Why, given all the information possessed by the Admiralty about U-20; given the Admiralty’s past willingness to provide escorts to inbound ships or divert them away from trouble; given that the ship c...
The track lingered on the surface like a long pale scar. In maritime vernacular, this trail of fading disturbance, whether from ship or torpedo, was called a dead wake.
Straw Hat Day, Saturday, May 1, when a man could at last break out his summer hats. Men followed this rule.
She saw Hitler as a clown who looked like Charlie Chaplin. Like many others in America at this time and elsewhere in the world, she could not imagine him lasting very long or being taken seriously.
Passengers were crushed by descending boats. Swimmers were struck by chairs, boxes, potted plants, and other debris falling from the decks high above. And then there were those most ill-starred of pas...
Once again no one in the U.S. government had made any public statement either supporting the trial or criticizing the Hitler regime. The question remained: what was everyone afraid of?
Ned watched her. She was young and pretty—a handsome blonde, as he later described her.
NOW FIVE DAYS into its voyage, the Lusitania made its way toward Britain alone, with no escort offered or planned, and no instruction to take the newly opened and safer North Channel route—this despit...
Koerver reports another example of delusional thinking within the German navy. Adm. Edouard von Capelle said, on Feb. 1, 1917, From a military point of view I rate the effect of America coming on the...
In which building is the pope? one woman asked. She was overheard by writer Teresa Dean, who wrote a daily column from the fair. The pope is not here, madame, the guard said. Where is he? In Italy, Eu...
Franke writes, We do know that Holmes advertised his ‘hotel’ as a suitable lodging for visitors to the world’s fair; that no fewer than fifty persons, reported to the police as missing, were traced to...
But I had at least hoped to find some decent people around Hitler. I am horrified to discover that the whole gang is nothing but a horde of criminals and cowards. Fromm
Beneath the stars the lake lay dark and sombre, Stead wrote, but on its shores gleamed and glowed in golden radiance the ivory city, beautiful as a poet's dream, silent as a city of the dead.
Belief in such things was widespread in America and Britain at the start of the twentieth century, when an Ouija board was a regular fixture in drawing rooms, to be brought out after dinner for improm...
August 25, German forces began an assault on the Belgian city of Louvain, the Oxford of Belgium, a university town that was home to an important library. Three days of shelling and murder left 209 civ...
As it happened, their father had not had to spend very much time worrying. He had received telegrams from both sons, telling him each was looking for the other. The telegrams, Leslie later learned, ha...
A German admiral, Henning von Holtzendorff, came up with a plan so irresistible it succeeded in bringing agreement between supporters and opponents of unrestricted warfare. By turning Germany’s U-boat...
A Bridgeport, Connecticut, man presented his girlfriend with an engagement ring and handed her one end of a ribbon; the other end disappeared into his pocket. A surprise, he said, and urged her to pul...
Cunard tickets did not identify babies by name, possibly out of quiet resentment that they traveled free.)
Passengers drank and smoked. Both; a lot. This was a significant source of profit for Cunard. The company laid in a supply of 150 cases of Black & White Whiskey, 50 cases of Canadian Club Whiskey, and...