On April 23, 1956, Elvis Presley made his Las Vegas debut as the closing act of a show at the New Frontier hotel and casino. Billed as "The Atomic Powered Singer," the rising star had just delivered his first national No. 1 single, "Heartbreak Hotel," and was coming off a series of tours that had ...
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Biography (75 unread)
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22:28 How Elvis Made Las Vegas His Home
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19:08
Elvis Presley's Musical Talents Took Root During a Lonely Childhood
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18:51
How Elvis Became a Movie Star—By Playing Himself
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17:26
8 Infamous Grifters in History
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17:25
6 Trailblazing Queer Women in Comedy
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16:51
'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Cast: Where Are They Now?
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22:48
10 Directors of Color Who Changed the Film Industry
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16:57
How Betty Ford Tackled the Taboo of Addiction
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15:00
8 of Audre Lorde's Most Memorable Poems
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14:00
How Althea Gibson Broke the Color Barrier in Tennis
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16:16
15 Inspiring Audre Lorde Quotes
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21:23
Inside Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Riviera's Friendship
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21:21
13 Powerful Marsha P. Johnson Quotes
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22:28
Major Taylor: The Story Behind America's First Black Sports Superstar
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19:47
Eunice Hunton Carter: The Woman Who Reeled in Lucky Luciano
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17:39
How Kenneth Branagh's Family Left Turmoil in Belfast
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17:47
How Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Changed TV With Desilu Productions
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20:54
'Home Alone' Cast: Where Are They Now?
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18:46
Jesse Owens: 5 Facts About the Groundbreaking Olympic Athlete
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20:16
Michael Jordan: 7 Facts About the Basketball Legend
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22:06
How Patrizia Reggiani Plotted to Kill Her Ex-Husband Maurizio Gucci
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18:08
Rita Moreno and Marlon Brando’s Tumultuous Eight-Year Relationship
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16:39
Serena and Venus Williams: Inside Their Close Bond and Competitive History
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21:53
Betty White: 6 Facts About Hollywood's Golden Girl
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22:55
Alexander Graham Bell: 5 Facts on the Father of the Telephone
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21:52
Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker: Inside Their Relationship and the Scandals That Brought Down Their Empire
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20:12
Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X: Inside Their Brief But Impactful Relationship
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23:30
How Nina Simone Used Her Performances For Activism
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21:03
Britney Spears’ Conservatorship: A Complete Timeline
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21:42
Green River Killer: A Timeline of His Murders, Arrest and Conviction
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19:40
BTK Killer: A Timeline of His Murders, Reappearance and Capture
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15:38
Ted Bundy Killings: A Timeline of His Twisted Reign of Terror
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15:56
Jeffrey Dahmer: A Timeline of His Murders, Arrests and Death
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17:31
John Wayne Gacy: A Timeline of the 'Killer Clown' Murders, Trial and Execution
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18:49
Inside Aretha Franklin’s Relationship with Her First Husband Ted White
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23:36
Inside the Lifelong Friendship of Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson
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22:41
Team USA ‘Magnificent Seven’ Gymnasts: Where Are They Now?
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23:02
How 'Space Jam' Became a Winning Career Shift for Michael Jordan
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16:25
The Enduring Mystery Behind the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier
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17:06
Inside Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s Tumultuous Relationship
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17:54
Inside Natalie Wood and Mart Crowley's 20-Year Friendship
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16:46
KISS: A Definitive Timeline of the Rock Band
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18:58
Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka's Serendipitous Love Story
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20:23
Inside James Gandolfini's Sudden Death
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16:29
Martha and Berda Lum: The Chinese American Schoolchildren Who Fought to Desegregate Southern Schools
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15:58
How Harry Hay Became a Pioneer of the Gay Rights Movement
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15:58
How Harry Hay Became a Pioneer of the Gay Rights Movement
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20:05
How Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Childhood Inspired 'In the Heights'
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20:05
How Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Childhood Inspired 'In the Heights'
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23:25
Inside the Mysterious Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping and Trial
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23:25
Inside the Mysterious Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping and Trial
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19:09
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas' Enduring Love Story
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19:09
Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas' Enduring Love Story
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18:20
Inside Phil Hartman's Tragic and Shocking Death
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20:06
Inside the Hart Family Wrestling Dynasty
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18:31
How 'The Joy Luck Club' Made Asian American Film History
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21:16
Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X's Boundary-Breaking Friendship
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21:57
Why Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla Clashed During the Battle of the Currents
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16:06
Mick Foley: The Many Characters of the WWE Superstar
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15:41
10 Things You May Not Know About 'Sister Act'
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16:29
Inside Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan's Rivalry
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18:29
The Son of Sam: A Timeline of the Killings that Terrorized New York City
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18:15
10 Influential Asian American and Pacific Islander Activists
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22:33
O.J. Simpson and the Menendez Brothers: Their Surprising Connection
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18:56
Elizabeth Smart: A Complete Timeline of Her Kidnapping, Rescue and Aftermath
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19:26
10 Things You May Not Know About 'The Devil Wears Prada'
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19:13
'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory' Cast: Where Are They Now?
