Jerry Smith was a record setting tight end for the (then) Washington Redskins from 1965 - 1977. In 1986, Smith also became the first professional athlete to announce he had contracted acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, better known as AIDS. Smith’s decision to reveal his diagnosis did not come easy, nor did being a closeted gay player in an era when opening up about one’s sexuality could risk losing everything.
In the fall of 2000, D.C. resident Mark Meinke was working on a book about drag performers when he ran into a huge roadblock: there were no archives covering the history of his research subject or the District’s large and vibrant LGBTQIA+ community. “D.C., unlike other Gay centers, has no available and accessible community memory or archives,” he wrote in the Washington Blade. So, he did something about it.
Before Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard, there was Ham. America's first "astrochimp" rocketed into space and paved the way for the Moon landing before retiring to the National Zoo. His impact was undeniable but it also raised questions.
Ana Montes was called the "Queen of Cuba" by her colleagues in the Defense Intelligence Agency for her expertise on Cuban affairs. Little did her colleagues know, she hid a dangerous secret. Ultimately, the DIA and the FBI teamed up to reveal what for years she had kept hidden: the Pentagon's top expert on Cuba was actually one of Cuba's top spies.
From 1971 to 72, a serial killer abducted and murdered six African-American girls in D.C. But over 50 years later, the "Freeway Phantom" has never been caught.
On the eve of the American Bicentennial, bonsai master Masaru Yamaki donated his 350-year-old Japanese white pine to the U.S. National Arboretum. No American knew of its true history until in 2001, when two brothers flew from Japan to find the tree their family had nurtured for generations. The story they shared was nothing short of incredible. The Yamaki pine wasn't just an artistic masterpiece, it was a survivor of nuclear war, and one man's gesture of forgiveness to the country that almost killed him.
By the time she set out to build monuments, Daisy Breaux was a woman accustomed to getting what she wanted. Unfortunately, her plans for a memorial to America's mothers never got off the ground. In a legal snarl, she accused the architect of blackmail and extortion. He charged her in turn with sabotaging the project from the start.
There’s a common saying (and belief) that Washington, D.C. was built on a swamp. While that’s not actually the case, it is true that the District’s rivers and tributaries—and the surrounding marshland—have caused some problems in the past. In the nineteenth century, the low-lying area around the National Mall and Tidal Basin was the perfect breeding ground for one of the largest public health concerns at the time: mosquitoes. One enterprising doctor had a very inventive solution.
What is BORF? Washington commuters in 2004 were all too familiar with the graffiti campaign and its mysterious artist. Even if the paint is gone, the punky, rebellious message remains. Borf is one, Borf is many. Borf is coming for your comfort.
Mrs. Mary E. Surratt was a Confederate sympathizer living in the heart of the Union during the Civil War. Her boardinghouse served as the meeting place for the group of conspirators who plotted to assassinate Lincoln. According to the military commission who tried her, she was part of plot. But how much did she really know?
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