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The Ugliest, Most Contentious Presidential Election Ever

Throughout the 1876 campaign, Tilden’s opposition had called him everything from a briber to a thief to a drunken syphilitic

A powerful wave destroys New York City in the disaster film Deep Impact (1998)

Big Apple Apocalypse: 200 Years of Destroying New York City

What is it about New York that compels us to see it obliterated in fiction over and over again?

Aung San Suu Kyi, photographed in June 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s Revolutionary Leader

The Nobel Peace Prize winner talks about the secret weapon in her decades of struggle—the power of Buddhism

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No, Really, There is No Secret Code in the Pyramids

Encoded mysteries have existed through history—especially imaginary ones

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How a New Yorker Article Launched the First Shot in the War Against Poverty

When a powerful 1963 piece laid out the stark poverty in America, the White House took action

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From the Editor

From the Editor

The helper robot brings the child of the future something to drink in bed (1981)

My Robot Helper of Tomorrow

Forget flying cars and jetbacks, whatever happened to my cereal-serving robot?

David Curtis Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, 1922

“Murder Wasn’t Very Pretty”: The Rise and Fall of D.C. Stephenson

The Grand Dragon of the Klan and prominent Indiana politician had a vicious streak that had horrifying consequences

Inside the volcano's round chamber, Jonas Lohmann and two other graduate students from the Brandenburg Technical University doused fires with lighter fluid and smoke powder to create the columns of smoke that streamed from the volcano all afternoon and evening.

That Time a German Prince Built an Artificial Volcano

A 18th century German prince visited Mt. Vesuvius and built a replica of it. 200 years later, a chemistry professor brings it back to life

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The Neverending Hunt for Utopia

Through centuries of human suffering, one vision has sustained: a belief in a terrestrial arcadia

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The Robot Hall of Fame: Vote Rosey 2012

For the first time, Carnegie Mellon University’s Robot Hall of Fame is allowing the public to vote on which robots will be inducted

The Smoothest Con Man That Ever Lived

“Count” Victor Lustig once sold the Eiffel Tower to an unsuspecting scrap-metal dealer. Then he started thinking really big

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World War I: 100 Years Later

Document Deep Dive: What Did the Zimmermann Telegram Say?

See how British cryptologists cracked the coded message that propelled the United States into World War I

Hugo Gernsback’s 1922 proposal for a monument to Alexander Graham Bell

Crowdfunding a Museum for Alexander Graham Bell in 1922

Long before the age of Kickstarter, Hugo Gernsback used his magazine to garner interest for a monument devoted to the inventor of the telephone

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Yesterday’s Tomorrows: How a Smithsonian Exhibit I Never Saw Changed My Life

Meet the historians who pioneered scholarship of retro-futurism

Starfish Prime 0 to 15 seconds after detonation, photographed from Maui Station, July 9, 1962.

Going Nuclear Over the Pacific

A half-century ago, a U.S. military test lit up the skies and upped the ante with the Soviets

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How Would You Rank the Greatest Presidents?

In a new book, political junkie Robert W. Merry shares his three-part test

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The Demonization of Empress Wu

“She killed her sister, butchered her elder brothers, murdered the ruler, poisoned her mother,” the chronicles say. But is the empress unfairly maligned?

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Synthetic Food, Smart Pills and… Kangaroo Butlers?

In the 21st century, everyone will be smarter—even animals.

In 1916, a great white shark attacked five people near the Jersey Shore.

The Shark Attacks That Were the Inspiration for Jaws

One rogue shark. Five victims. A mysterious threat. And the era of the killer great white was born

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