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20:00
5 Things You May Not Know About Bill Gates
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20:32
5 Things You May Not Know About Babe Ruth
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20:32
5 Things You May Not Know About Babe Ruth
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18:23
5 Things You May Not Know About Elon Musk
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18:23
5 Things You May Not Know About Elon Musk
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22:17
10 Things You May Not Know About the 'Back to the Future' Trilogy
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22:17
10 Things You May Not Know About the 'Back to the Future' Trilogy
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21:14
Ernest Hemingway: How Mental Illness Plagued the Writer and His Family
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A peek at any of Elvis Presley's early television performances from the mid-1950s quickly reveals the magnetism that made audiences swoon. There's the perfectly coiffed pompadour and mesmerizing gaze, a gentle demeanor jolted by a sudden hip thrust before settling into an aw-shucks grin. It's easy ...
Rock 'n' roll icon Elvis Presley made 31 movies between 1956 and 1969, of which 27 were produced in the 1960s. Almost all of Presley's films were box-office smashes that made him, his manager and movie studios a lot of money. However, these films were critically derided, and Presley disdained most ...
Many would agree it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, where hustling, cutting corners and occasionally lying is necessary if one wants to stay on top. Of course, some people push the envelope too far. Here are eight of the most notorious con artists, grifters and swindlers from the 19th century ...
Queer women have been performing comedy for a long time, even if audiences haven’t always realized it. Saturday Night Live hires like Kate McKinnon (cast in 2012) and Punkie Johnson (cast in 2020) made headlines as the first openly lesbian and first openly Black lesbian cast ...
Five years after the Kristy Swanson/Luke Perry-led Buffy the Vampire Slayer came and went in theaters, a televised version reappeared on the upstart WB network in March of 1997. This time, the concept showed stronger staying power. Based on creator Joss Whedon's original movie script, the TV series ...
Directors of color have long been underrepresented in Hollywood, affecting which movies get made and whose stories get told. Fortunately, those who find success often wield it to pave the way for other directors of color to follow in their footsteps. Through their unforgettable art and innovations ...
In April 1978, Betty Ford announced that she had an addiction to prescription medication, and would be seeking treatment for that addiction. Later that month, the former first lady disclosed that she was also struggling with and receiving treatment for alcoholism—something she had only been ...
Audre Lorde never felt like she fit into a box — and any category she did identify with reflected just one sliver of who she was. “I am not one piece of myself,” she said in a 1979 interview. “I cannot be simply a Black person and not be a woman too, nor can I be a woman without being a lesbian.” ...
On August 28, 1950, a 23-year-old Althea Gibson set foot on one of the outer courts of the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, home of the U.S. National Championships. It wasn't the first time a Black player was competing in an event sanctioned by the United States Lawn Tennis ...
Perhaps it’s symbolic that Audre Lorde didn’t start speaking until she was five years old. “I was very inarticulate as a youngster,” she once said, explaining that it wasn’t until she learned to read and write that she eventually spoke. But once she did, her words came with an extra flair. In fact, ...
Long uncredited, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were the vanguard of the modern transgender movement, fighting for the right to gender self-identify when social and criminal persecution of gay people was still common in the state of New York in the 1950s and '60s. Bars were banned from selling ...
No quote encapsulates Marsha P. Johnson more than “Pay It No Mind.” After all, that’s what she said her middle initial stood for. And that fearless attitude exemplifies how the Black transgender activist lived her life, leading the charge for LGBTQ+ rights every step of the way — and helping ...
Most people know the inspiring stories of Jackie Robinson, who broke through Major League Baseball's color barrier in 1947; Jesse Owens, who ran roughshod over Adolf Hitler's notions of Aryan supremacy at the 1936 Berlin Olympics; and perhaps even that of Jack Johnson, the boxing great who ...
