All Articles — Page 23
Every story we've published, newest first
The Founder vs. History: How Accurate Is the Ray Kroc McDonald's Movie?
The Founder accuracy: did Ray Kroc really steal McDonald's? We fact-check how Keaton's 2016 film handles the real Kroc, the McDonald brothers, and the franchise takeover.
A Time Traveler's Guide to Hittite Hattusa
Everything you need to know before visiting Hittite Hattusa in 1300 BC - the capital of the forgotten Bronze Age superpower that fought Egypt to a standstill at Kadesh.
The Maxim Machine Gun: The Weapon That Industrialized Killing
The Maxim machine gun, invented in 1884, turned one trigger into the firepower of a hundred riflemen and defined the trench warfare of the First World War.
The Patty Hearst Kidnapping: From Heiress to Bank Robber to Convict
The Patty Hearst kidnapping of 1974 shocked America as the heiress became armed bank robber Tania - then one of the strangest criminal cases of the 20th century.
The Dig vs. History: How Accurate Is the Sutton Hoo Movie?
The Dig movie accuracy: Netflix's 2021 film dramatized the 1939 excavation of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo. We fact-check the dig and the romance.
A Time Traveler's Guide to Belle Époque Paris
Everything you need to know before visiting Belle Époque Paris in 1900, the most glittering city during Europe's most dazzling era.
The Colt Peacemaker: The Revolver That Built the American West
The Colt Peacemaker was the revolver that won the American West - at least in myth. The history and enduring legend of the 1873 Single Action Army.
The Beast of Gévaudan: France's 18th-Century Killer That Was Never Solved
The Beast of Gévaudan stalked southern France from 1764 to 1767, killing at least 100 people. Two and a half centuries later, no one is certain what it was.
Operation Mincemeat vs. History: How Accurate Is the WWII Spy Movie?
Operation Mincemeat accuracy: the 2021 film dramatized how a corpse with planted documents fooled Nazi intelligence and helped secure the Allied invasion of Sicily.
A Time Traveler's Guide to Roaring Twenties Chicago
Everything you need to know before visiting Chicago in 1925, when Al Capone ran the bootleg empire and the city was the loudest, jazziest, and bloodiest in America.
The Anastasia Romanov Mystery: A Case Closed by DNA, but Never by the Public
Did Anastasia Romanov really escape the 1918 execution? DNA evidence settled the mystery, but the legend endured for 70 years before science finally caught up.
The Flintlock Musket: The Weapon That Wrote the Modern World
The flintlock musket armed two centuries of infantry warfare, from Marlborough to Napoleon. History, mechanics, and the legacy of the gun that built the modern world.
A Time Traveler's Guide to Gold Rush San Francisco, 1850
A survival guide to Gold Rush San Francisco, 1850 - when the boomtown was the loudest, richest, and most dangerous port in the Western Hemisphere.
Tombstone vs. History: How Accurate Is the 1993 Wyatt Earp Movie?
Tombstone movie accuracy check: how much of Cosmatos's 1993 Western actually happened? The gunfight, the vendetta ride, Doc Holliday, and the invented red sashes.
The Crossbow: The Medieval Weapon the Pope Tried to Ban
In 1139, the Catholic Church declared the crossbow too lethal for use against Christians. Three centuries later it had reshaped European warfare.
The Lord Lucan Disappearance: The British Aristocrat Who Vanished After a Murder
The Lord Lucan disappearance began on November 7, 1974, the night his nanny was murdered. Half a century later, no body has ever been found and no one has been tried.
Public Enemies vs. History: How Accurate Is the John Dillinger Movie?
Public Enemies accuracy check: Michael Mann's 2009 John Dillinger film gets the jailbreaks and Biograph Theatre ambush right but romanticizes Dillinger's character and softens his violence.
A Time Traveler's Guide to Wild West Tombstone
Wild West Tombstone 1881: your practical guide to Wyatt Earp's silver-rush boomtown, two months before the O.K. Corral gunfight rewrote American mythology.
All the President's Men vs. History: How Accurate Is the Watergate Movie?
Alan J. Pakula's 1976 Watergate thriller dramatized Woodward and Bernstein's investigation. We fact-check how close the film stays to the real record.
The Katana: How the Samurai Sword Was Forged, Used, and Mythologized
The katana is the most famous sword in the world, and one of the most misunderstood. The history and evolution of the curved blade that defined the samurai class.
The Spear of Longinus: The Roman Lance That Pierced Christ
The Spear of Longinus: from Golgotha to the Vienna Hofburg, the 2,000-year history of the most mythologized weapon in Western legend - and Hitler's obsession with it.
The Phantom of Heilbronn: How a Cold Case Was Solved by a Cotton Swab
The Phantom of Heilbronn haunted three countries for 16 years - DNA at 40 crime scenes, no suspect. The case collapsed when it was traced to a factory's cotton swab.
A Time Traveler's Guide to Meiji Tokyo, 1880
Everything you need to survive a visit to Meiji Tokyo in 1880, when Japan was reinventing itself out of feudalism in a single extraordinary generation.
Greek Fire: The Lost Byzantine Weapon That Burned on Water
For four centuries, Byzantine warships deployed Greek Fire, a liquid flame water could not extinguish. The secret weapon that saved the empire and was then forgotten.