Mary Austin: The friend who inspired and supported Freddie Mercury, and inherited a portion of his wealth
The early version of chess was chaturanga, a 7th century AD Indian board game of elephants, generals, and chariots
The Seven Sisters of Moscow: The peculiar history of Stalin’s Skyscrapers
The sinking of the HMS Birkenhead: The event that gave rise to the “women and children first” protocol
Simon & Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” originally titled “Mrs. Roosevelt” as a tribute to Eleanor Roosevelt, was reworked for “The Graduate”
That time a strange man accepted the Oscar for the Best Supporting Actress in 1937 meant for Alice Brady
Take-out restaurants existed in ancient Rome and were called “thermopolia”
Swedes swarmed a Lufthansa contest offering a fully funded brand-new life in Berlin, even changing their names to qualify
Bart the Bear, who appeared in several Oscar-winning films, was “the John Wayne of bears”
The beak-nosed plague-doctor mask that continues to terrify was invented in the 17th century because of bad smells
