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History

Researcher Angela Walton-Raji has been studying African-Native genealogy for over 20 years. The Comanche family pictured here is from the early 1900s.

An Ancestry of African-Native Americans

Using government documents, author Angela Walton-Raji traced her ancestors to the slaves owned by American Indians

Abraham Lincoln ca. 1846, photographed in Springfield Illinois by N.H. Shepherd

Abraham Lincoln, True Crime Writer

While practicing law in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln defended a man in a highly unusual case and later recounted the mystery as a short story

Yuichiro Miura set the world speed skiing record at Italy's Kilometer Lanchard in 1964, only to see it broken the next day.

The Godfather of Extreme Skiing

Meet Yuichiro Miura, the man who skied down Mt. Everest more than 50 years ago

Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati won snowboarding's first gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

The Top Ten Important Moments in Snowboarding History

Since its mid-1960s inception, snowboarding has seen such a boom in popularity that it is now an event at the Winter Olympics

Carved in place from limestone, the Sphinx is among the world's largest statues.

Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx

After decades of research, American archaeologist Mark Lehner has some answers about the mysteries of the Egyptian colossus

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February Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

A long-running theme of U.S. black history (a panel from Jacob Lawrence's 1940-41 "Migration Series") may have to be revised.

Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

The Changing Definition of African-American

How the great influx of people from Africa and the Caribbean since 1965 is challenging what it means to be African-American

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Novelties

In praise of contributors, including you

A focal point for visitors today, the gateway sign says "Work Will Set You Free," a monstrous lie told to the men, women and children imprisoned there.

Can Auschwitz Be Saved?

Liberated in 1945, the Nazi concentration camp is one of Eastern Europe’s most visited sites—and most fragile

With the flip of a switch in 1910, Lee deForest ushered in an era of radio communications that would provide instant, long-distance wireless communication.

Radio Activity: The 100th Anniversary of Public Broadcasting

Since its inception, public radio has had a crucial role in broadcasting history - from FDR’s “Fireside Chats” to the Internet Age

Shaun White, Snowboarding

Top 13 U.S. Winter Olympians

These athletes took home gold, but also stole our hearts. Choose your favorite winter Olympian in our poll

The 1960 AFL Championship game between the Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Oilers was typical of the high-risk, exciting brand of football the AFL was known for.

The American Football League’s Foolish Club

Succeeding where previous leagues had failed, the AFL introduced an exciting brand of football forcing the NFL to change its entrenched ways

Jamaica possessed superb growing conditions for sugar cane, and by 1513, Spanish farmers in Sevilla la Nueva tended fields bristling with the green stalks.

Sugar Masters in a New World

Sevilla la Nueva, the first European settlement in Jamaica, is home to the bittersweet story of the beginning of the Caribbean sugar trade

The Dead Sea Scrolls remained hidden in caves for nearly 2,000 years until they were discovered, in 1947, by a shepherd.

Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Resolving the dispute over authorship of the ancient manuscripts could have far-reaching implications for Christianity and Judaism

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January Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

"Here is business enough for you," Gage told the first doctor to treat him after a premature detonation on a railroad-building site turned a tamping iron into a missile.

Phineas Gage: Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient

An accident with a tamping iron made Phineas Gage history’s most famous brain-injury survivor

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Meat and Potatoes

Of carnivores and herbivores

Britain's leaders made a miscalculation when they assumed that resistance from the colonies, as the Earl of Dartmouth predicted, could not be "very formidable."

Myths of the American Revolution

A noted historian debunks the conventional wisdom about America’s War of Independence

An 1868 surgery kit, part of Harvard's Warren Anatomical Museum.

Highlights From the Warren Anatomical Museum

The collections inside this museum hold intriguing objects that tell the story of 19th century American medicine

Re-enactors dressed as George Washington and his volunteer Continental Army cross the Delaware River.

George Washington’s Christmas Crossing

An annual holiday tradition since 1952, re-enactors bring Washington crossing the Delaware to life

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