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History

Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in 1967.

History of Now

The Ties That Bind Muhammad Ali to the NFL Protests

A new biography reveals new details about the history of the boxer—“a heavyweight of contradictions”

Robert La Follette

World War I: 100 Years Later

Fake News and Fervent Nationalism Got a Senator Tarred as a Traitor During WWI

The fiery progressive Robert La Follette responded with a classic defense of free speech in wartime

The Old House Chamber has been used as National Statuary Hall since July 1864.

History of Now

A Senator Speaks Out Against Confederate Monuments… in 1910

Alone in his stand, Weldon Heyburn despised that Robert E. Lee would be memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol

"The Rush" lampooned in an 1870 issue of Harper's Magazine

The Minister Who Invented Camping in America

How William H.H. Murray accidental bestseller launched the country’s first outdoor craze

Civil Rights activist Grady O'Cummings talking with a group of boys. O'Cummings later faked his own death to avoid threats made by members of the Black Panthers against him and his family.

These Never-Before-Seen Photos From “The New York Times” Offer a New Glimpse Into African-American History

The editors of the new book, “Unseen” talk about recognizing the paper of record’s biases

Will the files show who was really behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy?

The Release of JFK Assassination Files Later This Month Has Conspiracy Theorists On the Edge of Their Seats

The material is expected to spark new interest in the 35th president’s death

Evel Knievel’s Famous Snake River Canyon Jump

On September 8th, 1974, famous daredevil Evel Knievel climbed into a steam-powered rocket and attempted to blast across Idaho’s Snake River Canyon

A southern New Hampshire pine forest was entirely blown down in the hurricane of 1938.

The 1938 Hurricane That Revived New England’s Fall Colors

An epic natural disaster restored the forest of an earlier America

Marie Curie in one of her mobile X-ray units in October 1917

Women Who Shaped History

How Marie Curie Brought X-Ray Machines To the Battlefield

During World War I, the scientist invented a mobile x-ray unit, called a “Little Curie,” and trained 150 women to operate it

U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt attends a meeting of the women's CWA officials at Warrenton, Virginia. January 26, 1934.

Collection of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Writing Captures the First Lady’s Lasting Relevance

On the 133rd anniversary of her birth, “ER“‘s influence lives on

The Fountaingrove Round Barn burned on Monday Oct. 9 in one of the 17 wildfires that erupted across California.

History of Now

As Wildfires Rage Across California Wine Country, a Historical Structure Turns to Ash

The iconic Round Barn was destroyed at Fountaingrove, once home to a Utopian community and one of America’s first Japanese immigrants

Cat's Head, 30 BCE to third century CE

Freer|Sackler: Reopens

Why the Ancient Egyptians Loved Their Kitties

A show opening at the Sackler dramatizes the various meanings that the people of Egypt once associated with cats

The Messburghof in Hamburg, Germany

Inside the House of Zyklon B

An iconic Hamburg building, built by Jews and now a chocolate museum, once housed the distributors of one of Nazi Germany’s most gruesome inventions

"Joseph Stalin" Ernest Hamlin Baker 1939 Crayon on paper

The True Story of the Death of Stalin

“Veep” creator Armando Iannucci’s upcoming dark comedy pulls from the stranger-than-fiction real-life events surrounding Stalin’s death

Despite the best efforts of many investigators, no one was able to solve the riddle of exactly how Mumler created his apparitions.

Meet Mr. Mumler, the Man Who “Captured” Lincoln’s Ghost on Camera

When America’s first aerial cameraman met an infamous spirit photographer, the chemistry was explosive

Elders Council Secretary Judy Augusta and Elders Council Member Catherine Ford tour the American Indian Museum's exhibition "Nation to Nation" on the day the Treaty of Fort Wayne is put on view.

A Territorial Land Grab That Pushed Native Americans to the Breaking Point

The 1809 treaty that fueled Tecumseh’s war on whites at the Battle of Tippecanoe is on view at the American Indian Museum

In "Marshall," a new movie starring Chadwick Boseman and Josh Gad, the future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argues a case for a black man accused of rape.

The True Story Behind “Marshall”

What really happened in the trial featured in the new biopic of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

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