Holocaust victim

 Born in New York City in 1862, Edith Wharton was raised in a wealthy, high-society family bound by rigid conventions that restricted women. However, she defied these expectations early on, pursuing her passions despite societal norms. Fascinated by knowledge, Edith mastered French, German, and Italian during her childhood years in Europe. Yet, while she excelled in languages, writing and storytelling became her true calling. From a young age, she crafted stories and composed poetry. Dedicated to refining her skills, she wrote a 30,000-word novella by age fifteen. That same year, she sold her first poem. By eighteen, several of her poems appeared in literary magazines—though all under a pen name, as writing was deemed improper for a woman of her social standing. Writing became Edith’s lifelong pursuit. She authored forty-eight books and at least eighty-five short stories. In 1921, she made history as the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, awarded for her novel

 It was unusual for him to call at that time, so I answered right away, sensing something was wrong. It was about Dad. Dad had a sink in the garage. One day, he opened a cabinet door above the sink, closed it, and then leaned over to wash his face. When he finished, he accidentally hit his head on the sharp corner of the partially open door. At first, the pain seemed normal for how hard he’d hit his head. But over the next three weeks, the pain kept getting worse. Mom took him to the doctor, but the doctor didn’t order any tests. Later, when the pain became unbearable, Mom rushed him to the ER. Tests showed that enough blood had leaked into his brain to shift it to the side. My brother called because the surgeon wasn’t sure how Dad’s brain would react once they drained the blood—it could start swelling dangerously. Dad was airlifted by helicopter from Indiana to a major hospital in Dayton, Ohio. I packed my things and drove to the hospital. By the time I arrived, Dad was getting re...

 My hand was shaking, my head was shaking, the cigarette was shaking—I was so embarrassed. The more I tried to stop, the more I shook. I figured out that the only way to keep my head still was to lower my chin, almost to my chest, and look up at Bogart. It worked, and that became the start of 'The Look.'" When director Howard Hawks discovered Bacall, he gave her a choice between working with Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart. She was tempted to work with Grant, but Hawks cast her with Bogart in To Have and Have Not, and that led to one of Hollywood's most famous love stories. Bacall wrote in her autobiography that by the third week of filming, their friendly joking turned into something more. After shooting one day, she said, "...he leaned over, put his hand under my chin, and kissed me. It was a quick kiss—he was a little shy, not forceful. He took a matchbook out of his pocket and asked me to write my phone number on it. I did." At the time, Bogart was 44 and u...

She gave him ten children. She buried three of them with her own hands. She crossed the ocean with him, stayed by his side through fame and struggle, and kept a busy household running. And yet, Catherine Hogarth — the wife of Charles Dickens — was pushed aside, blamed, and forgotten. Dickens, praised as a great writer of the Victorian era, called her “fat, lazy, jealous, and dull.” He even shared their private troubles with the public, writing a letter that made him look like the victim. The world felt sorry for him. Few felt sorry for her. But who wouldn’t be tired after ten pregnancies? Who wouldn’t gain weight or grieve deeply after burying children? Catherine was not weak — she was strong. She kept going. Her marriage ended not because of her, but because Dickens fell in love with a much younger actress, Ellen Ternan. Divorce was nearly impossible at the time, so Catherine was made the one to blame. Dickens even built a wall inside their house to keep her apart from him. One day, C...

 The Wehrmacht actually had direct orders to kill any female soldiers they came after as they saw such a thing as unimaginable and degenerate. Given she obviously has not been shot yet, she would likely have been sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, where she likely died of starvation. Female Soviet soldiers are one of the greatest examples of the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht" being tarnished. Several Wehrmacht generals were so insulted by fighting women that they ordered them to be executed immediately, including Güyher von Kluge and Walther von Reichenau.Because the Germans didn't have separate POW camps for women, if they weren't executed they were mostly handed over to the SS and sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp. She was very likely raped and murdered as that was what the Wehrmacht tended to do on the eastern front

