Octavia Minor: Sister of Augustus, wife of Mark Antony, and great-grandmother of Caligula
Beatrix Potter, author of “Peter Rabbit,” never got over her first love
Centuries of firearm inventions, and the blade and bullet, a fearsome combination
The macaron: From Venetian monasteries and Catherine de’ Medici to two Carmelite nuns in the French Revolution
The 1796 “perfect wife” experiment of Thomas Day, inspired by Rousseau, took control freak to new levels
“Green Eggs and Ham” and the bet Dr. Seuss won that he couldn’t write a book of 50 words
Skeletons in 5,000-year-old graves are 7 inches taller than today’s average Chinese man
A Jewish girl who hid in the Warsaw zoo during WWII returned in emotional pilgrimage 70 years later
Adams, Jefferson, Monroe: The three presidents who died on the 4th of July
The gremlins: Not Spielberg or Dahl, they originate with the pilots of Royal Air Force
