Rachel Smolkin

The long wait ended Tuesday night with a woman center stage, arms outstretched.

It remained whole during the war — a sign of America’s early promise and future hope.

The media called it the “Texas White House,” but to LBJ the ranch was home. It was a place where he could work -- and have a little fun.

How a pesky heron caused President Ronald Reagan to lose his guns — and other tales of how he embraced life on his ranch and made the Secret Service nervous.

On November 10, 1923, President Woodrow Wilson stood in his dressing gown in his dark-paneled library, swallowed his anxiety and prepared to execute “an exceedingly difficult stunt” — the first live, remote, nationwide radio broadcast.

Andrew Jackson blamed his wife’s death on the critics who hit their marriage during the 1828 campaign.

Rachel Smolkin writes that beneath the light Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain spread, darkness crept in. She says this week was a heartbreaking reminder to move toward the light together, to give it a chance.