who lived a quiet, comfortable life in southern California, content with their pretty white house and its pleasant view. A man of a different ilk proved the dynamo behind the scenes, the relentlessly driving entrepreneur who would see those now familiar … Read more

DNA is virtually synonymous with James Watson and Francis Crick in popular belief, largely because their contribution to its study was momentous and relatively recent. But Watson and Crick were not the discoverers of the miraculous substance that embodies the secret code of genetic characteristics. These two, who fathomed the complex structure of DNA, were … Read more

During the summer of 1977 many Americans walked the streets with a distracted look in their eyes and glanced frequently, apprehensively, at the sky. That was the summer aliens hovered overhead in a chandelier spaceship, sounding a sacred chord for mystified mortals. More spectacular than an oil refinery seen from the air at night (that … Read more

Charles Baudelaire’s mother had reservations about Les Fleurs du Mal. Theophile Gautier warned the poet of its “scabrous nature.” M. Bourdin, writing for Le Figaro (a newspaper largely reflecting government views), was scandalized: There are times when one doubts Monsieur Baudelaire’s sanity; there are those when there is no longer any doubt; most of the … Read more

Admiral Robert E. Peary’s ship, the Roosevelt, steamed north through the ice-packed waters of Smith Sound in 1908, her wooden hull specially fortified to meet the harsh barriers of ice, her primary means of propulsion a 1,000-horsepower engine rather than the sails of previous arctic exploration ships. Peary’s methods differed in another fundamental way: years … Read more

When in 1857 Frederick Law Olmsted became superintendent of the area that would become Central Park, he described it as “a pestilential spot, where rank vegetation and miasmatic odors taint every breath of air.” The land was a chaotic mix of swamp and brambles, squatters’ shacks and open sewers. Some 300 hovels dotted the unpromising … Read more

When the shooting of Gone With the Wind began, producer David O. Selznick was still searching for Scarlett O’Hara. Actresses flocked to Hollywood, talent scouts combed the South, and Selznick’s backers banged on his door. Over the course of two and a half years he’d shot 165,000 feet of film (27 hours), spending $105,000 on … Read more

Apparently George Smith, who first made a candy on a stick for a Connecticut candy manufacturer in the early 1900s, had other moneymaking interests: Lolly Pop was one of the finest racehorses of the time.

Humphrey Bogart cured a hangover by getting drunk again. And to make sure he had some company he formed his own drinking club, the Holmby Hills Rat Pack, with his wife Lauren Bacall as den mother, Frank Sinatra as secretary. Members were by and large Hollywood Democrats with an inclination for the bottle. Regulars included … Read more

Aristotle provided the first conclusive argument for a spherical earth when he noted during a lunar eclipse that the shadow the earth cast on the moon was circular. Lactantius of Alexandria was an early apostate from the scientifically based cosmology of the ancients. In “On the False Wisdom of the Philosophers,” a chapter in his … Read more

By the mid-1930s the U.S. Navy had begun to solve some Japanese diplomatic messages with relative ease. But just as the Navy succeeded in breaking what the United States called the Red code, Japan’s Foreign Office installed new, more sophisticated coding machines in its major embassies, and the ensuing transmissions had the Navy baffled. The … Read more

If one had stood at the corner of New York’s 34th Street and 5th Avenue at eight o’clock on a given night in the 1870s, one might have seen a string of stately carriages arrive at Number 350 on 34th. There the creme de la crème of New York Society would descend in a glitter … Read more

For a long time the exceedingly small size of an atom, one hundred-millionth of an inch is typical, made it very difficult to make even an informed guess about its structure. Sir Isaac Newton imagined atoms as “solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles.” Others decided they were red, or gray, compact, and densely populated with … Read more

The strange custom of dancing on the very tips of one’s toes is not as old as ballet itself. Only after the dance was several hundred years old did this stylized position, which many now consider the essence of ballet, catch on, and one Italian girl at the Paris Opera was largely responsible. The classic … Read more

For thousands of years, communication moved only as fast as a horse could run or a ship could muster subject to the vagaries of the wind. But in the 19th century, an invention popularly attributed to Samuel F. B. Morse suddenly transcended the miles, within countries and beyond. Miraculous wires began to creep over Europe … Read more

In 1972 Germany’s “Bonnie and Clyde” were declared Public Enemies Number One. In the two years since its formation, the Red Army Faction, popularly called the Baader-Meinhof gang, had stunned, divided, and terrified the country. Over 100 police had been hospitalized and 1 killed, while judges’ chambers were gutted and American installations fire-bombed. A new … Read more

An Egyptian stele from about 1500 B.C. portrays a young man with a withered leg, symptomatic of poliomyelitis. The Procession of the Cripples by Hieronymus Bosch also captures the cruel effects of the disease. In the late 19th century and first half of the 20th, what had been isolated instances erupted, unpredictably, into devastating epidemics. … Read more

In Mexico’s Estadio Olimpico, a crowd of 80,000 gasped as high jumper Dick Fosbury flew over the bar at seven feet, four and a half inches to win a gold medal in the 1968 Olympics and set an Olympic record. It wasn’t only the height that astounded them (Russia’s Valery Brumel still held the world … Read more

The shadowy actor of whom we know so little, with whom we credit the pinnacles of English literature, has been the object of veneration, gentle skepticism, and the most bitter abuse. The camps are divided, the theories myriad. Some worship the poet as a god; others denounce him as an illiterate, drunken rustic, usurer, and … Read more