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History

Dale Messick, creator of the comic strip "Brenda Starr," looks up from some of her strips in her studio in her Chicago apartment in 1975.

Women Who Shaped History

How Women Broke Into the Male-Dominated World of Cartoons and Illustrations

A new exhibition at the Library of Congress highlights female artists and their contributions to comic strips, magazine covers and political cartoons

Major General Cates with War Correspondents Aboard Ship, Febraury 1945. Robert Sherrod is second from left.

The Reporter Who Helped Persuade FDR to Tell the Truth About War

After witnessing the bloody struggle with Japan, Robert Sherrod thought the public should face the ‘cruel’ facts

Hitler used shameless self-promotion and alternative facts to cast himself as a national hero.

Hitler Created a Fictional Persona To Recast Himself as Germany’s Savior

In 1923, Adolf Hitler wrote an embellished autobiography to convince Germans he was their natural leader

The gold and silver coins in the Hoxne hoard, found in Suffolk, date to the end of the Roman Empire in Britain at the start of the 5th century A.D.

A Search for a Lost Hammer Led to the Largest Cache of Roman Treasure Ever Found in Britain

Today, archaeologists are still debating just how old the hoard is—and what it tells us about the end of the Roman Empire in Britain

Jane Klinger, chief conservator for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, holds one of the cloths that Mansour Omari smuggled out of Syria.

These Cloths Tell the Story of the Worst Humanitarian Crisis of This Generation

At the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the strips of fabric, written in blood and rust, serve as a testament to Syria’s disappeared

Women grieving over the coffins of those killed in the Kielce pogrom as they are transported to the burial site in the Jewish cemetery.

Kielce: The Post-Holocaust Pogrom That Poland Is Still Fighting Over

After World War II, Jewish refugees found they could never return to their native land—a sentiment that some echo today

Armenia

What’s an Ancient Roman Temple Doing in Armenia?

Shrouded in mystery, the Temple of Garni offers a rare glimpse into pre-Christian Caucasia

The inventor at rest, with a Tesla coil (thanks to a double exposure).

The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

The eccentric inventor and modern Prometheus died 75 years ago, after a rags-to-riches to rags life

1968: The Year That Shattered America

Rage Against the Machine

A short story reimagines the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the chaos that shocked the world

Locals cross a small wooden foot bridge in Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam, just downriver from the My Lai Massacre in 1968.

1968: The Year That Shattered America

The Ghosts of My Lai

In the hamlet where U.S. troops killed hundreds of men, women and children, survivors are ready to forgive the most infamous American soldier of the war

During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F Kennedy discusses results of surveillance missions in Cuba

History of Now

How the Presidency Took Control of America’s Nuclear Arsenal

From Truman onwards, the ability to order a nuclear strike has shaped the office

A scientific illustration of the Upward Sun River camp in what is now Interior Alaska.

New Research

Genetics Rewrites the History of Early America—And, Maybe, the Field of Archaeology

The genome of an infant from Upward Sun River, Alaska offers tantalizing insight into the story of human migration

In December 1957, Lymon appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to sing “Goody Goody,” nearly two years after “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” was a hit debut single.

Teen Idol Frankie Lymon’s Tragic Rise and Fall Tells the Truth About 1950s America

The mirage of the singer’s soaring success echoes the mirage of post-war tranquility at home

A Timeline of 1968: The Year That Shattered America

The nation is still reckoning with the changes that came in that fateful year

This cartoon from Harper's Weekly depicts how opiates were used in the 19th century to help babies cope with teething.

Inside the Story of America’s 19th-Century Opiate Addiction

Doctors then, as now, overprescribed the painkiller to patients in need, and then, as now, government policy had a distinct bias

The focus on achievement and social justice is transformative, says Sumaiya Sabnam, at work on equations. “I call myself a student activist,” she says.

1968: The Year That Shattered America

Where RFK Was Killed, a Diverse Student Body Fulfills His Vision for America

At the site of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, the kids at a Los Angeles public school keep his spirit alive

The Top Ten Most Important Ancient Documents Lost to History

Either due to conquest or simply the ravages of time, these founding papers of civilizations around the world will remain mysteries forever

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