Austrian paediatrician Dr Hans Asperger, a pioneer in the field of child psychiatry and a researcher into childhood autism, was for many years portrayed as an opponent of the Nazi regime under which he worked. When the aberrant behaviour of 'maladjusted' children became controversial in…
Built in the early 20th century on the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street in New York City, the Plaza Hotel was from the beginning a hotel for the wealthiest Americans. The iconic building, which replicates a French Renaissance mansion, has hosted many famous…
On the first of October 1975, two giants clashed in the boxing ring in the Philippines – world champion Muhammad Ali and challenger Joe Frazier. It was one of the most spectacular fights in history and Ali’s swansong. Three years later, another clash of giants…
“To the barricades!” boomed through the narrow streets leading to Montmartre, one of the city’s hills in the middle of Paris. It was 18 March 1871 and, as so many times in the 19th century, revolutionary fever was gripping the French capital. It had been…
In January 1942, Japanese forces occupied Kuala Lumpur. The young Chinese woman, who later introduced herself to the public as Mrs X, was unperturbed. She felt safe in her small village. But one day in December, Japanese troops moved in. The soldiers combed the village.…
He was handsome, charming and wealthy. Henry Howard Holmes owned a large hotel in Chicago in the 1880s and was thus able to provide unmarried women with a decent future. Many women came to Chicago in those years, hoping to find work at the World’s…
The history of secret societies has long been an area that has been the preserve of the sensationalist press. This is all the more strange because this phenomenon interweaves the lives of many peoples and countries with thousands of invisible threads. Secret societies have existed…
Modern criminology is a child of the 19th century, the time in which almost all modern sciences were developed. Over the centuries, these sciences have enabled the creators of criminalistics to develop many of the methods that most countries still use to fight crime today.…
On 16 October 1946, ten Nazi leaders sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg were hanged. Three wooden scaffolds with gallows, all painted black, were set up in the gymnasium where, just three days earlier, American soldiers had been playing basketball. Two…
In the 19th century, rising crime rates led police forces around the world to consider how they could be most successful in detecting criminals and how they could bring them to justice as easily as possible. But even in the middle of this century, they…