In 1935, Charles "Lucky" Luciano was sitting pretty as the de facto head of the "Commission," a powerful syndicate of New York City's five largest organized crime families. Luciano had forged a working peace between the families and become immensely wealthy through the Mob’s long reach into drug ...
Growing up in Belfast, Ireland, Kenneth Branagh says, he experienced life as fun, frivolous and carefree — the idyllic way childhood should be. But on August 15, 1969, everything changed. The young boy was in his hometown when he thought he heard a swarm of bumblebees coming his way. Instead it was ...
By the late 1940s, Lucille Ball was at a crossroads in her professional and personal lives. After 15 mostly successful years in Hollywood, she was beginning to lose ground to younger, fresher actresses who didn't command her hefty asking price for feature film roles. Furthermore, she longed to ...
When Home Alone hit movie screens in November 1990, expectations were high. The holiday comedy about an 8 year old forced to fend off two house intruders after being left behind on a family vacation boasted a talented cast, and a renowned director (Chris Columbus) and screenwriter ...
While Jesse Owens famously won four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin to shatter Adolf Hitler's notions of Aryan athletic supremacy, his journey reflected the fleeting thrills of fame and the struggles of African Americans in a still-segregated 20th century United States. Here are five ...
Few athletes in the history of professional sports can match the extraordinary success enjoyed by Michael Jordan. After entering the NBA in 1984 as a gangly rookie with superhuman leaping ability, Jordan became an unstoppable scoring machine and multi-time champion, as well as a marketing icon who ...
On March 27, 1995, there was just one word in Patrizia Reggiani’s diary: “Paradeisos.” But that single entry — meaning paradise in Greek — held so much weight to it. After all, that was the date that her ex-husband Maurizio Gucci, grandson of Guccio Gucci, the founder of the Gucci fashion empire, ...
Each is an icon in their own right: Rita Moreno, a Puerto Rican-born American performer, achieved the rare coveted EGOT honor, being one of only a small cadre in history who have earned an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. And Marlon Brando became a screen legend for his roles in classic films ...
They arrived like an earthquake that shook the foundation of the country-club atmosphere of tennis, a one-two punch of unnaturally gifted, unapologetically Black athletes who gained victories at the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. But while Venus and Serena Williams changed the ...
Betty White’s fans love giving out facts related to her age. It’s true that there are many, and they’re certainly noteworthy: she’s the oldest Emmy nominee ever, she’s the oldest winner of a competitive Grammy Award, she’s the oldest person to host Saturday Night Live and she holds the record ...
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Alexander Graham Bell was the middle child of Alexander Melville and Eliza Symonds Bell. He started coming up with inventions early in his life and one of his first projects was a contraption that separated wheat from its husks. But, as the son of a professor of ...
As a couple, Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker created an evangelical empire that encompassed a Christian ministry, broadcasting network and theme park. They became two of the most famous televangelists in America, whose devout teachings often appeared at odds with the extravagant lifestyle they led. The ...
In late spring 1962, Muhammad Ali was a brash 20-year-old boxer who'd already won two national Golden Glove titles and claimed an Olympic gold medal. Still known as Cassius Clay (he would change his name two years later), he was already working his way into contention for the sport's ...
A classically trained piano prodigy, Nina Simone blended musical genres to become one of the most respected musicians of the 20th century. Her shift to music that expressly demanded equality for Black Americans made her a hero to some—and an enemy to others. Despite this, Simone remained steadfast ...
For more than 13 years, pop star Britney Spears was under the conservatorship of her father James P. Spears (also known as Jamie Spears). But after a complicated and highly publicized battle, he finally agreed to step aside on August 12, 2021. Under the terms of the conservatorship that went into ...
Claiming to have murdered as many as 80 women, Gary Ridgway — known as the Green River Killer for the Seattle, Washington, location where many of his victims were discovered — was America’s deadliest convicted serial killer when, in 2003, he pleaded guilty to 48 counts of murder. Over 20 ...
Dennis Rader, who took 10 innocent lives in the area of Wichita, Kansas, as the BTK Killer – for Bind, Torture, Kill – seemingly had his twisted modus operandi figured out to a "T." A family man, government worker and church leader by day, Rader was smart enough to blend into his community and ...
