The Black Dahlia murder – the savage killing of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short in January of 1947 – was one of the biggest news stories of the 20th century, and continues to fascinate people to this day.
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Rock ‘n’ rollers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & Big Bopper died in a plane crash in 1959 – memorialized as ‘the day the music died.’ Here’s a look at some of the news stories from the time, and photos of the plane.
Buddy Holly was one of rock and roll’s early pioneers. He remains influential to this day, despite his untimely death in a plane crash. Here’s a look back at his career!
The Civil War wasn’t going well for the Union in the early weeks of December 1861 – and it was going still worse for William Tecumseh Sherman. Find out why here.
The Civil War’s bloodiest day: Lee turned back at Antietam (1962) A look back on the centennial, by Merton T. Akers — The Lawrence Gazette
This article bids adieu to the man whose name countless millions of people have worn: the one and only Levi Strauss, creator of Levi’s riveted denim blue jeans. Find out more about the man here.
In the late 1930s, aviator Amelia Earhart mysteriously vanished on her flights around the globe. See original newspaper reports at the time of her disappearance and a look back at the mystery 25 years later.
There have been tales of what happened at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota in 1890. Here, see original vintage news reports of the battle, plus a historical review of the events from 1976.;
See what it looked like inside the Titanic – the interiors of fancy lounges, dining rooms, first-class cabins and other luxurious delights – before the ship sunk to the ocean floor on her maiden voyage in 1912.
When Jimi Hendrix died in 1970, the world was shocked that such a young star could have blazed so brightly, but then burned out so fast. Here’s a look back.
At just 27 years old and still at the start at what could have been a long career, singer Janis Joplin was found dead at home, and the music world mourned for years.
The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 – the deadliest natural disaster in United States history – after which floods swept thousands of people to their death, and many more left homeless as millions of dollars worth of property was destroyed.
In August of 1969, actress Sharon Tate and four others were found dead in what police said resembled a ritualistic mass murder. Four months later, Charles Manson and the Manson ‘family’ would be charged with the crime. Here’s how it all happened.
Take a few minutes to reflect on the awesome and terrifying power unleashed on the world in the summer of 1945 during the atomic bombing of Nagasaki while remembering the lives lost – and those possibly saved.
Cowboy actor and hero of scores of western thrillers of the silent film era, Tom Mix, was killed on a highway detour in Arizona. Here’s what happened.
A doctor smashed his way into a locked bedroom, and found Marilyn Monroe dead in bed. Here’s what else he found, and how the first news stories broke.
Dancer Isadora Duncan was killed when her shawl was caught in the rear wheel of an automobile. Unaware, the chauffeur of the car started moving forward.
The 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people – the majority of deaths from pneumonia following an attack of influenza.
Here are some front pages of newspapers around the country, showing very first reports of the Titanic disaster. There was very little information available at the time, and some news reports were, sadly, completely inaccurate.
Here’s the true story of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, as reported at the time of his murder at the hand of actor John Wilkes Booth.
In 1883, the volcano of Krakatoa erupted in cataclysmic fashion. Considered the single largest natural explosion in recorded history, the eruption killed upwards of 36,000 people.
In 1967, a flash fire killed the prime crew of the Apollo 1/Saturn 204 mission. Astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee lost their lives.
Kill John Dillinger at Chicago Desperado, wounded by three slugs, broke line of fire; Died in alley U.S. Justice Department Agents and East Chicago Police
George Eastman: The man behind Kodak (1854-1932) George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, and often called “the father of photography” was many things — a
Former Beatle John Lennon killed in New York: The musician who set the beat for a revolutionary youth generation in the 1960s was shot to death outside his Manhattan home.
In the years after Mary Jo Kopechne died in a car accident on Chappaquiddick Island, questions, investigations, doubts and rumors dogged the career of Edward Kennedy. Here’s a look back.
The mystery of Pan Am Flight 7, flying between San Francisco to Honolulu, crashed mysteriously midway between the two cities. The cause has yet to be determined.
