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History

Day after day, the brothers (Wilbur, left, and Orville at the controls) put their new and improved glider through its paces. Assistant Dan Tate lent a hand.

To Fly!

A new book traces the Wright brothers’ triumph 100 years ago to an innovative design and meticulous attention to detail

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Sweet Sorrow

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Whose Rock Is It Anyway?

An Indian tribe wins the first round in a long fight with rock climbers

Daniel Libeskind

Daniel Libeskind: Architect at Ground Zero

From his Jewish Museum in Berlin to his proposal for the World Trade Center site, Daniel Libeskind designs buildings that reach out to history and humanity

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Where the Wild Things Are

President Theodore Roosevelt started what would become the world’s most successful experiment in conservation

Slave hire badges. National Museum of American History

Copper Neck Tags Evoke the Experience of American Slaves Hired Out as Part-Time Laborers

From the mid-18th century to the end of the Civil War, owners marketed the labor and skills of their slaves

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The Calm Before Desert Storm

Two months before the Gulf War began in 1991, President George H. W. Bush greeted U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia

The Bonus Army camp burns within sight of the U.S. Capitol.

World War I: 100 Years Later

Marching on History

When a “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans converged on Washington, MacArthur, Eisenhower and Patton were there to meet them

On the morning of July 11, 1804, a shot rang out. Aaron Burr's bullet struck Hamilton in the right side, tearing through his liver.

Hamilton Takes Command

In 1775, the 20-year-old Alexander Hamilton took up arms to fight the British

The Smithsonian Castle

Fanciful and Sublime

In 1855 (the year of this daguerreotype), rocking horses symbolized middle-class affluence. Today, hand-carved horses are largely for the wealthy.

Happy Trails

As freshly carved toys or treasured heirlooms, well-bred rocking horses ride high in the affections of kids and collectors alike

George Washington, shown here in an 1853 lithograph, oversees his slaves at Mount Vernon.

Founding Fathers and Slaveholders

To what degree do the attitudes of Washington and Jefferson toward slavery diminish their achievements?

Cultivating Delight

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Passions

Nuts about history and bonkers for baseball

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Unearthing Athens’ Underworld

Throughout the decade-long construction of the city’s new metro, archaeologists have found a trove of treasures

After 41 days of grueling, round-the-clock diving, Cmdr. Bobbie Scholley and her dive team celebrated the turret's recovery.

Pieces of History

Raised from the deep, the Monitor’s turret reveals a bounty of new details about the ship’s violent end

As part of her cover, Frances Clayton took up gambling, cigar-smoking and swearing.

Covert Force

Hundreds of women fought in the civil war disguised as men

George Silk

Clutch Shot Clinches Fall Classic

Owens River, Sierra Nevada

California Scheming

Los Angeles’ insatiable thirst for water, which drained the Owens Valley, has ruined lives, shaped the city’s politics and provoked ongoing controversy

Born in Kenya in 1903 to Anglican missionaries, Louis Leakey (in his mother's arms outside the family's mud and thatch house) was initiated as a youth into the Kikuyu tribe. "I still often think in Kikuyu, dream in Kikuyu," he wrote in a 1937 autobiography.

The Old Man of Olduvai Gorge

Irrepressible Louis Leakey, patriarch of the fossil-hunting family, championed the search for human origins in Africa, attracting criticism and praise

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