American History

The USS Pueblo.

The Time the U.S. Nearly Nuked North Korea Over a Highjacked Spy Ship

The Pueblo incident ended peacefully, but newly unclassified documents detail President Johnson's contingency plans

Look Closely at This Picture of John Glenn

The reflected faces of NASA staff appear in John Glenn's spacesuit

What Reviewers Said About the First Mac When It Debuted

They nitpicked the hardware, but reviewers appreciated the groundbreaking features that would redefine the personal computer

The History of How We Came to Revere Abraham Lincoln

The slain president’s two personal secretaries battled mudslingers for a quarter-century to shape his image

The Last Days of Blackbeard

An exclusive account of the final raid and political maneuvers of history’s most notorious pirate

The Franklin Papers includes 4,522 documents, including angry letters the founding father never sent.

It’s Ben Franklin’s Birthday—Want to Rummage Through His Papers?

4,522 documents, letters and notes that Franklin wrote or received

20 Years Ago Today, the Northridge Earthquake Rocked L.A.

Sixty people died and thousands were left homeless in one of the most deadly earthquakes in American history

Whether or not there's a shortage of Velveeta, the processed cheese's history is long and complex.

There is No Shortage of History When it Comes to Velveeta

In the event of a full-blown Velveeta shortage, here's a little history to ease your pain

Forty Years Ago, Women Had a Hard Time Getting Credit Cards

Despite the law, a report from 2012 found that women still pay more for credit cards

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Copyright Law Kept These Famous Works From Entering the Public Domain This Year

Here is a list of books, movies, music & scientific research that would have entered the public domain today had the 1978 copyright law not been passed

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Meet the People Who Stole From the FBI—After 43 Years, They’ve Decided To Come Forward

In 1971 eight activists stole documents that unveiled a secret FBI campaign to squash dissidents

Deep fried butter on a stick

Long Before Paula Deen's Fried Butter Balls, Cooks Were Trying to Roast Butter on a Stick

Paula Deen may in fact come from a long culinary tradition of skipping the bread and simply eating the butter

The JFK Christmas Card That Was Never Sent

A rare White House card from 1963 evokes one of the nation’s darkest holiday seasons

Playing Q-bert on the Atari 2600 through the Internet Archive’s Console Living Room.

Play Through the History of Video Games (Frogger! Asteroids! Q-bert!) All on One Site

From Frogger to Asteroids to Turtles!, play through the early days of video gaming

In 1949, a Physicist Proposed Using Skyscapers And a Roof to Control NYC’s Climate

No scorching summers, no freezing winters...just a nice pleasant time, all year round

Coconut Crabs Eat Everything from Kittens to, Maybe, Amelia Earhart

According to one theory, Earhart did not drown in the Pacific but instead crashed on the remote Nikumaroro atoll, where she was eaten by coconut crabs

A member of the Texas Camel Corps.

The United States Army Used Camels Until After the Civil War

When the first American settlers started moving west, their horses and mules weren't cut out for the long, dry treks

Victorians Made Jewelry Out of Human Hair

Hair work went out of fashion around 1925, but it was popular for hundreds of years before that

We've Done So Well by Chesapeake Oysters, We Can Start Eating Them Again

Perhaps this time we can keep ourselves from eating them to oblivion

How the North American Aerospace Defense Command Got Into the Business of Tracking Santa

It all began in 1955 with Sears, a wrong number and a very confused Colonel

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