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History

14 Fun Facts About Fireworks

Number three: Fireworks are just chemical reactions

Mixing caipirinhas, the popular Brazilian cocktail made with cachaça, on Ipanema Beach.

World Cup 2014

You Know Rum—But What Is Cachaça?

Get to know Brazil’s most popular alcohol

A pre-war daguerrotype of James R. McClintock. Inventor, likely crook, possible spy.

The Amazing (If True) Story of the Submarine Mechanic Who Blew Himself Up Then Surfaced as a Secret Agent for Queen Victoria

The leading mechanic of the famed H.L. Hunley led quite the life, if we can believe any of it

Document Deep Dive

A Deeper Look at the Politicians Who Passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Fifty years later, a dive into what it took to make the historic legislation law

Natchez, a historic cotton and sugar port on the Mississippi River, has seen its population fall by a third since 1960.

The Soul of the South

Fifty years after the civil rights summer of 1964, renowned travel writer Paul Theroux chronicles the living memory of an overlooked America

The Middle East’s austere terrain lured Lawrence: “The abstraction of the desert landscape,” he wrote in Seven Pillars of Wisdom, “cleansed me.”

World War I: 100 Years Later

The True Story of Lawrence of Arabia

His daring raids in World War I made him a legend. But in the Middle East today, the desert warrior’s legacy is written in sand

USS Constitution vs. HMS Guerriere by Thomas Birch, circa 1813

The British View the War of 1812 Quite Differently Than Americans Do

The star-spangled war confirmed independence for the United States. But for Great Britain, it was a betrayal

When Copy and Paste Reigned in the Age of Scrapbooking

Today’s obsession with posting material to Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter has a very American history

Constructed between 510 and 500 B.C., the base of a funerary kouros in Athens is decorated with the image of wrestlers fighting.

Document Deep Dive

Wrestling Was Fixed, Even in Ancient Rome

New analysis of an ancient document reveals classical roots of fake wrestling

Springer Auditorium in Music Hall.

America’s Most Endangered Historic Places

Here are the 11 endangered sites—including the prison where Solomon Northup was held—on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2014 list

Maunsell Sea & Air Forts in the U.K.

17 Amazing Photographs of Abandoned Places

Top places you should see before they die… or at least disappear

Spoonfuls of instant coffee still give some morning coffee drinkers their caffeine fix.

Is There a Future For Instant Coffee?

Ask China, they’re buying the most of it

Various examples of garderobe design

From Turrets to Toilets: A Partial History of the Throne Room

For centuries the humble bathroom has been shaping the space we live and work

British soldiers enter Baghdad in 1919.

World War I: 100 Years Later

The Disintegration of the Iraqi State Has Its Roots in World War I

Created by European powers, the nation of Iraq may be buckling under the pressure of trying to unite three distinct ethnic groups

A hourd in Carcassonne

The Medieval Origin Story of the Balcony

Architect/historian Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc suggested that the balcony was forged in the heat of battle.

The Gory New York City Riot that Shaped American Medicine

Back before medical school was a respected place to be, New Yorkers raised up in protest over the doctors’ preference for cadavers for study

Human towers for democracy at the anniversary of Castellers in Barcelona.

What Does a 36-Foot-Tall Human Tower Have to Do With Catalan Independence?

An eye-catching protest across Europe is steeped in cultural heritage says Smithsonian curator Michael Atwood Mason

Inside the semi-subterranean 19th-century burial vault, conditions had deteriorated. The wooden shelves that held the caskets of nearly two dozen individuals had disintegrated. Bones were exposed.

To Discover What Life Was Like in 19th Century D.C., a Smithsonian Scientist Investigates a Tomb

Forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley digs into an 1835 vault and reveals the startling history of a famous Washington family

This month's Atlantic cover story by Ta-Nehisi Coates is generating some serious discussion about "The Case for Reparations."

Breaking Ground

America’s Moral Debt to African Americans

The director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture joins the discussion around “The Case for Reparations”

Sacajawea guiding the expedition from Mandan through the Rocky Mountains. Painting by Alfred Russell.

Lewis and Clark Only Became Popular 50 Years Ago

For 150 years, the famous explorers were relatively unknown characters

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