And Speaking of X-rays….

Several of you responded to my recent post on the subject with interesting information about the early use of x-rays.* This story caught my imagination for several reasons that will be obvious to those of you who are regular visitors here on the Margins: When World War I broke out in 1914, Marie Curie (already…

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Before the Rockettes

Thirty-six years before the original Rockettes appeared on a St. Louis stage in 1925,* a failed cotton magnate named John Tiller formed a dance troupe that featured quick, perfectly synchronized dance steps. By the 1920s, several dozen troupes of Tiller Girls, selected for uniform height and weight, performed in major cities across Europe. They were…

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Joan of Arc and the French Resistance

More than once in the last few years, I’ve stumbled across stories in old issues of the Chicago Tribune that caught my imagination even though they did not deal with my current project. In recent weeks, this headline from May 13, 1945, grabbed my attention: “FRANCE HONORS JOAN OF ARC AS ‘FIRST PARTISAN’. “ The…

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