 Since she was a child she showed a precocious talent for sculpture. At the time women were not admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts, but an exception was made for Camille. That was how she met Auguste Rodin, a famous sculptor established in the Parisian artistic circles, becoming first his student and then his lover. The relationship with Rodin was overwhelming but also tormented by the prejudices of society and the rejection of Camille's family who disapproved of her relationship with Rodin.Many of Rodin's works were made in collaboration with Camille, but while Rodin received the honors, Camille lived in the shadows, agreeing to share him with another woman, with whom she had a son. Camille eventually broke off her relationship with the sculptor, and it was then that Camille's mother, who was ashamed of her daughter's behavior, decided to have her locked up in a mental asylum.She would never get out: all attempts to make people understand that she was not crazy were ...

 Sold multiple times, they were taken “on the road” to perform at local fairs, subjected to medical examinations, and displayed in so-called “freak show exhibits”—a practice that tragically reflects a long history of the objectification of Black and Brown bodies. Their story reached far beyond North Carolina. These exhibits took them across the United States, into Canada, and even overseas, where they met Queen Victoria and other dignitaries. Marketed as the “Two-Headed Nightingale,” they eventually became part of the Barnum circus, their lives reduced to spectacle. In 1912, both sisters died just hours apart, on the same land where they had once been enslaved. That land, however, carried a powerful legacy: it had been purchased by their father after emancipation, transforming a site of bondage into one of resilience and family heritage.

  Her name is Carmen Tarleton, and she was attacked by her estranged husband, who doused her with industrial-strength lye. It burnt her all over, and she needed more than 50 surgeries and two face transplants after the attack to be human again. And strange as it may be, this woman does resemble typical victims of chimp attacks — the most notable one being Charla Nash, who lost her eyes, nose, lips and much more in an attack by the pet chimp of her best friend which only lasted a couple of minutes, but changed her life forever. And I’ll bet you have never seen similar wounds on a victim of, say, a rabbit attack or a sheep (and even a horse, for that matter) biting accident. And that’s because of the fact that chimpanzees have an entirely different dental structure than herbivores, and that they are not shy of instinctively (and even strategically) attacking, killing, and eating other animals in the wild. Insects, crabs, monkeys, birds, tortoises, and even other chimps are all part o...

 Somewhere In Time was a romantic time travel film which starred Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Produced in 1980 Jane has since told that the romance between the two celluloid characters spread into real life when she fell in love with Christopher. It tells the story of a man in the present who sees a portrait of a beautiful girl and is able to travel back in time where they meet and fall in love. It was based on a story by Richard Matheson who saw a painting of an old time actress, Maude Adams, not the present one best known as Octopussy, and was so taken by it he did research on her and came up with the story entitled, Bid Time Return. Jane has revealed that she ‘’fell madly in love with Christopher.’’ She went to say, "When you see this film, you will see the real thing, But we didn’t let anyone know. So a few of the people who worked on the show kind of sussed it out, but we were as subtle as we could be about it. We were madly in love and life was wonderful. We were both...

 Mom was working toward a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry and Dad was going for his PhD in Organic Chemistry. Between them, they had the Periodic Table covered. Here they are, right after their civil ceremony. They found a magistrate in NJ who married them in his living room on Thanksgiving Day, 1956. As happy as they appear, they knew their marriage meant both of them would be “disowned” by their families. Mom came from a staunchly Lutheran family that emigrated from Czechoslovakia and homesteaded a farm/ranch in Nebraska. Her parents didn’t even think she should go to college. In spite of that, she was determined to get an education. She worked as a seamstress to pay her way through college and graduate school. Her first choice was medical school and she was among the first women to be accepted. Unfortunately, it turned out to be too expensive and she had to find another path - she chose chemistry. She was accepted into graduate studies at Northwestern University. There were 13 men in...

