The curious life of Ida Wood, a socialite turned miserly recluse who lived locked in a Manhattan hotel room for 30 years
The Beach Boys sang about a California culture of sun and sand in the 1960s but didn’t actually like to surf themselves
The reason John F. Kennedy kept a battered coconut shell on his desk in the Oval Office
The forgotten “sleepy sickness” epidemic transformed victims into living statues, speechless and motionless, and scientists still don’t understand it
Despite what everyone thinks, bank heists were almost nonexistent in the Wild West
The first vehicle to exceed a speed of 60 mph was a purpose-built electric car
The surprising truth behind the classic V-J Day photo of a sailor passionately embracing a nurse
Spy Game: When Soviet schoolchildren presented Ambassador Averell Harriman with a replica of the Great Seal of the U.S. in 1945, there was a listening device inside
The Altamont free concert in 1969 featured the Rolling Stones and was intended to be Woodstock West but ended in crime and chaos
Singapore Botanic Gardens houses a fantastic orchid collection, including the tiger orchid, believed to be oldest orchid in the world
