Retropod

The Post's new Retropolis columnist, Petula Dvorak, introduces herself and reintroduces you to what can be uncovered with a good look at history. Petula shares her Retropolis column "The presidential inauguration that made everyone sick" about the aftermath of James Buchanan’s inauguration. America became obsessed: Was the fatal illness called the “Buchanan Grip” an assassination attempt? Or just a disease-ridden hotel?

On Christmas Eve in 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts captured an image that symbolizes hope and inspired environmentalism.

On March 25, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were a few days into their marriage when they invited the press to join them at their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel.

Jazz singer Ethel Ennis’s voice wowed audiences and won praise from critics. But when she was faced with the opportunity to become a superstar, Ennis chose a different path.

The nurse who founded the American Red Cross had no formal training in medicine. She tended to countless wounded soldiers.

In the 1950s, a child trying to call Santa Claus accidentally called NORAD and changed Christmas Eve forever.

Toys R Us founder Charles Lazarus had no idea how big the toy industry would become.

After the Civil War, formerly enslaved people placed notices in black-owned newspapers across the country to find their loved ones.

A few days before his team took the field as huge underdogs in Super Bowl III, New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath made what was seen as an insane prediction at the time: "The Jets will win Sunday," he said. "I guarantee it."

In the 1950s, Charles Van Doren, a quiet professor in New York City, became wrapped up in one of the biggest television quiz show scandals in history.

While on a research trip to the Arctic in the early 20th century, scientist Clarence Birdseye — a name you might recognize from the frozen food aisle — made an observation that would go on to change the way we eat.

Disasters don’t just happen. Like anything in life, there’s usually a buildup. In the case of the Chernobyl disaster, the series of failures stretched back more than a decade. But what happened the day before the explosion?

Serving as special counsel is probably only the third hardest job Robert Mueller has held. His life in public service started when he just 23 years old, as a Marine lieutenant in the Vietnam War.

Growing up in Somalia, a country where stories are handed down through generations, one of the first tales that children are told is about an ancient queen who fought to give women power by castrating men.

During World War I, British nurse Flora Sandes put down her nurses bag to fight with the Serbian Army.

He thought being drafted into the National Football League was so unlikely that he signed with an African American league team. Then, the NFL called.

It doesn't seem like a big deal today, but 1930s America lived in fear of the male nipple.

Nine months before the Iran hostage crisis, Kenneth Kraus was held hostage in Iran for eight days.

Once upon a time, people walked between the U.S. and Canada over a frozen Niagara Falls. But one day, that all changed forever.

In 1983, Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union’s Air Defense Forces, trusted his gut and averted a global nuclear catastrophe.