If there's such a thing as a "stereotypical" serial killer, Ted Bundy didn't seem to fit the bill. Handsome, intelligent and charming, Bundy became a rising star in Washington state politics en route to earning an undergraduate degree in psychology and enrolling in law school. It was a package that ...
Notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer shocked the world when he was arrested in 1991, as much for the heinous crimes he committed against his victims, as for the fact that he killed 17 men and boys over more than 13 years without capture. Well mannered, soft spoken and pleasant in appearance, ...
On the surface, John Wayne Gacy seemed a cornerstone of his suburban Chicago community in the 1970s: Gregarious and boastful, he was known for running a successful construction business, his involvement in local politics and, especially, for entertaining young children at parades and hospitals as ...
Aretha Franklin’s decades-long career dominance was rooted in songs that unleashed the power women so often had to hide. But the lyrics for one of her first big hits may have struck closer to her heart than many realized. In 1967’s “I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You),” she sang the words, “I ...
When Aretha Franklin was inducted into the second class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, she had a familiar face by her side: fellow inductee and lifelong friend Smokey Robinson. It was rather symbolic that the two kids from Detroit, who grew up playing games in the neighborhood ...
When it comes to pure sports drama, few performances can surpass the one delivered by the U.S. women's gymnastics team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. After coming out swinging against their powerhouse Russian and Romanian rivals, the hometown darlings saw their once insurmountable ...
Michael Jordan stands as one of the greatest basketball players in NBA history, but the former Chicago Bulls superstar also transcended the sports world as a cultural trendsetter. Leveraging his talent, looks, charisma and business savvy, Jordan graced hundreds of magazine covers, earned a slew of ...
Two days before Christmas in 1996, the battered body of 39-year-old French filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier was discovered outside her isolated vacation home in Ireland. As du Plantier's husband, parents and son mourned her, an Englishman who lived in the area, Ian Bailey, became the prime ...
When Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee first met on New Year’s Eve 1994 at Hollywood’s Sanctuary club, there were more than sparks — there was an insatiable lust for one another. “He came up, grabbed me and licked my face,” she told Movieline in 1995. “I thought he was a cool, friendly, nice guy. I ...
Natalie Wood's first taste of fame came as a child when she scored the lead role in 1947's Miracle on 34th Street. She would grow up to become a three-time Academy Award-nominated actress, but her mysterious 1981 death has become her lasting legacy. Pioneering gay writer Mart Crowley ...
KISS has left an indelible mark on popular music through its unique presentation of four distinct characters in makeup – Starchild, Demon, Spaceman and Catman – reeling off irresistibly catchy hit songs amid fire-and-explosion-filled stage shows. Beyond the bells and whistles, the band has also ...
Neil Patrick Harris and husband David Burtka are quite literally two peas in a pod. “We have the same shoe size, body size, height and weight,” Harris told Out magazine in 2012, adding that they share a wardrobe. “We’re both Gemini. We both like the idea of family — not a nuclear family, but a ...
When James Gandolfini died of a heart attack on June 19, 2013, his sudden passing shocked and saddened the world. That the Emmy-winning actor died while on vacation in Italy was beside the point at the time, more a logistical and diplomatic pain than anything else, but it is nonetheless a ...
Nine-year-old Martha Lum arrived for the first day of school at Mississippi’s Rosedale consolidated high school in 1924. It was her second year at the school, where her older sister, Berda, was also a student, so she was already familiar with the ins and outs. But by the recess that day, a ...
A homosexual, Socialist, writer, spiritualist and activist, Harry Hay would cofound a secret organization in 1950 that would become the origin of the American gay rights movement, and help shape and expound the notion that gay people were an oppressed, cultural minority whose unification would only ...
When In The Heights premiered on Broadway in 2009, composer, performer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda’s loving ode to his Latino community in upper Manhattan was a game-changer. Its skillful blend of traditional Broadway themes and joyful, energetic rap, salsa and hip-hop marked the arrival of a ...
Americans’ obsession with true crime and unsolved mysteries has led to an entire industry’s worth of documentaries, TV networks, hit podcasts and a massive library of magazines and books about high-profile and very grizzly crimes. This fanaticism was built on a number of cultural, technological and ...
In late summer 1907, Alice B. Toklas left behind her father and brother in an earthquake-and-fire-ravaged San Francisco in search of new adventures in Paris. If unsure of what her future in the City of Lights held, the once-promising concert pianist discovered the answer shortly after arriving at ...
