Andrew Higgins (1886–1952) was born to be an inventor and entrepreneur. His drive to create and be self-sufficient began when his father, John, died when he was 7 years old. Within two years of his father’s death, Higgins began a lawn service and took on several paper routes to help the family. By the time…

While most World War II correspondents focused on casualty rates, war strategies, and equipment losses, Ernie Pyle wrote in a sense-of-place style that endeared him not only to American soldiers, but also to their friends and family members at home. Newspapers touted wide-angle news, but Pyle captured the jots and tittles. Sometimes his prose elicited…

Significant moments in history are often misremembered, even forgotten. Artifacts may be misplaced or discarded. For people like Nathan Raab, the misplaced and forgotten are his métier. Raab is a principal at The Raab Collection, a Pennsylvania-based business that specializes in discovery, purchase, and selling of rare historical documents and artifacts. Those pieces have ranged…

A Fullerton School District school opted this week to remove Nazi symbols from their sixth-graders’ performance of the play “The Sound of Music.” The play, set in Austria at the beginning of World War II, tells the true story of a family who must flee their country as the Nazis invade. District Superintendent Rob Pletka…

Commentary Ronald Reagan once quipped that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” He might have spared some thought on the terrors inflicted by those who presume to advise government. We rightly blame elected officials for poor judgment. We should also blame the…

The wreck of a ship caught up in Australia’s worst ever maritime disaster has been found 4000 metres under the sea, 80 years after it was torpedoed by an American submarine. The Montevideo Maru, discovered off the coast of the Philippines, sank with about 980 Australian troops and civilians aboard—almost twice as many Australians killed than…

Marguerite “Missy” LeHand (1898–1944) was born to an Irish family in Potsdam, New York. During her childhood the family moved to Massachusetts, settling into the small working-class town of Somerville just outside of Boston. It was here that she contracted rheumatic fever at the age of 15. She was lucky to survive the illness, as…

At the age of 100, World War II veteran George Kaleel tells his war stories in this documentary. Dustin Bass, co-founder of The Sons of History, and Jarred Trapp, co-founder of BassTrapp Media, spent time with Kaleel to get his story about his World War II experience that began on D-Day and extended into the…

Academics are arguing that World War II-style rationing could help fight climate change by slashing greenhouse gas emissions more rapidly and fairly. In a paper (pdf) published on Feb. 20 in the journal “Ethics, Policy & Environment,” researchers from the University of Leeds in England argue that carbon rationing has been “neglected as a policy option for mitigating…

A World War II-era bomb exploded in the coastal town of Great Yarmouth, England, on Feb. 10, as a team of experts attempted to disarm it, according to authorities. Norfolk Police confirmed in a statement that there were no reports of injuries following the incident. “No one was injured and damage was limited as a result…