Eddie Mannix: the real-life Hollywood fixer, studio executive, and producer who inspired Coen brothers’ “Hail, Caesar!”
Bruce Chatwin: The man who revitalized travel writing after following his childhood dream of going to Patagonia
The Sears mail order homes: One of the first lines of do-it-yourself house kits produced from 1906 to 1940
The Louisiana Purchase: Napoleon, eager for money to wage war on Britain, sold the land to U.S.–and a British bank financed the sale
Gail Borden’s breakthrough, life-saving invention of condensed milk was inspired by watching Shakers boil fruit