Kentucky is characterized as much by its waterways as by its land mass, especially the more than 650 miles of the Ohio River that define the state's northern border, also part of the famous Mason-Dixon Line that once divided North from South.

The picturesque Hawaiian islands have long been a favorite vacation destination for Americans but few visitors know about their tumultuous past - including the sordid overthrow of the ruling monarchs by mercenaries in the early 20th Century. Gaellen Quinn, author of the new novel, The Last Aloha, takes us back to those fateful times.

On June 6, 1944, the Allied armies invaded the coastal region of France, opening the second front in Europe with an attack that greatly eased the pressure on the Soviet Union in the east and eventually spelled the end of the Nazi regime. Historian Stephen E. Ambrose called this the climactic battle of World War Two.