Saturday Night Live has produced far too many legendary comedy actors and long, fruitful careers to lend its title to any kind of curse, but the iconic variety sketch series has seen tragedy befall a fair number of its alumni. And few tragedies were as shocking or heartbreaking as the death of Phil ...
Wrestling fans old enough to remember the booming popularity of the WWE in the late 20th century no doubt recall the exploits of Bret Hart, an athlete of explosive power and flawless precision who earned such nicknames as the "Hitman" and the "Excellence of Execution." And while Bret has earned his ...
Amy Tan didn’t set out to write a bestseller. In fact, she found solace in the fact that she was able to write The Joy Luck Club with “no expectations.” “I had been told that the typical first book by an unknown writer might sell five thousand copies — if you were lucky,” she told Penguin Random ...
On paper, Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X made an unexpected pair — a Japanese American mother of six and a firebrand Muslim minister and Black nationalist. But their brief friendship, interrupted by his assassination in 1965, sheds light on the multi-racial cooperation of the civil rights ...
Thomas Edison is widely known as one of history’s most consequential inventors, a legacy born of both his indisputable genius in the laboratory and noted ruthlessness as a businessman; the old adage is that history is written by the victors, and in Edison’s case, he spun his narrative in real-time. ...
Few performers in the history of professional wrestling could take a "bump" like Mick Foley, who became known as the "Hardcore Legend" for his willingness to get beaten with metal chairs, impaled with sharp objects and subjected to other brutalities that would make most of his fearsome-looking ...
Released in the summer of 1992, Sister Act starred actress-comedian Whoopi Goldberg as struggling nightclub performer Deloris Van Cartier, who is forced into hiding after witnessing her gangster boyfriend committing murder and poses as nun Sister Mary Clarence while staying at a San Francisco ...
For much of the 1980s into the early '90s, Hulk Hogan served as the supreme champion of World Wrestling Entertainment and the recognizable face of an industry that was rapidly gaining global appeal. Sure, he lost the title belt (in underhanded fashion) at one point to the also iconic Andre the ...
Across 13 months of 1976 and 1977, fear over the Son of Sam murders perpetrated by then-unknown serial killer David Berkowitz gripped the citizens of New York City. Six women and men were shot and killed in three of the city’s boroughs in more than a dozen seemingly random attacks. The crimes ...
While often at the center of many movements, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and their groundbreaking accomplishments and contributions are sometimes overshadowed and ignored. Get to know 10 of the most influential Asian American and Pacific Islander activists who fought for marginalized ...
They were the men who ignited two of the most notorious legal trials of the 1990s. Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who seemingly enjoyed a privileged upbringing, shocked the nation by turning a shotgun on their parents in their Beverly Hills home in August 1989. And O.J. Simpson, a football ...
In early June 2002, days before she was set to graduate from middle school, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was taken from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah, and held captive by street preacher Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Chained to a tree in a campsite just miles from home, Smart ...
Based on Lauren Weisberger’s New York Times bestselling novel The Devil Wears Prada, the 2006 movie explored the tense relationship between magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep and her newest assistant, Andrea “Andy” Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway. The film was both a ...
When Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory first invited viewers into its world of pure imagination in 1971, the now-classic film didn’t receive such a sweet reception. Box office numbers were lackluster, and reviews for the big screen adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel, Charlie and the ...
In 1975, a young programmer named Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University to form a company called "Micro-soft" with his childhood friend Paul Allen. The company went on to ignite a personal computing craze and achieve overwhelming success with its technological innovations. Here’s a look at ...
One of the first megastars of modern American sports, Babe Ruth helped usher in the Roaring Twenties with his seemingly superhuman athletic abilities and outsized personality. He made good on a promise to hit a home run for a sick child. He allegedly pointed to a spot in the stands and then ...
Elon Musk is one of the brilliant minds who helped reshape the global economy following the tech boom of the late 1990s. The South African native became a millionaire many times over upon selling his shares in Zip2 in 1999 and PayPal in 2002 and made electric cars cool after taking over as CEO of ...
On October 26, 1985, Marty McFly stepped into Doc Brown’s souped-up DeLorean and launched one of Hollywood’s most beloved series. But it was a rocky road from page to screen for the sci-fi classic, which included the assistance of a legendary director as well as an infamous firing. Here are 10 ...
One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway’s stripped-down prose new literary voice captivated critics and readers alike. His outsized personality and macho swagger made him a star beyond the printed pages of his newspaper articles, short stories and novels. Behind ...