By early 1961, as many as 1,000 people a day flee East German communism for a better life in the capitalist west. Western media report the exodus. Eastern state-controlled media ignore it. Still, East Berliners can see their neighbors leaving. The migration continues. On Aug. 13, 1961, the East German government throws up a 27-mile-long [...]

I am here to talk about a man - to talk about a man, no ordinary man. Toward the end of his life he was honoured with the title of Mahatma: Maha means “great”; Atma means “soul”. Mahatma, Great Soul, a person who identified with the poorest of the poor, was a rousing [...]

These photos are a short extract of the story of The Spider from the pioneering days of aircraft in the 1920s and 1930s… The aircraft started out life as KLM H-NADK. In 1927, it was sold to a Mr McIntosh who renamed it “Princess Xenia” and it was re-registered as G-EBTS. On [...]

It was a beautiful, crisp September morning as I looked up from my Wall Street Journal to watch the sunrise over the East River. It was a peaceful moment, a pause to reflect on the beauty of the landscape and my place in life. That was the first thing I remember about 9/11, [...]

The last time I stepped onto school grounds with the intention of attending a class was in 2004. Today, as I passed by throngs of youngsters making their way to school - some gleefully, some glumly - I was reminded of that thrill I experienced without fail every semester - that earnest desire to do [...]

Inventor Wilbur Wright on his airplane during a demonstration at Camp d’Auvours on this day, in 1908. Wilbur made a series of technically challenging flights including figure-eights, demonstrating his skills as a pilot and the capability of his flying machine, which far surpassed those of all other pilot pioneers.

… President Truman warned that if Japan still refused to surrender unconditionally, as demanded by the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, the United States would attack additional targets with equally devastating results. Two days later, on August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and attacked Japanese forces in Manchuria, ending American hopes [...]

In the early morning hours of August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay took off from the island of Tinian and headed north by northwest toward Japan. The bomber’s primary target was the city of Hiroshima, located on the deltas of southwestern Honshu Island facing the Inland Sea. Hiroshima had a [...]

Originally part of Tennō-ji, the five-storied pagoda was built in 1644. It burned down in 1771 and was rebuilt 19 years later. This last version, built in 1791 in Japanese zelkova wood, was at almost 35 meters the tallest of its kind in the Kantō area. The five-storied pagoda had been donated in 1908 by [...]

Charley Fox was born February 1920, in Guelph, Ontario. His career with the R.C.A.F. commenced in the spring of 1940. He soon became a flight instructor at Dunnville, Ontario where he taught from October 1941 to May 1943. After instructing he went to an Operational Training Unit at Bagotville, Quebec. While there, on June 1st, [...]