The con artist who led an army to rob a city

Mugshots of Wilhelm Voigt, the Captain of Köpenick, seen frontally as well as sideways in a military uniform.

Meet the shoemaker and con artist who led an army to rob a city. Wilhelm Voigt, from Tilsit, Prussia (now Sovetsk, Russia), was happy to find employment as a shoemaker. He had just settled in Berlin after serving a 15-year sentence for a failed burglary attempt. It was not his first prison term, and it […]

Henry: The Interpreter Who Beat Magellan

Most people think of Ferdinand Magellan as the Portuguese explorer who first sailed around the planet on a quest to prove that the Earth was round. Now, consider this. While Magellan did sail from Spain on an expedition that eventually went full circle, he never completed the tour. Also, Magellan never set out to sail […]