During its first year of service, Freedom House Amublance Service transported more than 4,600 patients across 5,800 calls, saving 200 lives.

These Trailblazing Black Paramedics Are the Reason You Don’t Have to Ride a Hearse or a Police Van to the Hospital

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Freedom House Ambulance Service set the standard for emergency medical care, laying the groundwork for the services available today

Lillian Ali

A tsunami might have occured some 115 million years ago, near where deposits of Cretaceous amber were found in Japan.

Smart News

This Deposit of ‘Weird’ Cretaceous Amber Could Reveal Hints to Long-Forgotten Tsunamis in Japan

May 23, 2025

Smart News

He Went Out to Catch Fish in Lake Michigan—and Discovered a 102-Year-Old Shipwreck Instead

May 23, 2025

South Korea’s Female Free Divers May Have Evolved to Thrive Underwater, Study Finds

May 23, 2025

Where Was Soccer Invented? A New Archaeological Discovery Suggests Scotland, Not England, Was the Sport’s Birthplace

May 23, 2025

A Young Cooper’s Hawk Learned to Use a Crosswalk Signal to Launch Surprise Attacks on Other Birds

May 23, 2025

Scientists Use DNA to Trace Early Humans’ Footsteps From Asia to South America

May 23, 2025

More Smart News

Latest Features

A grizzly bear walks along a road in Lake Louise, Alberta.

Science

To Reduce Human and Grizzly Bear Conflicts, Both Species Must Change Their Behavior

May 23, 2025

Sarah Grandmother’s Knife, Apsáalooke (Crow), age 10, wearing an elk-tooth dress and sticking out her tongue playfully in Montana, 1910

At the Smithsonian

See the Stunning Archival Photographs That Tell the Stories of Everyday Native Life and Communities

May 23, 2025

The Ake archaeological site on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.

History

What Can We Learn From Apocalyptic Times of the Past?

May 23, 2025

Loaded with colorful containers, a cargo ship floats right into the Port of Miami.

Travel

Set Sail With These 15 Scenes of Sensational Ships

May 23, 2025

Scoresby Sund in Eastern Greenland is the largest fjord system in the world.

Travel

Nine Ways to Experience Greenland’s Unique Culture and Icy Landscapes

May 21, 2025

History

These Trailblazing Black Paramedics Are the Reason You Don’t Have to Ride a Hearse or a Police Van to the Hospital

May 21, 2025

Uncovering the past. Understanding the present. Informing the future.

Give a Gift Renew

June 2025

OPENER - A shaft of golden light from the cave’s mouth provides warmth as the expedition’s scientists enjoy lunch 80 feet below the opening of Natural Trap Cave.

Science Passage to the Pleistocene

At a site known as Natural Trap Cave, a team of scientists are rappelling down to uncover the secrets of what the Earth was like during the Pleistocene

Science Balancing the Scales

The mammals’ return to the region represented a conservation success story, but their appetite for endangered fish is upsetting the balance of a delicate ecosystem

OPENER - Vanilla producer Bertrand Côme displays bound and dried vanilla beans for sale at his Réunion farm. The beans generally grow as long as 6 to 11 inches.

Travel The Bittersweet Beginnings of Vanilla

A journey to the remote Indian Ocean island reveals the story behind the fragrant, delicious, ubiquitous spice—and the enslaved youth who made it a commercial success

Most Popular

Smart News

A Young Cooper’s Hawk Learned to Use a Crosswalk Signal to Launch Surprise Attacks on Other Birds

Science

A Century Ago, a High School Teacher From a Small Tennessee Town Ignited a National Debate Over Human Evolution

Smart News

He Went Out to Catch Fish in Lake Michigan—and Discovered a 102-Year-Old Shipwreck Instead

Smart News

A New, Shape-Shifting ‘Flapjack’ Octopus Has Been Discovered in the Deep Sea Off the Coast of Australia

Smart News

Humpback Whales Can’t See as Well as Scientists Thought, and It Might Explain Why They Keep Getting Tangled in Fishing Gear

Special Report

Washington Crossing the Delaware, Emanuel Leutze, 1851

To mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding on July 4, 1776, Smithsonian magazine is highlighting the people, places and events that shaped the United States’ fight for independence from Great Britain

View Full Report

Featured Stories

History

Discover Patrick Henry’s Legacy, Beyond His Revolutionary ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’ Speech

A 19th-century lithograph of Patrick Henry's "give me liberty or give me death" speech

History

How an American Merchant, a French Official and a Pioneering Chemist Smuggled Much-Needed Gunpowder to the Continental Army

Silas Deane, left, worked with Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, center, to secure gunpowder from Antoine Lavoisier, right.

History

What Spurred the South to Join the American Revolution?

Patrick Henry rallies armed Virginian farmers before marching toward Williamsburg, Virginia, May 1775.

Photo of the Day

Recreating in vast wilderness areas is an immense privilege of American culture, and the Pacific Northwest is an ideal location for the experience. Here, a small blue tent is dwarfed by the sheer size of the surrounding landscape. When alone in the backcountry, the noise of every day life is lost. Sitting against the backdrop of 50 shades of blue, one has the unique opportunity to be lulled to sleep by trickling streams, tucked into sleep by gentle alpine breezes, and awoken by pink alpenglow reflecting off glaciated peaks.

Containing more than 50-miles of hiking trails, Mount Baker Wilderness in Washington state is a pristine example of America's preserved natural landscapes.

50 Shades of Blue

By Brooke Juhala

Get the Photo of the Day directly to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter.

Sign Up

Smithsonian Videos

Podcast

Smithsonian Podcast: There’s More to That

Smithsonian magazine covers history, science and culture in the way only it can — through a lens on the world that is insightful and grounded in richly reported stories. In There’s More to That, meet the magazine’s journalists and hear how they discover the forces behind the biggest issues of our time.

Listen In