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History

Fakes are an all too real part of the museum world. “There are always artists capable of making and selling things that seem old,” says anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh.

Why the Smithsonian Has a Fake Crystal Skull

The Natural History Museum’s quartz cranium highlights the epic silliness of the new Indiana Jones movie

Fort Matanzas, about fifty feet long on each side, was constructed of coquina, a local stone formed from clam shells and quarried from a nearby island.

America’s First True “Pilgrims”

An excerpt from Kenneth C. Davis’s new book explains they arrived half a century before the Mayflower reached Plymouth Rock

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Goodbye, Columbus

A new survey upends the conventional wisdom about who counts in American history

Brontosaurus skeleton sketch

Where Dinosaurs Roamed

Footprints at one of the nation’s oldest—and most fought over—fossil beds offer new clues to how the behemoths lived

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May Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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Dispatch from Stonehenge, Day 14

April 13: The Druids Bless Our Departure

The dig’s emerging physical evidence—including fragments of bluestone and sarsen scattered throughout the site—reflect a complex history.

Dispatch from Stonehenge, Day 10

April 9: Archaeology in a Fishbowl

Archaeologists at Stonehenge continue to make discoveries within the inner circle of the monument.

Dispatch from Stonehenge, Day 9

April 8: The Clock is Ticking

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Dispatch from Stonehenge, Day 2

April 1st: An Ill Wind Blows

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Tomatoes in the Bullpen

Surprising trivia about America’s beloved baseball fields

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Dispatch from Stonehenge, Day 1

March 31st: The Excavation Begins

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“Those Aren’t Rumors”

Two decades ago an anonymous telephone call sank Gary Hart’s presidential campaign—and rewrote the rules of political reporting

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Pay Dirt in Montana

A librarian’s sleuthing turns up a crime with at least 100 victims

An attempt to buy a gift launched Dean Thomas, left, and his brother Jim (at the Gettysburg Battlefield) on the trail of purloined letters.

The Civil War

To Catch a Thief

How a Civil War buff’s chance discovery led to a sting, a raid and a victory against traffickers in stolen historical documents

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The Unmaking of the President

Lyndon Johnson believed that his withdrawal from the 1968 presidential campaign would free him to solidify his legacy

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Rare Photos Chronicle an Early Castro Rally in Cuba

When Fidel Castro asked for a show of hands in support of his new policies, an American journalist captured the response

Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron

April Anniversaries

Momentous or Merely Memorable

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Decade by Decade: Major Events in Women’s History

Explore some of the most significant achievements made by women in the past century

The Empress Dowager Cixi

Cixi: The Woman Behind the Throne

The concubine who became China’s last empress

New Zealander Rob Hall, at the 28,000-foot mark of Everest's Southeast Ridge in 1994, led Jon Krakauer's team up in 1996. A storm claimed the lives of eight climbers, including Hall's, on that widely publicized expedition

Conquering Everest

A history of climbing the world’s tallest mountain

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