Mercury 13 refers to thirteen American women who, as part of a privately funded program, underwent the same physiological screening tests as the astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959 for Project Mercury. The term was coined in 1995 by Hollywood producer James Cross as a comparison to the Mercury Seven name given to […]

The Rosetta Stone is a granodiorite stele, found in 1799, inscribed with three versions of a decree issued at Memphis, Egypt in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic script and Demotic script, respectively, while the bottom is in […]

At each step in the march westward on the American frontier pioneers fought a cunning and ubiquitous enemy–disease and epidemics. There were wounds from knives and guns and no hospitals. To survive in the 18th and 19th centuries you had to find a doctor–or someone calling himself one. Meet the last defense against death in […]

The Five Points is to Organized Crime as Plymouth Rock is to America. From the worst slum in New York City springs a steady stream of Irish thugs, Jewish racketeers and Italian hit men who would make organized crime a permanent part of the American scene.

In 1600, London citizens poor and rich attend the theater to enjoy grand spectacles of drama, music and dance. These huge playhouses like Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre offer the highest form of entertainment to the masses of Elizabethan England. Nowhere inthe world is there a better stage. The impresarios are rich; the actors are worshipped and […]