When Grace Hopper met those beastly first computers, they spoke only in numbers. “Grandma COBOL” soon taught them English.

HOLDEN CAULFIELD HITS THE BEACH

June 6, 1944 — Sgt. Salinger, with drafts of The Catcher in the Rye in his pack, lands at Normandy.

The streets taught Geoffrey Canada hard lessons. His Harlem Children’s Zone is teaching success.

WHEN BIGOTRY STRUCK OUT

When the Massachusetts team went South, its star black player came face-to-face with Jim Crow. And guess what the whole team did for Bunny?

TEXAS HARNESSES HOT AIR

Texas has seen the future and it blows. Wind energy, that is.

"ICARUS" -- THE PHOTO THAT FLEW

It took courage to build skyscrapers, and courage to photograph the ones who “built America.”

Few battles had been so mismatched. A billionaire tycoon vs. a woman with a pen. The winner?

When the D.A.R. turned Marian Anderson away, Eleanor Roosevelt and friends found a better venue.

HOPE'S PERSISTENT CHAMPION

"The future is dark, with a darkness as much of the womb as the grave." -- Rebecca Solnit

ALAN LOMAX AND "WHERE THE SONGS LIVE"

The songs came and went but Alan Lomax hunkered down and caught them — for all time and for all people.

THE WOMAN WHO SAID 'NO' TO MCCARTHY

Bullied into silence, Congress got a lesson in integrity from Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME).

JACOB LAWRENCE -- BLACK AND WHITE IN COLOR

The history was black. The colors were Harlem. Jacob Lawrence interwove them and lit up the past.

MR. FEYNMAN GOES TO WASHINGTON

When the physicist investigated the Challenger, America got a lesson from a master.

NELLIE ON THE FLY

Long before journalists were “embedded,” Nellie Bly amazed readers from inside an asylum and by circling the globe — in 72 days.

DUELING HISTORIES (VIDEO)

Why are Americans so divided? Whole books have tried to answer. The Attic explains it in three minutes (and change.)

AMERICA'S DIY MUSIC -- JUG BAND

Got the blues? Listen to its offspring and try not to smile. And hear six jug band tunes in “I Hear America Singing.”

KINDER, COOLER, SMARTER

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