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Two U.S. Navy officers stroll past the sunlit Georgian splendor of Middleton Tavern in Annapolis, Maryland. Horatio Middleton established the tavern here in 1750. Today, visitors can order classic Chesapeake seafood, including oysters and rockfish.

America's 250th Anniversary

Follow in the Footsteps of the Founders and Have a Drink Where They Planned the Revolution Over a Few Beers

Taverns, public houses and inns served as meeting places before the war and unofficial headquarters during it. Some still stand—including these nine, where you can raise a glass in memory of the founders

The singer, actor and television host Dinah Shore touts big savings on the cover of the Sperry & Hutchinson Company’s 1963 Ideabook.

Customer Loyalty Was Once Measured in Green Stamps. And the More You Shopped, the Bigger the Rewards

If you’ve ever earned a free latte for buying ten of them earlier, it’s a direct result of the phenomenon created by a company few remember today

The first episode of "Lucy Worsley Investigates: The American Revolution" premieres on April 7, with the second installment following on April 14. Note: The upside-down Union Jack as seen here was in the original publicity photograph provided by PBS.

America's 250th Anniversary

In a New Documentary, One of Britain’s Most Famous Historians Reframes the American Revolution as a ‘Messy Divorce’

Lucy Worsley’s PBS series highlights the emotional fallout of the conflict, with a focus on the British perspective

An illustration of British General John Burgoyne addressing a group of his Native allies

America's 250th Anniversary

Native Nations Fought in the American Revolution to Protect Their Ancestral Lands. After the War, Settlers Seized Their Territory Anyway

The conflict divided the six tribes of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, most of whom decided to join the British. The former allies clashed at the Battle of Oriskany in New York in 1777

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America's 250th Anniversary

The Spirited Revolutionary Who Led the Fight for Independence in Corsica Also Inspired America’s Colonial Rabble-Rousers

Pasquale Paoli was a “small fish fighting an entire empire.” Four thousand miles away, the founding fathers were watching and taking notes

The tenth-century temple of Banteay Srei, northeast of Angkor, where Clara and André Malraux planned an audacious 1923 heist. The Hindu shrine complex, built from intricately carved red sandstone, is celebrated for some of the finest surviving decorative stonework of the Khmer era.

To Finance Their Lifestyle, a Young French Couple Went to Cambodia to Steal Antiquities. They Did Almost Everything Wrong

Clara and André Malraux conspired to loot the pink temple of Banteay Srei, but their failure started a battle of reclamation

"By the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies," Abigail Adams wrote on March 31, 1776.

America's 250th Anniversary

Abigail Adams Asked Her Husband to ‘Remember the Ladies’ as He Drafted America’s Laws. Here’s What She Really Meant

She wrote the letter that would come to define her legacy on March 31, 1776. But 250 years later, Americans are misinterpreting her open-ended request

A Route 66 shield marks the storied highway in Needles, California.

When America Found Itself Ready to Roll, Route 66, Stretching From Chicago to Los Angeles, Was the Road of Endless Possibilities

The country’s “mother road” started out as a way to get from Point A to Point B but quickly became the host of a culture and a symbol of freedom

Modern fish traps require pilings that are driven into the riverbed and netting that reaches across part of a river.

Fish Traps Have Been Banned on the Columbia River for Nearly a Century. Could Bringing Them Back Help Save Salmon?

A new experiment is testing the commercial success of fish traps in Washington and Oregon. Even as some conservationists embrace the technique, its return has reopened old wounds among local fishers

Gertrude Lawrence as Anna Leonowens and Yul Brynner as Mongkut in the 1951 Broadway production of The King and I. The musical turns 75 on March 29.

Based on a True Story

‘The King and I’ Spotlights an English Governess Who Modernized Siamese Society. The Real Anna Leonowens Exaggerated Her Influence and Lied About Her Origins

The beloved musical is loosely based on a Eurasian schoolteacher’s accounts of her time at King Mongkut’s court. These memoirs masked her mixed-race status and unfairly portrayed the monarch as a tyrant

The Tougaloo Nine, from left: Joseph Jackson Jr., Geraldine Edwards, James Bradford, Evelyn Pierce, Albert Lassiter, Ethel Sawyer, Meredith Anding Jr., Janice Jackson and Alfred Cook

Traveling Along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

Nine Black College Students Were Arrested in 1961 for Reading at a Segregated Public Library. Their Contributions to the Civil Rights Movement Have Long Been Overlooked

Known as the Tougaloo Nine, the demonstrators staged a sit-in that helped the NAACP push for the desegregation of public spaces in Mississippi’s capital

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There's More to That

The Real Story Behind Abigail Adams’ ‘Remember the Ladies’ Letter

Americans who turned the letter written by the future first lady into a suffragist rallying cry may have misunderstood her intentions

President William Howard Taft boards the Mayflower in 1909, the year that he supposedly got stuck in a bathtub on board the Oleander steamship.

Popular Lore Claims That William Howard Taft Got Stuck in a Bathtub. New Research Sheds Light on the Legend’s Forgotten Origins

A long-overlooked 1929 account contains the earliest known reference to the anecdote, suggesting that the 27th president found himself trapped in a tub during a Mississippi River voyage

British soldiers met at Lydia Darragh's house in Philadelphia, presenting the perfect opportunity for the Quaker woman to eavesdrop on their battle plans.

America's 250th Anniversary

A Quaker Woman Eavesdropped on British Soldiers Plotting a Surprise Attack—and Surreptitiously Warned George Washington

Lydia Darragh defied her commitment to pacifism by spying during the American Revolution

An equestrian portrait of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, father of the novelist Alexandre Dumas

Based on a True Story

The Real Count of Monte Cristo Was Alexandre Dumas’s Father, a Trailblazing Black General

Ahead of the March 22 premiere of a new TV adaptation, learn about the life of Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, the French Army officer who inspired the beloved novel

This 1804 depiction of Jane McCrea's death cemented a dramatized version of her killing in the public imagination.

America's 250th Anniversary

A Native Soldier Allied With the British Killed a Young White Woman in 1777. Propaganda Transformed Her Into a Martyr of the American Revolution

The patriots weaponized Jane McCrea’s death to demonize their enemies and paint Indigenous people as uniquely violent

These recently discovered portrait miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard are believed to depict Elizabeth Knollys, Lady Leighton, and Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton.

Cool Finds

Tudor Courtiers Exchanged Portrait Miniatures as Love Tokens. Centuries Later, New Research Is Unlocking the Secrets of These Intimate Artworks

Over the past few years, art historians have identified several previously unknown paintings by Elizabeth I’s favorite artist, Nicholas Hilliard

The Asama Maru, a Japanese ship that transported Allied civilians to the east coast of Africa, where they were traded for Japanese civilians from North and South America during World War II

After Pearl Harbor, Americans Living in Japan Endured Imprisonment, Torture and a Lengthy Battle to Return Home

A new book chronicles the tense negotiations that secured the return of nearly 3,000 Allied civilians held by the Japanese during World War II

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Rooted in the American West: Food, History and Culture

Rooted in the American West: Food, History and Culture

This series will trace how the American West’s identity has been shaped by its people, landscapes and legacies

Jessie Buckley in The Bride! (left) and Elsa Lanchester in Bride of Frankenstein (right)

In ‘Bride of Frankenstein,’ the Monster’s Wife Never Speaks. Now, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Bride!’ Gives the Iconic Character a Voice

Directed by James Whale, the 1935 movie and its prequel, a 1931 adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, laid the groundwork for the modern horror genre

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