The Post's new Retropolis columnist, Petula Dvorak, introduces herself and reintroduces you to what can be uncovered with a good look at history. Petula shares her Retropolis column "The presidential inauguration that made everyone sick" about the aftermath of James Buchanan’s inauguration . America became obsessed: Was the fatal illness called the “Buchanan Grip” an assassination attempt? Or just a disease-ridden hotel?...
Jan 18, 2025•12 min
On Christmas Eve in 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts captured an image that symbolizes hope and inspired environmentalism.
Dec 31, 2019•5 min
On March 25, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were a few days into their marriage when they invited the press to join them at their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel.
Dec 30, 2019•6 min
Jazz singer Ethel Ennis’s voice wowed audiences and won praise from critics. But when she was faced with the opportunity to become a superstar, Ennis chose a different path.
Dec 27, 2019•7 min
The nurse who founded the American Red Cross had no formal training in medicine. She tended to countless wounded soldiers.
Dec 26, 2019•7 min
In the 1950s, a child trying to call Santa Claus accidentally called NORAD and changed Christmas Eve forever.
Dec 25, 2019•6 min
Toys R Us founder Charles Lazarus had no idea how big the toy industry would become.
Dec 23, 2019•6 min
After the Civil War, formerly enslaved people placed notices in black-owned newspapers across the country to find their loved ones.
Dec 20, 2019•7 min
A few days before his team took the field as huge underdogs in Super Bowl III, New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath made what was seen as an insane prediction at the time: "The Jets will win Sunday," he said. "I guarantee it."
Dec 19, 2019•7 min
In the 1950s, Charles Van Doren, a quiet professor in New York City, became wrapped up in one of the biggest television quiz show scandals in history.
Dec 18, 2019•7 min
While on a research trip to the Arctic in the early 20th century, scientist Clarence Birdseye — a name you might recognize from the frozen food aisle — made an observation that would go on to change the way we eat.
Dec 17, 2019•6 min
Disasters don’t just happen. Like anything in life, there’s usually a buildup. In the case of the Chernobyl disaster, the series of failures stretched back more than a decade. But what happened the day before the explosion?
Dec 16, 2019•7 min
Serving as special counsel is probably only the third hardest job Robert Mueller has held. His life in public service started when he just 23 years old, as a Marine lieutenant in the Vietnam War.
Dec 13, 2019•6 min
Growing up in Somalia, a country where stories are handed down through generations, one of the first tales that children are told is about an ancient queen who fought to give women power by castrating men.
Dec 12, 2019•7 min
During World War I, British nurse Flora Sandes put down her nurses bag to fight with the Serbian Army.
Dec 11, 2019•4 min
He thought being drafted into the National Football League was so unlikely that he signed with an African American league team. Then, the NFL called.
Dec 10, 2019•6 min
It doesn't seem like a big deal today, but 1930s America lived in fear of the male nipple.
Dec 09, 2019•5 min
Nine months before the Iran hostage crisis, Kenneth Kraus was held hostage in Iran for eight days.
Dec 06, 2019•5 min
Once upon a time, people walked between the U.S. and Canada over a frozen Niagara Falls. But one day, that all changed forever.
Dec 05, 2019•5 min
In 1983, Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union’s Air Defense Forces, trusted his gut and averted a global nuclear catastrophe.
Dec 04, 2019•5 min
It is one of the worst expressions of racism in American history. And there’s no federal law to prevent it.
Dec 03, 2019•7 min
A German woman discovered that her childhood home was stolen from a Jewish family who fled Nazi Germany. Last year, she tracked down the address of one of the children, and wrote him a letter.
Dec 02, 2019•4 min
In the 1950s, Dr. Virginia Apgar created a quick test that nurses have since performed on millions of babies just after birth. She is considered one of the most important figures in modern medicine — a world that almost pushed her away.
Nov 29, 2019•7 min
Beginning in the earliest days of baseball, fans, journalists and even physicists disputed whether or not pitchers could make a ball curve.
Nov 28, 2019•7 min
Benjamin Franklin, the most colorful of America's Founding Fathers, had a misunderstood, electrical and ultimately homicidal relationship with turkeys.
Nov 27, 2019•6 min
Weeks before Thanksgiving, 1959, cranberries were declared unsafe to eat. The race was on to save America’s favorite holiday side dish.
Nov 26, 2019•6 min
No women served on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991. The ugly Anita Hill hearings changed that.
Nov 25, 2019•6 min
For many, memories of that devastating day quickly revert to that silent, flickering sequence captured by Abraham Zapruder. It is as chilling as it is familiar: the approaching convertible, the waves of a crowd about to lose its innocence.
Nov 22, 2019•4 min
During World War II, around 80 Russian women took to the skies and risked their lives to fight against the Germans.
Nov 21, 2019•5 min
The history of subpoenas, and the fiery congressional hearings that have captivated Americans for centuries began with a Founding Father raising his hand to say, “Investigate me!”
Nov 20, 2019•6 min
