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History

At the Batadomba-lena rock shelter in Sri Lanka, scientists found evidence that humans were living off rainforest resources as early as 20,000 years ago.

Anthropocene

Humans Relied on Rainforest Riches 12,000 Years Earlier Than Thought

Fossil remains suggest that prehistoric people in Sri Lanka may have eaten monkeys and other forest species

The front page of the Los Angeles Times on March 14, 1928

On Occasions Like This, I Envy the Dead: The St. Francis Dam Disaster

William Mulholland was the savior of Southern California until he wasn’t

Commemorate the storied document's 800th anniversary with a few special accessories.

The Ridiculous World of Magna Carta Kitsch

Throughout the United Kingdom, retailers are going mad over an 800-year-old document

The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama

Who Was Edmund Pettus?

The march to freedom started on a bridge that honors a man bent on preserving slavery and segregation

A closeup of the Ledi jaw taken just steps from where it was found in the Afar region of Ethiopia.

Anthropocene

Oldest Human Fossil Unearthed in Ethiopia

At about 2.8 million years old, the Ledi jaw may belong to “the stem for the Homo genus,” according to its discoverers

United States Marines pose on top of Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima with the American flag on February 23, 1945.

Photos From the Battle of Iwo Jima to Mark Its 70th Anniversary

The battle for the Pacific island in the late winter of 1945 positioned the United States to invade mainland Japan, but at a cost

During the Civil War, a canal ran along what we now know of as the Mall

Meet the Madam on the Mall

Mary Ann Hall ran a successful brothel in D.C. for years, but it took a 1997 dig to tell the whole story

Xerox founder Joe Wilson with the 914, which could make copies up to 9 by 14 inches.

How the Photocopier Changed the Way We Worked—and Played

Decades before 3-D printers brought manufacturing closer to home, copiers transformed offices, politics and art

The weapon that shot Abraham Lincoln

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The Blood Relics From the Lincoln Assassination

Even now, 150 years later, objects from the murder of the president provide a powerful link to the event

Navajo activist Delores Wilson opposes development on land she holds sacred: “You don’t want to anger the Holy Beings there.”

Who Can Save the Grand Canyon?

A holy war is being fought over a proposal to build a $500 million commercial development, on the rim of America’s natural treasure

“The Booths had an inherited strain of darkness in them,” an acquaintance of Asia’s wrote in the foreword to her memoir.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The Closest Source We Have to Really Knowing John Wilkes Booth Is His Sister

In a post-assassination memoir, Asia Booth Clarke recalled her brother’s passion, his patriotism and his last words to her

Adulation for Lincoln (a Philadelphia lithographer’s viewpoint, 1865) did not become widespread until years after he was killed.

The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

What the Newspapers Said When Lincoln Was Killed

The initial reaction to the president’s death was a wild mixture of grief, exultation, vengefulness and fear

New York saw 4,500 annual cases by 1907. Mallon was linked to 47, and 3 deaths.

The Frightening Legacy of Typhoid Mary

With concerns about infectious disease in the news, a look back at history’s most famous carrier

From the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center

When Steve Fossett Became the Magellan of the Skies

Ten years ago, the pioneering adventurer took off in pursuit of a new record in circumnavigation

DNA from Richard III’s bones revealed two instances of royal infidelity since the 14th century.

They Found Richard III. So Now What?

What the remains of the “hunchback” king can teach us about other English royals

Were the Terracotta Warriors Based on Actual People?

To answer that question, archaeologists are looking at variations in the soldiers’ ears

The Spiritualist Who Warned Lincoln Was Also Booth’s Drinking Buddy

What did Charles Colchester know and when did he know it?

Last year at a celebration of International Mother Language Day in Dhaka, Bangladesh, thousands attend a monument commemorating those killed during the Language Movement demonstrations of 1952.

The Human Right to Speak Whatever Language You Want is Worth Celebrating

With an ever increasing lack of language diversity, There Needs to Be More Recognition of February’s International Mother Language day

Aerial view of flooded area. Oregon Historical Society, Neg. 67585.

How Oregon’s Second Largest City Vanished in a Day

A 1948 flood washed away the WWII housing project Vanport—but its history still informs Portland’s diversity

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