History

KHAR, Pakistan - A 40-year-old Pakistani homemaker has made history by becoming the first woman to run for parliament from the country's deeply conservative tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Badam Zari is pushing back against patriarchal traditions and braving potential attack by Islamist militants in the hope of forcing the government to focus more on helping Pakistani women. "I want to reach the assembly to become a voice for women, especially those living in the tribal areas," Zari told the Associated Press in an interview Monday.

EMERYVILLE, Calif. - The journey east on Amtrak's California Zephyr train is as good as the destination. Riding the rails from the San Francisco Bay area to Reno, Nev., offers beautiful views and a tangible sense of history on the route over the Sierra Nevada mountain range that helped bring America together after the Civil War. Marking 30 years of service this year, the Amtrak train leaves Emeryville every morning. The Zephyr's ultimate destination, 51 hours later, is Chicago. Between Sacramento and Reno, a five-hour trip, it follows the same course as the historic Transcontinental Railroad, according to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

At Lantern, there's a little touch of Harry in the night. But at 7 p.m. Monday, there'll be a little touch of Kenneth. Kenneth C. Davis, that is. To accompany Lantern Theater Company's production (through April 14) of Shakespeare's Henry V at St. Stephen's Theater, historian Davis - author of Don't Know Much About History and other best-selling Don't Know books - will give an "interactive talk" titled "The Psyche of a Nation. " Davis and audience will think aloud about nationalism, war, and the difference between the myth of America and, in his words, the "darker, more complicated reality we seldom face.

R YAN BERLEY, 36, and Eric Berley, 32, of Lansdowne and Swarthmore, respectively, own Shane Confectionery in Old City. The brothers, who also run nearby ice-cream parlor Franklin Fountain, acquired the oldest U.S. candy business in 2010 and spent 18 months restoring the faded store at 110 Market St. It reopened in December 2011. We spoke with Ryan. Q: When you bought Shane, what did you decide to keep? A: The curved-glass entry windows were broken and were restored. The interior: We kept everything pre-1940, including a 1910 cash register.

Powerball's latest jackpot is worth $320 million, big enough to make the list of the 15 biggest annuity prizes ever in the United States. The cash jackpot of $198.3 million even makes the Top 10. For the numbers drawn Wednesday night and more, see " Powerball jackpot 4th biggest ever . " 2012 was the most jackpot-crazy year ever, producing the biggest Mega Millions jackpot ever, the biggest Powerball jackpot ever, and two more Powerball...

Two white wood-frame buildings and a cemetery are all that's left of an African American hamlet in Mount Laurel - all, that is, but the rich history that still clings to the place. In the 19th century, runaway slaves heading north to freedom found temporary refuge in houses surrounding the Colemantown Meeting House on Elbo Lane, a stop on the Underground Railroad. Residents, some of them freed slaves, worshipped at the meeting house and later at the neighboring Jacob's Chapel, which remains in use by a 135-member congregation.

Jeffrey Ray is a shameless scavenger. A rummager of attics. A burrower in basements. A fly fisherman in the muddy river of Philadelphia history. And once or twice a week, he gets calls from people who want to bring him what they believe are treasures, deserving of his inspection. After 28 years on the job, Ray, senior curator of the Philadelphia History Museum (formerly known as the Atwater Kent), knows how to gently break the news when an item's value is purely sentimental.

Postwar Japan. Tokyo in ruins. U.S. soldiers arriving to take charge. "Let's show them some good old-fashioned American swagger," barks Douglas MacArthur, the five-star general in command of rebuilding the nation he has just destroyed, as he and his officers make their way from the air base to their new HQ. Tommy Lee Jones, in baggy Army browns, puffing on an extra-long corncob pipe, does his best to approximate the storied military man. ...

Twenty years ago, after waiting for a newspaper job that never materialized, Colombian émigré Hernan Guaracao, a trained journalist, created Al Día, an eight-page newsletter published from his home in North Philadelphia. It began as a "hobby," Guaracao said in a recent interview, but it had a serious purpose: to present news of interest to Spanish-speaking readers in a format that challenged media stereotypes about Latinos. Today Al Día flourishes as the leading Spanish-English weekly of Southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware, a region of a half-million foreign-born Hispanics and their descendants.

NOT EVERY wedding involves a violinist playing while suspended in a crystal-covered cage. But Flyers owner Ed Snider , 80, doesn't celebrate his wedding every day. Sources say that Snider and Lin Spivak , 46, now the fourth Mrs. Snider, actually tied the knot on Valentine's Day in an intimate ceremony (aw!), but held a party for their 160 closest friends Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. A guest at the wedding told me that the couple's decor highlighted the museum, instead of hiding it. A Roman mosaic from Lod, Israel (see it up until May 12)