Dynamic Directory - September 19, 2025

Sailing in caravels, which are very uncomfortable, Magellan and his men encounter bad weather. Then they see "St. Elmo's Fire." Maybe something good will occur!

This image depicts the siege of Cartagena when a combined force of French troops and buccaneers found a weakness in the city's heavily fortified defenses.

Henry Morgan's successful raid on Porto Bello, Panama netted him and his buccaneers a great deal of loot.

Meet Robert Louis Stevenson, a writer who lived just 44 years. Although he died in 1894, some of his novels have never been out of print.

Juno Beach was the segment of the Normandy coastline assigned to the Canadians on D-Day.

The coast of Normandy, at the area of Omaha Beach, is not exactly perfect for landing a large-scale invasion force.

This map depicts the areas of significant German defenses along the Omaha Beach front.

To aid in the capture of Cherbourg, an important French port where Germany had radar stations, the Allies had to create an artificial harbor which they called "Mulberry.

Eisenhower and his generals (plus their staff members) planned the Normandy invasion over a period of several years.

Major Henry Reed Rathbone and his fiancé, Clara Harris, attended a play with Abraham and Mary Lincoln on the night the President was shot. Booth lunged at Rathbone with a knife, injuring but not killing him. Learn how the assassination claimed more victims, years later, when Rathbone himself lost his mind.

Learn the story behind one of the most-famous photos of the U-boat War: The attack of U-569.

Oliver Wendell Holmes is known for some of his free-speech decisions which he wrote while serving as a Supreme Court Justice.

Before he became a pope, Giuseppe Sarto had a great deal of experience living among his parishoners. As Pope Pius X, he strongly opposed the outbreak of WWI.

Ansel Adams, one of America's greatest photographers, started his professional life as a pianist. What made him decide to switch profressions?

As Alan Turing and his Bletchly Park colleagues worked feverishly to break the Enigma code, they caught a break when the Royal Navy captured U-110 on May 9, 1941. Onboard was a working Enigma machine and secret codes for the following month. Initially towing the disabled U-boat to Iceland, the crew with the secret treasure was redirected to Scotland.

Professor Wiles has won the Abel Prize for solving Fermat's Last Theorem. How long did it take to solve it? How did he do it?

Before the Pearl Harbor bombing, Japanese-Americans lived and worked on Terminal Island. After the bombing, their homes were destroyed and their way of life was gone forever.

On January 6, 1838, Samuel Morse successfully tests an electrical telegraph. So why did it take years longer to send the first message?