Are we able to celebrate Independence Day because the two men in charge of King George III’s war against the Colonies were England’s most notorious heterosexual adulterer and its most notorious homosexual?

Stephanie Czech Rader did important undercover espionage work during the years immediately after WWII in Soviet-dominated Poland. She took significant risks. But for decades, no one knew she had worked for the organization that predated the CIA.

Last week, Rader finally received the medal denied her 70 years before.

When death beckoned 78-year-old Andrew Jackson in 1845, he was physically worn out but spiritually enlivened. On May 29 he told visitors, “Sirs, I am in the hands of a merciful God. I have full confidence in His goodness and mercy. … The Bible is true. … Upon that sacred volume I rest my hope for eternal salvation, through the merits and blood of our blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

When Winston Churchill traveled to Normandy the week after the Allies invaded its shores, his security was nowhere as certain as his determination to go. 

Two German panzer divisions pounded British positions just inland, and Hitler wasn’t giving in easily: He dispatched his 15th Army to Normandy, vowing the Americans and Brits would never liberate Europe. 

Through the lens of history we forget how uncertain the war’s outcome was, even after the successful landings of D-Day. Churchill, a few months away from his 70th birthday, would go anyway. 

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen’s interest in World War II history and his fascination with exploration—both space and undersea—culminated this year in what are considered two major feats of deep sea exploration and recovery.