Sammy Tran articles

Calamity Jane’s wild reputation might have made her the star of her day, but there was a heartbreaking dark side to her fame.

Joan of Arc was a young girl who met her moment. From an unassuming peasant background, her religious visions led her directly to the court of a French monarch, and on to some of the most dramatic battles in history. But her untimely end was as abrupt and explosive as her rapid rise.

Caught between two hostile adversaries, the people of Tlaxcala formed an alliance with conquistador Hernan Cortez to topple the Aztec Empire, forever shaping the future of Mesoamerica.

All the money in the world doesn’t guarantee a happy home life. Just ask John Paul Getty III. An absent father and a cold-hearted—but extremely rich—grandfather both left Getty to his own devices. And when the mafia cruelly chained him up in a cave, his family wasn’t there to help him.

Charles X of France lived in the lap of luxury and privilege once he ascended to the throne following the Bourbon Restoration—but his ultra-royalist policies clashed with the new liberal views of the French people post-Revolution. It all came to a head with a harrowing escape—and a humiliating exile.

Lizzie Borden was the upper-class Sunday school teacher who became the prime suspect in the brutal axe attack on her father and stepmother. Ultimately, a jury acquitted her of all the charges—but questions around her involvement still linger. Money, madness, and manipulation swirl around this macabre mystery.

The downfall of Nero in June of AD 68 set off a struggle in Rome that saw four emperors in the span of a year.

The attempt to dig a canal through Panama was led by French diplomat and builder Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had earlier triumphed with the Suez Canal. Though the project had a promising start soon turned into one of history’s biggest engineering failures.

There’s no doubt that Antony Armstrong-Jones led a charmed life—yet he also had a serious penchant for scandal. His success brought him into the stratosphere of the royal family, but he left a trail of broken hearts in his wake. The story of Antony Armstrong-Jones is one of both serious triumph and devastating tragedy.