U.S. History

Is Donald Harvey the Most Prolific Serial Killer in America?

Donald Harvey, a mild-mannered hospital worker, called himself the "Angel of Death"

Madame President

History of Now

The History of Women Presidents in Film

Why the science-fiction genre was the first to imagine a female commander-in-chief

How You Wound Up Playing 'The Oregon Trail' in Computer Class

From the 1970s to 1990s, the government-owned Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium dominated the educational software market with more than 300 games

Images are fast outpacing words as the major means of communication.

Commentary

How to Avoid the Pitfalls in the Politics of Graphic Messaging

The director of the National Portrait Gallery offers a few pointers on how to acquire visual intelligence

How Did a Grizzly Bear Get on California's Flag?

As more and more settlers began to pour into California throughout the 1840s, a chain of events led to the Bear Flag Revolt

How America's Public Parks Were Born

Learn how Central Park, the first of its kind, was given a completely visionary design that's since influenced cities around the country

History of Now

What the Candidates (and Journalists) Can Learn From the 1948 Democratic Convention

The first time television was beamed into millions of homes meant that presidential politics would have to change

Republican Convention in session, Cleveland Public Auditorium, 1924

History of Now

When the GOP Picked a Nominee for Vice President, Only to Be Rejected

Their unrequited choice seemed utterly uninterested in the role

The key to the Bastille, as held in Mount Vernon's collections.

How the Key to the Bastille Ended Up in George Washington’s Possession

A gift from an old friend is one of Mount Vernon’s most fascinating objects

Crowd outside the 1924 Republican National Convention in Cleveland listen to speeches broadcast from inside the hall via an early “public address system.”

100 Years of Women at the Ballot Box

Women Ruled the Floor When the GOP First Came to Cleveland

The 1924 Convention was the first to feature female delegates, and they made their presence known

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on His Love of History, Youth Sports and Which Books Everyone Should Read

The basketball legend has always had a writer's touch

The Brain-Freezing Science of the Slurpee

More than 60 years ago, a broken soda fountain led to this cool invention

The Colonial Settlement That Vanished Into Thin Air

An entire colony of English settlers disappeared from Roanoke Island, just outside North Carolina's Outer Banks

Cupid Fountain

The Heiress to a Gun Empire Built a Mansion Forever Haunted by the Blood Money That Built It

Sarah Winchester inherited a fortune and used it to construct a mysterious mansion in northern California

Russian Orthodox crosses in the time-and-weather-worn cemetery of Ninilchik’s Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Chapel are a testament to the heritage of the village.

Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Alaska

Tracing Alaska's Russian Heritage

From onion domes to tsarist-era Russian dialects, evidence of the Russian colonialism remains

Signing of the Highway Beautification Bill

Lady Bird Johnson Wielded Power With a Delicate Touch

The First Lady was a trailblazer who flew under the radar as a quiet champion of Civil Rights and protecting the environment

NOW co-founder Muriel Fox says: “There’s still a need for a women’s movement. We can’t do it as individuals, each of us working for our own interests. We get much further if we work together."

The NOW Button Takes Us Back When Women's Equality Was a Novelty

At the half-century mark, for the National Organization for Women it is still personal—and political

Would-be assassin Frank Holt, also known as Erich Muenter

The Harvard Professor Who Shot a Financial Titan and Fomented Anti-German Sentiment in a Pre-WWI America

Readers on July 4, 1915 learned the story of a would-be assassin who said he was trying to keep the U.S. out of the European conflict

By the “dawn’s early light,” Key saw the huge garrison flag, now on view at the National Museum of American History, waving above Fort McHenry and he realized that the Americans had survived the battle and stopped the enemy advance.

Commentary

Where’s the Debate on Francis Scott Key’s Slave-Holding Legacy?

During his lifetime, abolitionists ridiculed Key’s words, sneering that America was more like the “Land of the Free and Home of the Oppressed”

A Coney dog

The Origin of the Coney Island Hot Dog Is a Uniquely American Story

They also have very little to do with the New York City amusement park

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