 America’s Oldest Identical Triplets Share a Century of Memories with Family Born on August 23, 1920, in Brooklyn, Catherine, Marguerite, and Frances Kirchner arrived as a surprise—since their mother had no idea she was carrying three babies. Believed to be the oldest living identical triplets in the country, the sisters grew up in Floral Park, N.Y., often wearing matching outfits. They came of age during the Great Depression, made their own clothes, and later witnessed history unfold with the attack on Pearl Harbor and through World War II. All three graduated from William Smith College in 1942 and married men who had studied at the nearby Hobart College. They went on to work as teachers, stayed active in sports—Frances kept playing golf and tennis well into her 80s—and built a large family together: 15 children, 20 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. When asked about the secret to their long lives, the sisters point to “good genes” and keeping busy. Longevity appears to run ...

 This wouldn't normally make headlines, but her story is special. Jesse works for the Santa Rosa, California, police department, where he meets many people during his patrols. One day, he met a homeless woman who was pregnant and struggling with drug addiction. Later, Jesse took his wife, Ashley, to meet her. They both offered to help him by taking him to a drug rehabilitation center. The woman saw their kindness and caring, and that's when she asked them if they would adopt her baby. The couple already had three young daughters, so they had to think carefully. On February 9, the woman gave birth to a baby girl named Harlow. The hospital asked her if she would like to place the baby in foster care, but the woman refused. Instead, she asked them to call Officer Whitten and his wife. That's what they did. On August 30, the Whittens officially became Harlow's parents. Ashley explained that Harlow's mother wanted the best life possible for her daughter, but due to her o...

 He was shot, stabbed, pierced with arrows —20 wounds in total. Then in 1844, left for dead on a bloodied battlefield, Cicero Rufus Perry did the unthinkable, he walked 120 miles alone across hostile land to survive. Born in Alabama in 1822, Perry moved to Texas at 11, and quickly found himself in the thick of violent clashes —fighting in the siege of Bexar, skirmishes along Yegua creek, and battling native tribes as a Texas Ranger. His wounds tell a story of relentless grit, but that 120 mile trek stands as a testament to a willpower most could hardly imagine. It wasn't just a miraculous escape; it was the raw edge of survival. Perry, bleeding and unarmed, without food or water, staggered through rugged terrain from Uvalde to San Antonio, refusing to give up when even his comrades thought he was gone. But his story didn't end there.. years later Perry still fought, surviving battles like Deer Creek in 1873. Rising through the ranks, he became Captain of Company D, leading men ...

Allee Willis was a struggling songwriter in Los Angeles, California, until the night she got a call from Maurice White, the leader of Earth, Wind & Fire. Maurice offered her the chance of a lifetime: to co-write the band's next album. Willis arrived at the studio the next day hoping it wasn't some kind of cosmic joke. "As I open the door, they had just written the intro to 'September.' And I just thought, 'Dear God, let this be what they want me to write!' Cause it was obviously the happiest-sounding song in the world," Allee says. Using a progression composed by Earth, Wind & Fire guitarist Al McKay, Maurice and Allee wrote the song over the course of a month, conjuring images of clear skies and dancing under the stars. Alee says she likes songs that tell stories, and that at a certain point, she feared the lyrics to 'September' were starting to sound simplistic. One nonsense phrase bugged her in particular. "The, kind of, go-to p...

 Josie (6 years old), Bertha (6 years old), and Sophie (10 years old) worked at the Maggioni Canning Company. They started working at 4 AM and made between $9 to $15 a week. Sophie would shuck six pots of oysters each day. Her mother, who also worked with her, said, “She doesn’t go to school. She works all the time.” Photographer Lewis Hine captured the harsh working conditions that many children faced. These kids often worked as soon as they could walk and were paid based on how many buckets of oysters they could shuck each day. Mr. Hine wrote about one photograph, saying, "All but the smallest babies work. They start at 3:30 AM and work until 5 PM.” He traveled about 50,000 miles each year, taking pictures of children working in coal mines and factories from Chicago to Florida. These photos helped raise awareness and anger about child labor, making more people aware of how serious the problem was in America.

