In 1959, the Cold War extended to a new battleground: cultural exchange. The Soviets held an exhibition in New York, while the Americans followed with their own in Moscow. At the American exhibition, Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev famously debated the merits of communism versus capitalism.

In 1924, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, adopted an Akita puppy named Hachiko. The two formed a close bond, with Hachiko accompanying Ueno to Shibuya Station every morning as he left for work.

In the early 1960s, as NASA was selecting astronauts for Project Mercury, a group of 13 American women underwent the same rigorous physical tests as their male counterparts. This group later became known as the Mercury 13.

In 1768, the British government and the Royal Navy devised a covert plan to expand their empire. They selected Captain James Cook, a naval officer skilled in cartography, to lead a voyage under the guise of observing the 1769 transit of Venus in Tahiti.

In July 1945, the USS Barb, under Commander Eugene Fluckey, patrolled near the Japanese coast. Seeking new targets, Fluckey devised an audacious plan to attack a coastal train line—something no submarine had attempted before.

In 1796, English physician Edward Jenner observed Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid whose skin was free from the blistering sores of smallpox, except for a few cowpox lesions on her hands. Jenner hypothesized that cowpox, a milder disease, might protect against smallpox. Acting on this theory, he took pus from Sarah’s lesions and inoculated an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps.

On February 9, 1945, a unique naval engagement took place beneath the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The British submarine HMS Venturer was patrolling off the coast of Norway when it detected a German U-boat, U-864, on its radar. What followed was the first—and only—underwater submarine battle in history.

While Winston Churchill publicly praised the United States and its alliance with the United Kingdom, behind closed doors, his attitude was markedly different. Secret wartime diaries from King George VI and other documents reveal that Churchill often criticized the American approach, especially the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1893, Madeline Pollard, a young woman with little social standing, filed a lawsuit against Congressman William C. P. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Breckinridge, a powerful politician and a married man, had carried on a clandestine affair with Pollard for years, even promising marriage after the death of his wife.

Near the end of World War II, American officer Frank Manuel noticed a strange symbol on walls across Germany. It wasn’t a swastika—it was a sign of the “Werewolves,” German guerrilla fighters determined to attack Allied soldiers and collaborators.