For over three decades, a man dressed head-to-toe in hand-stitched leather walked a 365-mile loop through Connecticut and New York. Known only as “The Leatherman,” he arrived in each town every 34 days, slept in rock shelters, and accepted food in silence.

At the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, one of the most popular exhibits wasn’t a ride or futuristic display—it was a glass-walled nursery. Inside, premature babies were cared for by nurses in white uniforms and doctors in coats, under a bold sign: “Living Babies in Incubators.”

In 1968, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson befriended Charles Manson, then an aspiring musician. Manson wrote “Cease to Exist” specifically for the band, hoping to mend tensions Dennis had with his brothers Brian and Carl Wilson. Dennis agreed to record it.

Shortly after the start of World War I, Hungarian newspapers reported on Perris Simon, a black man who had come from Congo to Berlin, then to Hungary as a child. Working as a doorman in Oradea, Simon spoke fluent Hungarian and dreamed of serving in the army.

In the early 1900s, Mary Ann Bevan lived an ordinary life in London as a nurse. After marrying and having four children, her life changed dramatically when she developed acromegaly, a disorder that caused abnormal growth and facial distortion. Following her husband’s death, she struggled to support her family.

On a June afternoon in 1788, James Hutton stood at Siccar Point, a remote cliff on Scotland’s coast, beside fellow Enlightenment thinkers. Before them was a rocky seam unlike anything they had seen.

On January 28, 1393, a masquerade ball at the Hôtel Saint-Pol in Paris spiraled into a catastrophe that shook the French court.

In 1884, Chicago witnessed the beginning of a construction project that would change architecture forever. Designed by William Le Baron Jenney, the Home Insurance Building introduced a metal frame structure, allowing it to soar higher without relying on heavy masonry walls.

In January 1998, photographer Charles O’Rear set out to visit his girlfriend in Marin County, California. Along Sonoma Highway, he noticed a rolling green hill under a vibrant blue sky just after winter rains had cleared.

In 1871, geologist Ferdinand Hayden led an expedition to the American West, bringing back specimens like hyalo-liparite obsidian and geyserite. These volcanic rocks helped show Congress the scientific importance of the Yellowstone region.