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Michael E. Ruane

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Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. in a flight suit with an airplane.

Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Was a Family Star Until Tragedy Struck in 1944

Eighty years ago this month, the Kennedy who might have been president was killed on a secret mission over England.
by Michael E. Ruane via Retropolis on August 1, 2024
Troops from the 92nd Infantry Division move past a destroyed Mark VI tank on the outskirts of Ponsacco, Italy, on Sept. 1, 1944.

A Young WWII Soldier’s Remains Could Be Those of Spike Lee’s Lost Cousin

Military experts seeking to identify partial skeleton in an anonymous grave.
by Michael E. Ruane via Retropolis on June 28, 2022
Overhead view of Jamestown

Colonial Jamestown, Assailed By Climate Change, Is Facing Disaster

The 400-year-old site of Jamestown, Va., battered by flooding and climate change, is listed as endangered.
by Michael E. Ruane via Retropolis on May 4, 2022
Two giant pandas eating bamboo

A Chinese Cigarette Tin Launched D.C.’s 50-year Love Affair With Pandas

Fifty years ago, first lady Pat Nixon admired a tin of Chinese cigarettes. Then China sent the U.S. a pair of giant pandas.
by Michael E. Ruane via Retropolis on March 16, 2022
Soldiers of the U.S. 7th Army march past the entrance of the Burgerbraukeller, site of Adolf Hitler's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, in Munich on May 3, 1945, five days before the formal end of the World War II in Europe.

‘Greatest Generation’ Survey on Race, Sex and Combat During World War II Runs Counter to Its Image

Virginia Tech project finds forgotten Army surveys that reveal World War II lingo and “the good, the bad, the ugly, heroic, not heroic” attitudes of soldiers.
by Michael E. Ruane via Retropolis on December 20, 2021
Photos of Civil War veterans showing injuries and amputations.

America’s First Opioid Crisis Grew Out Of the Carnage Of The Civil War

Tens of thousands of sick and injured soldiers became addicted.
by Michael E. Ruane via Retropolis on December 1, 2021
Smithsonian anthropologist Kari Bruwelheide points out details in the sculptures depicting the faces of two enslaved African Americans who labored at Catoctin Furnace in the late 1700s or early 1800s

Faces of the Dead Emerge From Lost African American Graveyard

The bones of enslaved furnace workers tell the grim story of their lives.
by Michael E. Ruane via Washington Post on July 9, 2021
A next-of-kin response card asking for the return of the remains of Pvt. James Argiroplos, who was killed near Hébuterne in France during World War I.

After WWI, U.S. Families Were Asked if They Wanted Their Dead Brought Home. Forty Thousand Said Yes.

In May 1921, President Harding paid tribute to a ship carrying 5,000 fallen Americans returned for burial.
by Michael E. Ruane via Washington Post on May 30, 2021
Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman’s Lost Maryland Home Found, Archaeologists Say

The famed abolitionist’s father, Ben Ross, sheltered her and family on the Eastern Shore in the 1840s.
by Michael E. Ruane via Washington Post on April 20, 2021

Yellow Fever Led Half of Philadelphians to Flee the City. Ten Percent of the Residents Still Died.

Schools closed, handshaking ceased and people wore handkerchiefs over their faces as the virus ravaged what was then the nation’s capital.
by Michael E. Ruane via Washington Post on April 4, 2020
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