Howard Hughes

(Newser) - More than 40 years after it was the centerpiece of what PRI calls "possibly the biggest and strangest covert operation" of the Cold War, a piece of CIA history is headed for the scrap heap. After the Soviet Union failed to find one of its nuclear submarines that sank...

(Newser) - Howard Hughes: billionaire, aviator, engineer … and CIA asset? Yep. Hughes once provided the necessary cover for a secret operation codenamed Project AZORIAN, in which the CIA tried to retrieve a Soviet sub from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean without anyone being the wiser, the Houston Chronicle reports. The...

(Newser) - A mansion on Linden Drive in Beverly Hills is poised to become an official historic landmark for two good reasons: First, the 6,246-square-foot property was built by renowned architect Wallace Neff in 1926. Second, Howard Hughes smashed his plane into it 20 years later. The local heritage commission plans...