Smart News History & Archaeology

Anna May Wong in an undated image.

Happy Birthday to Hollywood’s First Chinese-American Star

She was a leading lady, but racism held her career back

The first-known photograph of the White House, by John Plumbe, Jr.

Cool Finds

The First-Known Photograph of the White House Was Taken by an Immigrant

John Plumbe, Jr. was one of America’s first rockstar photographers

President Franklin D. Roosevelt exits a car during a campaign stop in California. Roosevelt was the first U.S. president with a visible disability, caused by polio.

People Mailed Dimes 'By The Truck Load' to FDR's White House to Cure Polio

He was America’s first and only president with a visible—and known—disability

After a 2011 version of this statue was installed outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, they began to pop up around the world.

Trending Today

"Comfort Woman" Statue Stokes Old Tensions Between Japan and South Korea

She’s a silent reminder of the plight of hundreds of thousands of women forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II

Nixon campaigning during the 1968 election

Trending Today

Notes Indicate Nixon Interfered With 1968 Peace Talks

Documents from aide seem to confirm long-time speculation that Nixon tried to scuttle a Vietnam peace deal to help his presidential campaign

Cherry-Garrard during the Scott expedition

This Catastrophic Polar Journey Resulted in One of the Best Adventure Books Ever Written

Apsley Cherry-Garrard's travel memoir is still the one to beat, and not only because it features penguins

Isaac Asimov at age 70.

If Isaac Asimov Had Named The Smartphone, He Might Have Called It The “Pocket Computer Mark II”

The sci-fi author correctly predicted a number of innovations that have come to pass

Thatcher visits with President Bush in Aspen, Colorado in 1990 during a diplomatic reception. News of her resignation lit up diplomatic channels around the world.

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The World Finally Knows How Leaders Reacted to Margaret Thatcher’s Resignation

The Iron Lady glistens in newly released papers about her last years as Prime Minister

Yosemite National Park

Trending Today

The Year in National Parks

From people stealing baby bison and Yosemite trademarks to epic blooms in Death Valley, 2016 has been an eventful centennial year for the NPS

An unidentified Hanna-Barbera Productions painter works on an animation cel of Fred Flintstone. THE FLINTSTONES and all related characters and elements © & ™ Hanna-Barbera. (s16)

Cool Finds

Meet the Men Behind Saturday Morning's Most Memorable Cartoons

Zoinks! Hanna-Barbera once dominated kids’ Saturday schedules

Thousands of lab rodents disposed of at Dartmouth College are being blamed for radioactive contaminations and carcinogens in local groundwater.

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Residents Claim Ivy League College Polluted Water With Dead Lab Rodents

Burial of lab animals in the ‘60s and ‘70s have been linked to groundwater contamination in Hanover, New Hampshire

The old county courthouse in Monroeville, Alabama will soon be just one of the town's many To Kill a Mockingbird-themed attractions.

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Lawyer Wants to Make Harper Lee’s Hometown a Haven for Tourists

Monroeville, Alabama, could change with a proposed Harper Lee Trail

Chinchorro mummy at San Miguel de Azapa Museum in Arica, Chile

New Research

What Have the World’s Oldest Mummies Kept Under Wraps?

Researchers are making digital reconstructions of the 7,000-year-old bodies, which face rapid deterioration from microbes

Street in Apia, the capital of Samoa, when that country was still on American time.

Five Years Ago, This Island Nation Lost an Entire Day

On this day in 2011, Samoa switched sides of the international date line for the second time, losing December 30 in the process. Here's why

An audio tape from the oral history collection at the Navajo Nation Library

Cool Finds

Navajo Nation Library Wants to Digitally Preserve Thousands of Hours of Oral Histories

The library is looking for help protecting its tapes

A technician takes an X-ray fluoroscope of a female patient. Fluoroscope exams delivered much more radiation exposures than modern X-rays.

Just Months After Its Discovery, the X-Ray Was in Use in War

The public was also fascinated by the fact it was possible to take pictures of somebody’s insides

Vera Rubin makes observations through the Flagstaff Telescope.

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Five Things to Know About Boundary-Breaking Astronomer Vera Rubin

Her observations confirmed the theory of dark matter, and her activism helped open science to more women

An interior shot of Hagia Sophia. Its name means "Holy Wisdom" or "Sacred Wisdom."

You Can Hear Hagia Sophia’s Sublime Acoustics Without a Trip to Istanbul

Stanford scientists have digitally created the building’s unique sound, taking listeners back to the Middle Ages

A wapato bulb

Canada

The Northwest’s Earliest “Garden” Discovered in British Columbia

The 3,800-year-old stone platform was used to cultivate wapato—wild water potatoes—a staple crop for many North American peoples

Boo! Telling ghost stories on Christmas was a tradition for hundreds of years. Here, Marley's ghost surprises Ebenezer Scrooge in an illustration from the first edition of the classic tale.

Why Do People Tell Ghost Stories on Christmas?

Christmas ghost stories are a tradition going back much farther than "A Christmas Carol"

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