 Always dressed in dark clothes and without a single jewel, Marie nevertheless enjoyed looking at the precious stones that the other ladies were showing off; and one evening she noticed with amazement that even her husband, Pierre, usually always distracted, was carefully studying the necklaces, tiaras, earrings and bracelets of the ladies. "I would never have believed," said Marie, as she was getting ready for bed, "that there were so many jewels in the world and so beautiful. Have you seen how splendid they were?". Pierre then burst into a loud laugh. "Imagine that, during dinner, not knowing how to pass the time, I had invented this little game: to calculate how many chemical laboratories could be built by selling the jewels that those ladies were wearing. The moment of the toast in our honor came to interrupt my fun: well, the number of laboratories had reached astronomical figures!". An American journalist once cleverly managed to track the two scient...

  Thomas Fuller was an African man who was sold into slavery in 1724 at the age of 14. He became famous for his amazing ability to solve difficult math problems in his head, earning him the nickname the "Virginia Calculator." One day, someone asked him how many seconds there were in a year and a half. After thinking for only two minutes, he quickly answered, "47,304,000." Then, he was asked how many seconds a man had lived if he was 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours old. Fuller answered in just a minute and a half, saying, "2,210,500,800." Another man, who was working the problem out on paper, said that Fuller’s answer was wrong and that it was actually much smaller. Fuller quickly responded, "Top, massa, you forget de leap year." Once they added in the leap year, the numbers matched exactly.

 In October 1943, over Stambruges, Belgium, an American pilot jumped out of his burning plane and landed in a tree. When he fell, he badly hurt his ankle. Crawling to a nearby farm, he was lucky to find a farmer who supported the Allied airmen. The farmer took the pilot to the home of Clovis and Georgette Hanotte, who hid him for weeks to keep him from being caught by the Germans. Their daughter, Monique Hanotte, helped the pilot by escorting him between safe houses in France and Belgium until the war ended. Monique was part of a secret group called the Comet Line, made up of nearly 3,000 volunteers from France and Belgium. Their goal was to save Allied airmen from being captured, tortured, and executed by the Nazis. Monique was clever and confident. She knew many border guards and could easily talk her way past them. She also knew hidden paths to avoid detection. Sometimes, she would carry an old loaf of bread in her bag, telling the guards she was just getting bread from the coun...

 Hepburn was and is extremely well-known among most as a talented actor and a 50s icon. And those who have read her biography will know that she did much more than just that. During the war, Hepburn moved to Holland, as her parents thought it was a neutral country, safe from invasion. But they were wrong. When the Nazis cut off food supplies, Hepburn, only a teenager, faced severe malnutrition. She performed ballet in front of audiences that were terrified of the Nazis. These illegal performances were called zwarte avonden, or ‘black evenings’, used as a way for suffering musicians, targeted by the Nazis, to make money. They were called ‘black evenings’ as the windows were blacked out so that the Germans would not discover them.  She then donated the funds to the Dutch Resistance. These funds helped to support the hiding of Jews within the Netherlands.

 In 1951 Henrietta Lacks, a poor African American farmer and mother to five visited The Johns Hopkins Hospital, one of the few places in Maryland willing to treat African American patients. Henrietta Lacks complained to the doctors about random bleedings and pain in her groin and how she was worried it was going to affect her work. I know about her story. Hope the family got what they deserved from their daughter? Who is the greatest person that history has forgotten? This lady’s death saved literally billions of people from becoming crippled, limbless and dead. In 1951 Henrietta Lacks, a poor African American farmer and mother to five visited The Johns Hopkins Hospital, one of the few places in Maryland willing to treat African American patients. Henrietta Lacks complained to the doctors about random bleedings and pain in her groin and how she was worried it was going to affect her work. Upon examination by gynecologist Dr. Howard Jones, the doctors found a massive malignant tumor...

