Showing results for "The Gene" in United States

Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race.

“One of the 50 Best Nonfiction Books of the Last 25 Years”—Slate On New Year’s Day 2013, two-time Pulitzer Prize–winner Gene Weingarten asked three strangers to, literally, pluck a day, month, and year from a hat. That day—chosen completely at random—turned out to be Sunday...

A major poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was one of the first African American writers to garner international recognition in the wake of emancipation. In this definitive biography, the first full-scale life of Dunbar in half a century, Gene Andrew Jarrett offers a revelatory account of a writer whose Gilded Age celebrity as the "poet laureate of his race" hid the private struggles of a man who, in the words of his famous poem, felt like a "caged bird" that sings.

The inspiring true story of the first female pilots taking their rightful place in the exciting world of aviation. In 1929, 19 gutsy women blazed out of the darkness by setting out from California in propeller-driven planes, each competing to be the winner of the first female cross-country air race. The hazards were many, from disastrous weather to possible sabotage, but by facing the dangers with skill and determination, the racers thrilled the nation and pioneered a new future for female pilots and women's rights.

The discovery of Robert E. Lee's Special Orders No. 191 outside of Frederick, Maryland, on September 13, 1862, is one of the most hotly disputed events of the American Civil War. For more than 150 years, historians have debated if George McClellan, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, dawdled after receiving a copy of the orders before advancing to challenge Lee's forces. Authors Gene Thorp and Alexander Rossino document in exhaustive fashion how "Little Mac" in fact moved with uncharacteristic energy to counter the Confederate threat and take advantage of Lee's divided forces.

In 1969, the body of a young woman was discovered in the woods of Renton, rocking the communities along Puget Sound. Three more brutal murders followed, drawing the attention of multiple police agencies as they tried to piece together the meager clues left behind. The seemingly unrelated cases challenged detectives, who struggled to realize they were all connected to one man: Gary Gene Grant. Before the term "serial killer" was even coined, Grant stalked his prey, destroying lives and families while walking unseen among the masses. Decades later, his crimes have all but been forgotten.

Former collegiate star, sports agent, and NFL Executive Michael Huyghue recounts his journey in professional sports and shows how race and racism operate among the rich and the white and extend way beyond the NFL and the world of sports executives. With a deep, abiding love for sports, Huyghue...

In the late summer of 1968, several intelligence sources stated that numerous American POW's were being held in bamboo cages for transport by vehicle up the Ho Chi Minh Trail from the North Vietnamese Army stronghold the Plei Trap Valley. Special Forces CPT Joe Dietrich and 1LT Don Bendell volunteered to lead a helicopter assault into the Plei Trap Valley with 100 Montagnard mercenaries as the point element of a joint task force of soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division.

They fought a war without rules, and taught the enemy the legend of the Green Beret. No fighting men in the world were a match for the U.S. Army Special Forces, the men of the Green Beret. But in the chaos of Vietnam, where enemies, allies, friends, and traitors all shared a landscape of terror, the Green Berets had to develop their own tactics and draw closer to the only people they could trust: each other.