1975 – Pelham, Alabama: Young Dabo witnessed things no child should see. Ervil Swinney, his alcoholic father, didn’t always come home at night, and on the nights he did, he often fought with his wife, Carol. Several times the police were called to their home. When...
1964 – Ackerman, Mississippi: Seventeen-year-old Cheryl Prewitt told her father she was thinking about entering the Miss Choctaw County pageant. “No daughter of mine is going to parade herself around on stage in front of a bunch of strangers in a beauty contest. I...
1888 – Stockholm Sweden: As was his custom, Alfred Nobel read his newspaper, The Social Demokraten, while eating breakfast. The front-page story, “The Merchant of Death is Dead,” drew his attention. It began, “Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill...
August 6, 1996 – El Capitan – Yosemite National Park, California: For three days, Ed Weihenmayer had been following his 28-year-old son Erik’s climb up the 3,000-foot granite wall called El Capitan. Ed sat in a lawn chair with his telescope, craning his neck as Erik...
September 4, 1936 – Over the North Atlantic Ocean: At 10:30 p.m. the first gas tank ran dry sooner than expected, and the plane’s engine sputtered and died. Beryl Markham groped in the dark cockpit for a flashlight as the plane drifted back to earth. Finding it, she...
October 19, 1968 – Mexico City, Mexico: A light rain had begun falling in the late afternoon making the mid-50’s temperature seem even colder. The lights were on at Olympic Stadium as the athletes prepared for the high jump, the final event in the two-day decathlon...