 She was so little and exhausted, that she forgot her last name. She lost a whole family; mother, grandmother, elder brother... A special group of skinny girls found her - they were going from apartment to apartment during a terrible blockade winter looking for children whose parents had died or were dying... This is how they discovered Lenochka and could evacuate her. She didn't remember being carried across the ice with other children in a shaking truck, she didn't remember getting to the orphanage; she was little. Like a skinny midget with a big head on a thin neck... And she refused to eat anymore. This is what happens with dystrophy. She was laying in bed or sitting in a chair by the stove. She was getting hot. And she kept her mouth shut. They thought Lenochka would die. Many children died already during the evacuation; severe exhaustion and no strength to live and eat. And to play. And to breathe... One-legged topper, war veteran uncle Kolja, about twenty years old, unpa...

 The exact number of German soldiers who were executed with regards to war crimes, can not be given, in as far as there was no does exist of the trial system.The most publicized ones were the Nuremberg Trials, reserved to high-ranking Nazism leaders, as opposed to regular military personnel.  Out of them 12 were given a death sentence, one of them committed su*-i-*c*-d*e and thus they were executed 11 actually.In addition to the trials in Nuremberg, the trials were carried out by each of the powers of the Allies. The United States, Britain, France, and even the Soviet Union preferred the prosecution of thousands of officers and soldiers. Approximately 550 men and women who were found guilty of the crime were executed in the Western parts (U.S., Britain and France). The figures of the Soviet are more difficult to verify, nevertheless, they also performed numerous executions of Germans guilty of the offenses committed during war. Therefore, historians are of agreement on one han...

 what was supposed to be a simple group hug turned into something much deeper. The actors—Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Asner, Gavin MacLeod, Betty White, Georgia Engel, and Ted Knight—stood together, arms wrapped around each other, not wanting to let go. The scene was written as a goodbye after their characters lost their jobs at the TV station. But in reality, the actors were saying goodbye to years of friendship, laughter, and shared memories. The hug was meant to last only a few seconds, but it went on much longer. No one wanted to be the first to pull away. Mary, usually strong and professional, finally let her emotions show. Her tears were real, not part of the script. Later, she whispered to Gavin MacLeod, "I can’t do this," before leaving the set. Betty White later said it was the most honest moment she had ever seen on a TV set. The cast had spent seven years together, like a family, and now it was ending. Even the studio audience stayed silent, many wiping away tears. When t...

 Howard was an established leading man in 1938, having starred in “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, “The Petrified Forest” and “Pygmalion”. So, naturally, when David O. Selznick set out to cast the biggest motion picture event of all time, “Gone With the Wind”, he pursued Howard relentlessly to play Ashley Wilkes, the subject of Scarlett O’Hara’s affection. Howard had the right look for the son of a southern patrician and his acting skills were first rate. Howard thought he was all wrong for the part because he was forty-five years old in 1938. They were auditioning actresses in their early 20s to play Scarlett (who is 16 in the novel). Ashley was around 20. Vivien Leigh, who won the part of Scarlett, was 25. Even Clark Gable was only 37. It’s not like Selznick didn’t try. The screen tests for the parts have survived and the scene Selznick chose was when Scarlett approaches Ashley to ask him to run away with her and he brushes it off as a joke. Leigh and Howard were the only two actors who ...

 San Nicolas Island is part of the Channel Islands, just off the coast of California. Thousands of years ago, Native American people began living on these islands. One group, later called the Nicoleño by Europeans, made San Nicolas their home. For a long time, the Nicoleño lived peacefully, far from the outside world. But around 1811, everything changed. Russian fur traders and Aleut hunters arrived, looking for seals and sea otters to hunt. Sadly, they didn’t just kill animals—they attacked the people too, killing many of the men and hurting the women. In 1815, the Spanish—who controlled California at the time—arrested the Russian hunters. But by then, the damage had been done. The sea otter population was nearly gone, and only a few Nicoleño people were left. By 1830, there may have been only around twenty people still living on the island—some reports say just six women and one elderly man. The Spanish decided to bring the survivors to the mainland. But one woman wasn’t in the v...

