Smart News History & Archaeology

Cool Finds

Coin Once Believed to Be Fake Is a Million Dollar Find

Authenticators found a New England collector's Gold Rush-era $5 gold coin is the real McCoy

Why Researchers Believe These 100,000-Year-Old Etchings Weren't Symbolic

In a new study, the markings — which resemble hashtags —were not found to be distinctive based on time and geography

New Research

Did a Prehistoric Surgeon Practice on This Cow?

Though an early human likely created the hole, the reason why remains less clear

President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, first lady Melania Trump, and Brigitte Macron stand during a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 24, 2018

A Brief History of State Dinners

The White House first hosted King David Kalākaua, of the Kingdom of Hawaii for a state dinner back in 1874

Cool Finds

Wreck of Nazi Germany's Most Advanced U-Boat Discovered

Sunk in 1945, U-3523, a Type XXI sub, may have been attempting to smuggle high-ranking Nazis to Argentina

Prince George and Princess Charlotte arriving at the Lindo wing at St Mary's Hospital to welcome their new baby brother, who will be fifth in line to the British throne.

Why Princess Charlotte Just Made Royal History

Thanks to a 2013 reform, the 2-year-old royal tot can welcome her new baby brother while maintaining her place in line for the throne

A model of the planned artwork for downtown Albuquerque memorializing the landmark case that expanded the rights of Asian Americans.

Monument Marks Little-Remembered Case That Set Precedent for Asian Americans to Testify in Court

The history around the 'Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun' will be memorialized in the upcoming public work 'View from Gold Mountain'

Cool Finds

Cache of Benjamin Franklin's Original Manuscripts—Doodles and All—Gets Digitized

The Library of Congress recently released approximately 8,000 letters, drafts and documents from the founding father

The man's limb appears to have been removed by blunt force trauma and a knife was later secured in its stead.

This Medieval Man Used a Knife as a Prosthetic Limb

The man’s skeleton bears signs of frequent ‘biomechanical force,’ according to a new study

Partial rendering of Psamtek I's statue

4,500 Newly Discovered Fragments Help Piece Together Massive Psamtik I Statue

The pieces gave researchers a better idea of the size and shape of the colossus

Picture from Hans Asperger's personnel file, circa 1940.

Hans Asperger ‘Actively Assisted’ Nazi Eugenics Policies, Study Claims

Historian Herwig Czech has uncovered evidence revealing that the renowned doctor sent children to a notorious ‘euthanasia’ clinic

Ulysses Simpson Grant, Oil on canvas by Thomas Le Clear

Cool Finds

Ulysses S. Grant's 1849 Home in Detroit May Be Restored

The house he rented as a young officer is now boarded up and full of trash on the site of the former Michigan state fairgrounds

Cool Finds

This 13 Year Old Helped Find Viking Treasure In Germany

The silver jewelry and coins date to the reign of King Harald Bluetooth and may have been deposited during his flight from Denmark

A rendering of the planned memorial honoring Ed Johnson.

Public Sculpture in Tennessee Will Memorialize Lynching Victim

Chattanooga confronts its history with a planned memorial to a young black man named Ed Johnson who was murdered by a white lynch mob in 1906

Cool Finds

Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Casket Rediscovered in Former Wine Cellar

Parishioners at St. Michael's Church in Highgate hope to refurbish the crypt after identifying where exactly Coleridge's final resting place was

Open Heritage shows Bagan, an ancient city in Myanmar, before and after the 2016 earthquake.

Check Out the World’s Largest Archive Digitally Preserving At-Risk Heritage Sites

Open Heritage features 27 sites in 18 countries with more locations to be added in the future

Ataqeloula stele

Cool Finds

Large Cache of Texts May Offer Insight Into One of Africa's Oldest Written Languages

Archaeologists in Sudan have uncovered the largest assemblage of Meroitic inscriptions to date

Elle Fanning as author Mary Shelley

Coming Soon

Watch: The First Trailer for 'Mary Shelley' Explores the Many Inspirations for 'Frankenstein'

The biopic will follow Mary Wollstonecraft's scandalous teenage romance with the older Percy Bysshe Shelley and the events that shaped her most famous book

A man uses a mobile phone to photograph flowers placed on the names of concentration camps during the annual ceremony on Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Thursday, April 12, 2018.

Americans Believe Holocaust Education Is Important, But Survey Finds Gaps in Their Knowledge

The poll found that a substantial number of Americans were unaware of basic facts about the Holocaust

The Endurance sinking in 1915

Trending Today

Antarctic Research Ship to Search for Wreck of Shackleton's 'Endurance'

The ship sunk in pack ice in 1915, setting off one of exploration's most epic survival tales

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