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For More Than Five Decades, the Special Olympics Has Given Marginalized Superstars Center Stage
Founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the games offer intellectually disabled athletes the chance to dazzle an international audience
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How Gay Activists Challenged the Politics of Civility
From pie-throwing to shouting down public figures, these groups disturbed the establishment to effect change
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How Feasting Rituals Help Shape Human Civilization
These transformative practices—and the cooperation they require—are a cornerstone of societies the world over
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For Hundreds of Years, Papier-Mâché Has Lent a Surreal Face to Catalan Culture
Street performers disguised as Giants and Big Heads blend reverence with ribaldry at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
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What Did the Founding Fathers Eat and Drink as They Started a Revolution?
They may not have been hosting a cookout, but they did know how to imbibe and celebrate
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The Pickup Truck’s Transformation From Humble Workhorse to Fancy Toy
From ‘rusty rattletraps’ to ‘big black jacked-up’ rides, the vehicles symbolize blue-collar identity while flaunting bourgeois prosperity
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1968: The Year That Shattered America
How the Fourth of July Was Celebrated (and Protested) in 1968
Headlines from The New York Times reveal how the nation and the world commemorated Independence Day in what had already been a tumultuous year
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What the 2026 World Cup Could Do for America’s 250th Birthday Celebration
In eight years, the soccer tournament will come to the U.S. just as we mark a major anniversary, providing an opportunity that can’t be missed
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The Visionary John Wesley Powell Had a Plan for Developing the West, But Nobody Listened
Powell’s foresight might have prevented the 1930s dust bowl and perhaps, today’s water scarcities
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For His Patriotic Birthday, Five Facts About Calvin Coolidge
On Coolidge’s would-be 146th birthday, celebrate with some little-known facts about our 30th President
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Racism Kept Connecticut’s Beaches White Up Through the 1970s
By bussing black kids from Hartford to the shore, Ned Coll took a stand against the bigotry of “armchair liberals”
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The Adventurous Writer Who Brought Nancy Drew To Life
Mildred Wirt Benson helped invent the fictional teen sleuth who became a generational role model
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