 Lilly was a German woman who remained in Berlin to look after her children while her husband was at the front fighting among the Nazis. Felice was a Jew forced to hide her true origins and was part of the Berlin resistance. The passions, the joy of living and the charm of the latter, caused an intense love story to explode in 1942 between the two women who came to stipulate a symbolic marriage contract. Felice and Lilly exchange letters and poems, make plans for a future together, but their already forbidden love story is blocked by Felice's Jewish origins who on August 21, 1944 is arrested by the Gestapo. Lilly manages to visit her at the "Schulstrasse", the collection center for Jews destined for the camps. From now on, the two will exchange very few letters. In the last Felice signs herself "Jaguar" and writes to Lilly, her "Aimée". On September 8, Felice is deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp and on October 9, 1944, to Auschwitz. She...

 In February 1944, an American soldier found a tiny Yorkshire Terrier in an old, empty trench in the jungles of New Guinea. The dog was later named Smokey. She ended up with Corporal William Wynn from Ohio, who bought her from other soldiers for just 2 Australian pounds. For the next two years, Smokey stayed by his side during the war in the Pacific. Smokey took part in 12 rescue and photo missions by air and sea. She often rode inside a soldier’s backpack while bullets flew around them. She survived more than 150 air attacks and two big typhoons in Okinawa. Smokey even made parachute jumps from about 9 meters high using a special tiny parachute. Wynn said Smokey once barked and acted nervous right before a bombing, warning him just in time—and possibly saving his life. One time, Smokey saved a huge amount of work at an airfield. There was a need to lay a cable underground, which would’ve meant digging a long trench and moving 40 warplanes. Instead, they found an old, narrow pipe. ...

 The photo dates back to 1991, when Linda Evangelista posed with seven other women for an advertising campaign. Up to this point everything would seem normal if it weren't for the fact that the photo taken in Sicily for an advertising campaign for the clothing company Kenar Enterprises Ltd, had deliberately highlighted the beauty of the evangelist by contrasting her with those of seven women who were obviously far from the canons of beauty of the top model. The company had told them that it was an anti-AIDS campaign and had paid them only 10,000 lire. The advertising poster was cruelly renamed “Beauty and the Seven Beasts”. In one fell swoop, all women, especially Sicilian ones, had been hit and denigrated. One of the women involved in the deception took legal action against Kenar Enterprises. In 2000 the company was forced to pay 20 million lire as compensation for damages to the woman who, in the meantime, had died.

 In 1987, 74-year-old rickshaw driver Bai Fangli returned to his hometown to retire from his difficult job. There he saw children working in the fields because they were too poor to afford school fees. Bai returned to Tianjin and resumed work as a rickshaw driver, securing modest accommodation near the train station. He was available to customers 24 hours a day, consuming simple meals and wearing worn-out, hand-me-down clothing he found. Every penny he earned through hard work he invested in supporting needy children so that they could receive an education. In 2001, he drove his rickshaw to Tianjin YaoHua Middle School to give his final donation. Almost 90 years old, he told students that he could no longer work. All students and teachers were moved to tears. In total, Bai donated 350,000 yuan to help more than 300 poor students continue their education. In 2005, Bai passed away, leaving behind an inspiring legacy. If a rickshaw driver who wore hand-me-down clothes and had no educa...

  In the photo, Dorothy, who was 15 years old, sits alone, surrounded by white students who are smiling and laughing — but not with her, they were laughing at her. This picture was taken soon after schools in the United States were ordered to stop being separated by race, after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. Dorothy faced constant bullying. When she walked through crowds of students and adults who were yelling at her: People spat on her. They threw rocks and trash at her. She was teased and threatened. But she never cried, never stopped, and never looked down. She was the first Black student to step onto the grounds of Harry P. Harding High School. Her father told her: "You are not less than anyone." But the people waiting for her didn’t believe that. Crowds shouted mean things. Students spat. Adults threw stones and said hurtful words. Every step Dorothy took was against hate that wanted to crush her. In the powerful photo, Dorothy sits among many white faces...

