At Harvard, in 1970, the explosion of a bomb accidentally disclosed 28,000 lost photographs of the Middle East—some of them by a remarkable family named Bonfils.

When Queen Elizabeth I wanted to pacify the Ottoman Sultan, she sent Thomas Dallam to Istanbul—with agift that the Turks would not soon forget.

This February in Yugoslavia, Sarajevo—powder keg of the First World War—will host the 1984 Winter Olympics in an ambience rich with mementos of its Muslim past.

Thanks to a change in schedule, a super-sensitive radar sensor—and good luck—scientists have peeled back the surface of the Sahara to disclose a hidden network of rivers beneath the sands.

To butterflies called "Blues," the sharp jaws of the ant may mean protection, not danger—because these creatures have a deal called "commensalism."