Shirley Dygert had never jumped before. Dave Hartsock jumped for a living. Neither of them knew what to expect when the parachute failed.

“What transpired in the streets appeared to be a kind of municipal version of shock and awe.”

On the platonic but volatile relationship between fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide in 2010 and professional muse Isabella Blow, who committed suicide in 2007.

On the highly enjoyable, nearly fatal first experiments with laughing gas in late 18th-century London.

On the seminal songwriter, who died four years ago today, in his final days before succumbing to dipsomania.

The Nigerian schoolgirls who escaped Boko Haram.

How a Rhode Island lawyer named Joseph Caramadre made millions by exploiting the life insurance industry’s fine print.

The strange case of Kip Litton, road race fraud.

A law professor’s interpretation of the 2004 hit.

Analysis of the divisive murder case.

Revisiting a 30-year-old beating death in St. Louis.

Why a type of gasoline may be responsible for periods of increased crime in the U.S. and abroad.

In search of the former boxing champ, who refuses to believe he has HIV.

A year and a half with Candace Desmond-Woods, whose husband, and Iraq war veteran, suffers from PTSD and alcoholism.

The story of 15-year-old Audrie Pott, who took her own life after nude photos of her were circulated at school.

New York’s Pastor Parker and his growing string of Liberty Churches, each of which will “adopt the culture of its neighborhood.”

On the problems in “Dr. V’s Magical Putter.”

An oral history project involving former IRA members becomes a prolonged court battle over a four-decade-old murder.

On the “queer roots” of Disco, House, and beyond.

A barely drinking-age Green Day profiled shortly after the release of Dookie.

A tale of ambition, motherhood and political mythmaking in the race for governor of Texas.

The roast where Chevy Chase learned that everyone hates him.

How a group of vigilante cat-lovers seeking the hooded figure who suffocated a kitten in an internet video found a sadistic killer.

A story written about Twitter and one its founders, Evan Williams, when the company’s chief source of revenue was subletting desks in their partially filled office.

On Sebastian Junger’s War and the documentary Restrepo by Tim Hetherington, who was killed in Libya yesterday.