 Wanada Parker was born in 1882 in Indian Territory. Her Indian name was Woon-ardy Parker. In Comanche, "Woon-ardy" means "Stand Up and Be Strong" because she was weak in her legs and had to use crutches for a long time. She was also given her mother’s name, Weckeah. She went to Chilocco Indian School, and in 1894, she was sent to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. She stayed there for several years with her half-brother Harold (Quanah’s oldest son) and her half-sister Neda. At Carlisle, her name was first spelled "Juanada," but people said that wasn’t right because she wasn’t Mexican or Spanish. In 1895, she was baptized as "Annie" at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Carlisle, but no one really called her that. Around 1903, Wanada spent about a year at Fort Sill Indian School, living in the girls’ dormitory. In 1908, she married Walter Komah, a Comanche man. They moved to Mescalero, New Mexico, but Walter died of tuberculosis in 1912. Wanada ...

 I thought she was so beautiful and enticing in those magazine ads and TV commercials for Yves St. Laurent, Armani Perfume, and Bill Blass. A Times Square billboard for Calvin Klein caught a film producer’s eye leading to her casting in 1984’s Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan. But her southern drawl was so thick, they resorted to hiring Glenn Close to re-dub her dialogue. Still, in spite of that inauspicious beginning to her acting career, it seemed only right and natural that Andie Macdowell would go on to film stardom. Especially, since she was honored with a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award for her role in Steven Soderberg’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape. I was delighted to see that she had been cast in St. Elmo’s Fire. But, as she had in Greystoke, she stunk up that film and, in my opinion, pretty much every film and TV program she’s appeared in since. One observation: Ms. Macdowell’s characterizations seem more palatable, almost human when she’s paired with a ...

 When I was a child and needed a home, she took me in. I spent about half of my childhood under her care. She looked after me. She cared about me. Such things were at a premium in my spotty childhood. She was a walking, breathing stereotype, tough as an old boot with a heart of gold. She was born on Mud Creek, in eastern Kentucky, 3 miles south of a godforsaken hamlet by the name of Tram. On the 1920 census, she’s listed as Gracie, 10 years old. By the time I tumbled into her life, she had lived through two world wars and had birthed and raised seven daughters. She had four teeth, untreated diabetes, a bad case of arthritis, and bulging varicose veins. Despite the aches and pains, I remember her working that old farm in her bare feet, day in, day out, singing songs about Jesus and warning me about the devil. She usually wore a big scarf around her head like a Russian peasant and looked twenty years older than her actual age. I traipsed after her, wanting to help. Mostly, however, I...

  Jeanette Helen Morrison is 18 years old and living a quiet life. Her parents work at a ski resort, and they are very proud of her. They even have a photo of her displayed at the resort. One day, famous movie star Norma Shearer visits the resort and notices the photo. She can’t stop looking at it. That smile, she says, is the most interesting face she’s seen in years. She feels like she has to show it to someone in Hollywood. Norma talks to Jeanette’s parents, borrows the photo, and takes it back with her. She shows it to a top Hollywood agent, Lew Wasserman. Even though Jeanette has never acted before, he sees something special in her and gets her a contract with MGM. That’s when everything changes. Jeanette becomes Janet Leigh and soon becomes a star. She also ends up marrying another big star, Tony Curtis. Her first movie is The Romance of Rosy Ridge, with actor Van Johnson. It’s said that Van helped her choose the name Janet Leigh. She didn’t want “Leigh” at first because she ...

