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History

Miami's skyline in November 1925, at the height of the Florida land boom

How Dreams of Buried Pirate Treasure Enticed Americans to Flock to Florida During the Roaring Twenties

1925 marked the peak of the Florida land boom. But false advertising and natural disasters thwarted many settlers’ visions of striking it rich in the land of sunshine

The crew of the Mackay-Bennett discovers a Titanic lifeboat adrift while searching for the bodies of those who died in the disaster.

The Long, Strange Trip of the Titanic Victims Whose Remains Surfaced Hundreds of Miles Away, Weeks After the Ship Sank

Rescuers only recovered the bodies of 337 of the 1,500-plus passengers and crew who died in the disaster. Around one-third of these corpses were buried at sea

A batteau is a flat-bottomed vessel, a wooden relic of the 18th century that once carried tobacco, iron and flour through Virginia.

Two Centuries Ago, Batteaumen on Virginia’s James River Ended Long Work Days With a Taste of Freedom

The James River Batteau Company, an outdoor recreation-meets-historical tour business, has designed a dinner cruise that honors the resilience and culinary ingenuity of enslaved boatmen

Prisoners sit by a wire fence following the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in April 1945.

How Bergen-Belsen, Where Anne Frank Died, Was Different From Every Other Nazi Concentration Camp

A new exhibition at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London chronicles the German camp complex’s history, from its origins housing prisoners of war to its afterlife holding displaced persons

Tomatoes from arranged shopping trolleys seen outside a store in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on March 29, 2025

How the Misrepresentation of Tomatoes as Stinking ‘Poison Apples’ That Provoked Vomiting Made People Afraid of Them for More Than 200 Years

The long and fraught history of the plant shows that it got an unfair reputation from the beginning

Robert Caro, seen here in 1990, worked on a novel based on his time as a newspaperman.

We Rediscovered Robert Caro’s Abandoned Novel About an Intrepid Journalist Buried in His Archives

A deep dive into the legendary biographer’s papers leads to the surprising revelation of a work he has all but forgotten

Jason Sandy mudlarking along the River Thames in London

Cool Finds

History-Hunting Mudlarks Scour London’s Shores to Uncover the City’s Rich Archaeological Treasures

A new exhibition at the London Museum Docklands spotlights hundreds of mudlarking finds, from Bronze Age tools to Viking daggers to medieval spectacles

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A Field of Dreams Built in an Unlikely Place: A Japanese American Internment Camp

A baseball diamond buried long ago at Manzanar has been rebuilt to honor the Americans who once played the sport there

Silas Deane, left, worked with Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, center, to secure gunpowder from Antoine Lavoisier, right. 

America's 250th Anniversary

How an American Merchant, a French Official and a Pioneering Chemist Smuggled Much-Needed Gunpowder to the Continental Army

The trio’s scheming became a crucial element of the fledgling nation’s success in the Revolutionary War

The Chicago Cubs host the San Francisco Giants in the friendly confines of Wrigley, June 2024.

Through Good Teams and Bad, Wrigley Field Remains the Coziest Park in Baseball

The Chicago landmark represents the purest form of the American pastime

Posters, newspaper advertisements and radio shows promoted carrots' health benefits.

Carrots Can’t Help You See in the Dark. Here’s How a World War II Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth

The British government claimed that eating carrots helped its fighter pilots shoot down German planes at night. In truth, the Royal Air Force relied on top-secret radar

Portrait of Doge Cristoforo Moro (ruler of Venice from 1462-1471), attributed to Lazzaro Bastiani; Ottoman-inspired fabric by 20th-century textile designer Mariano Fortuny.

Two Great Empires Traded for Financial Gain and Achieved a Brilliant Cultural Exchange as Well

A new show illuminates the rich artistic wonders that arose out of the 400 years of commerce between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire

Patrick Henry rallies armed Virginian farmers before marching toward Williamsburg, Virginia, May 1775.

America's 250th Anniversary

What Spurred the South to Join the American Revolution?

How a disagreement with a Scottish lord over westward expansion, a cache of gunpowder, and the future of enslaved labor helped kick-start the southern colonies’ embrace of the radical cause

Senator Joseph McCarthy “comes along really chronologically halfway through the story [in the early 1950s], and there’s a lot that happened before he was even on the scene,” says author Clay Risen.

Newly Declassified Documents Reveal the Untold Stories of the Red Scare, a Hunt for Communists in Postwar America

In his latest book, journalist and historian Clay Risen explores how the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy upended the nation

During her clandestine efforts for the Italian Resistance, Anita Malavasi used these forged papers to travel under the identity of “Marta de Robertis.”

This New Book Reveals the Daredevil Lives of Four Italian Women Who Stood Up to Hitler and Mussolini

By delivering newspapers, munitions and secret messages to resistance groups, among many other incredible tasks, the brave fighters strove for a freer world

Rebecca Lee Crumpler's gravestone was only installed in 2020, 125 years after her death in 1895.

Women Who Shaped History

The Nation’s First Black Female Doctor Blazed a Path for Women in Medicine. But She Was Left Out of the Story for Decades

After earning a medical degree in 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler died in obscurity and was buried without a headstone

Clyde Reese, Michael Jones, Evan Boatman and Cory Allen at a gunfight show last spring in Tombstone, Arizona.

These Dramatic Photos Reveal How It’s Always High Noon in Tombstone

Saddle up for a visit to the most notorious town in the West, where a certain infamous showdown happens day after day

How do space programs get their names?

How Do Space Programs Get Their Names? And More Questions From Our Readers

You’ve got questions. We’ve got experts

Visitors to Manzanar National Historic Site will be able to run the bases around the restored baseball field, sit on the bleachers and look out into the looming mountain range from home plate.

The Moving Story of Bringing Baseball Back to Manzanar, Where Thousands of Japanese Americans Were Incarcerated During World War II

In honor of his mother and others imprisoned at the internment camp, baseball player Dan Kwong has restored a diamond in the California desert

“As the first national women’s reform organization, [the American Female Moral Reform Society] showed that there was power in women organizing to address societal problems,” says rhetorician Lisa J. Shaver.

The Daring 19th-Century Reformers Who Sought to End Prostitution by Offering Financial and Emotional Support to Urban Sex Workers

Led entirely by women, the American Female Moral Reform Society gave material aid to those in need and pushed for men to be held accountable for frequenting brothels

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