Steve Knupp

Many people remain fascinated by stories about the Cold War, particularly the espionage that was covertly conducted across the globe by both sides. Indeed, from the beginning of the Cold War, there were hundreds if not thousands of spies positioned in...

One of the most important and memorable events of the United States’ westward push across the frontier came with the discovery of gold in the lands that became California in January 1848. Located thousands of miles away from the country’s power...

Through most of history, people have been closely tied to nature, hunting in forests and having an intimate knowledge of the animals in their regions. So-called “primitive” peoples were walking encyclopedias of the natural world, and yet most believed...

Byzantium may have reached its zenith during the Middle Ages as Constantinople, but it had previously stood out among Greek and other ancient cities for its wealth, size, and strategic location. It is probable that given the location, if the Megarans...

Holy relics can be found in many different religions, whether Christian, pagan, Hindu, or Buddhist. A relic is defined as something directly associated with a revered saint, teacher, ancestor, or some miraculous manifestation of deity in the material...

The Third Reich's Luftwaffe began World War II with significant advantages over other European air forces, playing a critical role in the German war machine's swift, powerful advance. By war's end, however, the Luftwaffe had been decimated by combat...

Though it’s often overlooked today, during World War II, the United States held hundreds of thousands of enemy prisoners of war, and the country was unprepared for the influx, despite the fact that only weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the...

In the warm predawn darkness of June 22, 1941, 3 million men waited along a front hundreds of miles long, stretching from the Baltic coast of Poland to the Balkans. Ahead of them in the darkness lay the Soviet Union, its border guarded by millions of...

Given the RAF’s importance, it should come as no surprise that some of the pilots ranked among Britain’s most recognized war heroes, and Guy Gibson remains one of the most famous and highly decorated British soldiers in World War II. His exploits in...

In a world filled with countless religions and spiritual teachings, how do we discern the real from the counterfeit? Evangelist Moses Williams, a dedicated evangelist minister, takes on the mission of enlightenment in "If the Truth Be Told." With...

Before the mid-19th century, European intervention in much of tropical Africa was extremely difficult because of the disease gradient. The combination of malaria and yellow fever commonly killed off half of European troops stationed in West Africa...

Altogether, the Battle of Stalingrad was the deadliest battle in the history of warfare, and the Soviets’ decisive victory there is considered one of the biggest turning points in the entire war, and certainly in the European theater. Over the next...

Discover the captivating story within the pages of "My Father's Story: The Murder of the Best Man I've Ever Known" by Eric Johnson. The story unfolds when Eric delves into the life and tragic death of his father, Bill Johnson, who was brutally...

The ancient world was full of many fantastic cities and places, and like today’s major cities, the great ancient cities were hubs of trade, religion, and science. Writing was first invented in ancient cities, and many important scientific discoveries...

When people think about unidentified flying objects (UFOs), they tend to think of flying discs piloted by gray beings with large heads and enormous eyes. They tend to think that these sightings only started relatively recently and that belief in UFOs...

“Politics is the systematic cultivation of hatred.” - TalleyrandWhile Metternich is most associated with the Congress of Vienna, France, despite its turbulence, had its own influential representative there: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord....

Naval combat underwent a significant metamorphosis during World War II. Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan launched some of the most powerful battleships ever to sail the world's oceans, yet the conflict witnessed the emergence and triumph of the...

The outcome of the English Civil War was no doubt unthinkable to many across Europe before it actually happened, and the Battle of Edgehill represented the first sign that things might not go according to the typical plan. The tiny hamlet of Edgehill...

In 1494, there were five sovereign regional powers in Italy: Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States and Naples. In 1536, only one remained: Venice. These decades of conflict precipitated great anxiety among Western thinkers, and Italians responded...

Before the Vietnam War, most Americans would have been hard pressed to locate Vietnam on a map. South Vietnamese President Diệm’s regime was extremely unpopular, and war broke out between Communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam around the end of the...

Thinking of Spain as a modern nation state today distorts the complicated reality that the Iberian Peninsula faced in the past. Spain was a nation in progress, consisting of regions united under the Spanish crown, but with strong regional identities...

The KGB is one of the most famous abbreviations of the 20th century, and it has become synonymous with the shadowy and often violent actions of the Soviet Union’s secret police and internal security agencies. In fact, it is often used to refer to the...

While the fighting on the Asian mainland is often overlooked in favor of other theaters, at the beginning of 1942, Japanese soldiers in the 15th Army invaded Burma and drove out the British forces in a state of disorder. In fact, it was a headlong...

In popular media and culture, the Paleolithic era is often depicted as a time when humans were completely savage, spoke with little more than grunts, hit women over their heads with clubs and kidnapped them, and of course, everyone lived in caves. The...