"A Frightful Hobgoblin Stalks through Europe" and It Ain't Our President

100 things we didn't know this time last year

Each week the Magazine picks out snippets from the week's news -- interesting newsbites that we learned along the way, and find their way into 10 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Week every Saturday. So at the end of the year, here is an almanac of those things we learned....

11. The opening lines of the Communist Manifesto -- "A spectre is haunting Europe--the spectre of Communism" -- were initially translated as "A frightful hobgoblin stalks through Europe". ...

38. Yoda was based on Albert Einstein. ...

51. The day after the atomic bomb exploded on Hiroshima, the banks re-opened. They had one customer, John Reader's book Cities recorded.

If he were there to make the final mortgage payment on his home -- then, just a scorched shadow on the pavement -- he was probably a relative of mine.