August 24, 2025
November 08, 2013
On the May 12, 1838, the eighty-four-year old Prince de Talleyrand vomited blood at his own dinner table. It happened in the Parisian palais on Rue St. Florentin where he passed his retirement in semi-regal splendor. He had been entertaining old friends, the Princesse de Lieven and the Duke de Noailles. The old man, ever courteous in the manner of an aristocrat brought up in the ancien régime, apologized profusely and retired to bed.
Read MoreOctober 31, 2013
When the slaves of New York died, usually of disease and overwork, they were buried in an unincorporated patch of land in a wooded ravine just north of Chambers Street, near the Collect Pond. The city’s fathers had declared the churchyards—the favored burial spots of the elites—off-limits to blacks both free and enslaved. Just as there was a hierarchy for the living in New York, there was a hierarchy for the dead.
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October 30, 2013
Each generation faces death in its own way, and while the skeleton’s hollow-eyed gaze and mocking perma-smile have remained constant across time, humans have pulled a range of faces in response, ranging from the reverent to the ridiculous.
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October 15, 2013
The explorer wanted to be buried in the New World, but Spain felt differently. Now the remains of Columbus may lie on both continents.
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October 01, 2013
The who, when, why, where, and how of government shutdowns.
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September 25, 2013
Of all the dangers that could befall a sailor, scurvy is perhaps the most frightening.
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September 12, 2013
In Jacobean England, bringing sea pirates to the stage was harder than bringing them to justice.
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August 30, 2013
Micronations like Sealand represent the eternal human desire to be free of all rules except the ones made for one’s self.
Read MoreAugust 13, 2013
Mack Sennett anticipates Hollywood’s taste for window dressing.
Read More2023:
Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.
c. 1850:
Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.
2023:
Writers on strike search for romance at the picket line.
c. 1945:
Young communists engage in party matchmaking.