Find out about the double murder Lizzie Borden may have committed – starting with the first news reports, through the court case, then summaries of the dramatic tale that riveted the nation.
After shooting several people at a school in San Diego in 1979, teen Brenda Ann Spencer told a reporter, ‘I just did it for the fun of it. I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.’
When you look back at these old photos of skyscraper construction, you’ll see men way up high without harnesses, walking along beams suspended hundreds of feet above the street, and swinging on cables.
Donna Summer burst onto the disco scene in the 1970s with a bang – her four #1 singles all reached the top chart spot within 13 months of each other – including ‘I Feel Love.’
The death of Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne in the crash of TWA Flight 599 on March 31, 1931, resulted in more than just the death of the football legend and seven others – it was a pivotal moment in early airline and aviation safety.
Find out what set in motion the deadly chain of events that led to General Custer’s troops being overwhelmed by Sitting Bull’s force of 8,000 Lakota & Cheyenne during The Battle of Little Bighorn.
‘Man-eating shark attacks’ made the headlines back in 1916 after there were several attacks and deaths from sharks off the coast of New Jersey and New York. Find out what happened here!
The airship Hindenburg left Germany on May 3, 1937 with 97 people on board, The ship flew thousands of miles, only to explode as they were landing in New Jersey three days later. Only 62 would survive the tragedy, and many of them were seriously injured.
Actor James Dean, a young Hollywood idol, was killed on September 30, 1955, in a head-on car crash. Here’s how the story was reported, and then a look back from a year later.
The Titanic sinks: Views from the lifeboats Those in the boats that had drawn off from the ship could see that the end was at
See damage caused by the St Louis tornado in May 1896 – considered one of the deadliest on record with at least 255 lives lost – and get the whole story.
Many well-known serial killers don’t quite compare to the exploits of Herman Webster Mudgett, alias H H Holmes, perhaps one of the most fiendish mass murderers in American history.
The Titanic was one of the most luxurious, well-appointed cruise liners ever, with seemingly no expense spared… except when it came to passenger safety in the event of an emergency.
In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress, and the United States formally declared war – The Great War, which became known as World War 1 – on April 6, 1917.
Although the story below was the topic of the 1994 made-for-TV movies Death of a Cheerleader/A Friend to Die For, this story has personal meaning, because I was another teen girl at the same school.
After a lengthy crime spree, Bonnie & Clyde were finally caught and killed in 1934: Clyde Barrow, the Southwest’s No. 1 outlaw, and his gunwoman companion, Bonnie Parker, were trapped and shot dead by Texas and Louisiana officers.
Upon the news of Elvis Presley’s sudden and untimely death, the nation mourned – and the singer’s records charted again after fans across the country immediately started to buy lots of his albums.
See a collection of newspaper clippings immediately after the murder of Kirsten Costas, chroniciling the immediate news reports about the crime and the community’s shock, and some of the police work involved in the effort to find the killer.
A confused and stunned nation searched for answers to what caused the catastrophic explosion of the space shuttle Challenger that sent schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe and six other astronauts to a fiery death 74 seconds after liftoff Tuesday.
Harriet Tubman: Rebel was slave activist, Union spy (1964) Harriet Tubman, pioneer Negro activist, was one of the leaders of the antislavery crusade. She made
To this day, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York on March 25, 1911, remains the deadliest industrial disaster in the city’s history,
Regular US combat units were deployed to Vietnam beginning in 1965, and while America’s direct military involvement ended on August 15, 1973, the last soldiers left Vietnam on March 29, 1975. Here, take a look back at how some of the military action was portrayed stateside by Newsweek magazine.
May 12, 1932 – Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr, infant son of the world-famous aviator, was found dead at Mount Rose, NJ
Fabian said he was taken to Auschwitz 10 months ago with 500,000 other Hungarian Jews, and that 400,000 were gassed and cremated in the first two months, and that only 1,000 remained alive.
Benjamin Franklin dies at 85: Upon the death of a prominent American, we are favored with the following short account of Franklin’s last illness, by his friend and physician, Dr Jones.