 On the tragic night of April 14, 1912, as the RMS Titanic slipped into the icy depths of the North Atlantic, stories of heroism and human dignity began to surface—among them, the remarkable courage of Lucy Noël Martha Leslie, Countess of Rothes. Born into luxury on Christmas Day in 1878, Noël could have easily remained sheltered by her noble status. Instead, she chose to lead with empathy. A philanthropist, a mother, a suffragist, and a Red Cross leader, she spent her life lifting others long before disaster struck. When she boarded the Titanic in First Class, she was en route to meet her husband in America. But fate had other plans. After the collision, Noël helped calm fellow passengers, boarding Lifeboat No. 8 with her cousin and maid. As panic spread, it was Noël—not a crew member—who helped take command of the boat and comfort the women aboard, many of whom had just watched their husbands disappear into darkness. Once rescued by the Carpathia, she didn’t rest. Instead, she as...

  They shared the same father, who, after divorcing Marilyn’s mother in 1921, took Berniece and her brother away without permission. A few years later, Marilyn was born to the same mother. There’s a lot to say about Berniece, as she and Marilyn stayed in touch throughout their lives. In terms of looks, Berniece had a strong resemblance to Marilyn, which suggests they both got their features from their mother. Berniece was a beautiful woman, a bit shorter than Marilyn, and she seemed to have the same reddish-brown hair color that Marilyn was famous for. One important detail is that Berniece didn’t believe Marilyn took her own life. She had spoken to her sister the night before she died and thought it was more likely an accident. The photo shows Marilyn Monroe standing beside her older sister Berniece, who lived a long life and passed away in 2014 at the age of 94.

 In early may of 1945, while the soviets were in the process of capturing the entire city of Berlin, Joseph Goebels (Naz! Germany’s propaganda minister) and his wife Magda decided to murder their 5 children (Helga died age 12, Hilda died age 11, Helmut died age 9, Holdine died age 8, Heide age four) in the Vorbunker, a bunker connected to the more known Fuhrerbunker. Their reason to do that was to keep them from being captured and humiliated by the Russians. The 5 children were happily sitting on the dinner table, all dressed in nightgowns, telling jokes when their mum, Magda told them to go to bed. They all obeyed her orders, following her into their room not knowing about the disaster that was gonna happen, except for helga, who had a sense of what was going on. In the room, they were injected with morphine, which knocked them out unconscious. Then, cyanide capsules were crushed into their teeth killing them instantly. Only Helga tried to resist but in vain, her body was found, a...

 Around 1900, in a small town called Foxton, New Zealand, two kids caught everyone’s attention without trying. Ruby and Wilfred Westwood were just children. But by age seven, Ruby weighed almost 100 kg. Her little brother Wilfred, just three years old, was close to 50 kg. They came from a normal-sized family, but their unusual size made them very special. Their dad, Thomas Westwood, saw a chance to make money. He took them on tours across New Zealand and Australia, calling Ruby “The Biggest Girl in the World” and Wilfred her “huge brother.” People came in crowds. Newspapers shared their story. But behind all the shows were just two kids — growing up, learning, and living while everyone stared. Doctors checked them and were surprised but happy: they were healthy, smart, and curious. But no one could measure how strong they had to be to handle all the watching and judging, while still figuring out what it means to just be a kid. After some time, the tours stopped. The family went bac...

 That camp was built to kill people. In 1942 he had to search through the clothes of people who had just been killed. Every day he touched the last sign's of lives that were taken away quickly. By 1943 the trains came less often. Fewer people arrived. The prisoners understood what this meant. When the killing stopped the Nazis would get rid of the witnesses. They chose to fight back. August 2 1943 was when the camp erupted. The prisoners burned things down took up arms and revolted. Most of them were shot dead. Abraham ran through smoke and pandemonium. He disappeared into the forest hungry and scared. He lay low for day's before being found by a farmer named Stanisław Pogorzelski and his father Julian. They risked their lives to harbor him. For close to a year they helped him survive knowing all of them could be killed for it. After the war Abraham testified in a German court. In 1969 Stanisław and Julian were honored. The story is brutal but it proves that even in hell courag...