The White House's

How a Groundbreaking Interior Designer Helped Jackie O. Change the White House

Sister Parish is credited with creating American country style, a recognizable and quirky mix of old and new

A family walks towards the entrance of Disneyland, circa 1960.

Disneyland’s Terrible First Day Didn’t Stop the Crowds From Coming

Nothing was ready. But by the end of the first week, more than 100,000 people had visited

View of a skeleton reaching 6'2'' from a grave dating back to 5,000 years ago, at the excavation site of the Jiaojia ruins in Jiaojia village, Zhangqiu district of Ji'nan city, east China's Shandong province

Graveyard of “Giants” Found in China

Many of the 5,000 year-old skeletons measured 5’ 9” or longer, making the Neolithic humans exceptionally tall for that period

The Mackenzie (Dehcho) River is the second-largest river system in North America.

How One Quest for the Northwest Passage Ended at the Icy Mouth of Disappointment River

The Mackenzie River, as it’s know today, is North America’s second-largest river system–but it wasn’t what its namesake was looking for

Sixty Years After Its Discovery, a Hut in Scotland Has Been Linked to St. Columba

Radiocarbon dating has proved that the site could have been built and used during the lifetime of the revered saint

The July 14, 1868 patent for a tape measure included these two drawings.

How Hoop Skirts Led to Tape Measures

Eighteenth-century ladies would recognize some things about the modern contractor’s tool

Sacco and Vanzetti were anarchists at a time when that movement was very different than it is today.

The Biggest Trial of the 1920s Continues to Resonate

Sacco and Vanzetti were on trial for their Italianness and their political leanings as much as for their alleged crimes

The flea-market Enigma machine

Cool Finds

WWII Enigma Machine Found at Flea Market Sells for $51,000

The legendary coding machine was first unearthed by a mathematician with a careful eye who purchased it for roughly $114

Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann reads from the words of Liu Xiaobo when he was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Xiaobo was imprisoned and unable to accept the award.

Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo Dies at Age 61

The human rights activist spent his final years in Chinese custody

John Dee was an accomplished mathematician, but he also said he owned a stone (in his right hand) that was given to him by angels. In Elizabethan England, that wasn't all that odd.

John Dee’s Life Shows Science’s Magical Roots

His life shows a time when science and magic intersected–even for scientists

Two views of the curvy "Venus of Hohle Fels."

Trending Today

World’s Oldest Figurative Art is Now an Official World Treasure

The new Unesco world heritage site spans six caves located in the Swabian Alps in Germany

It looks a bit like a blimp–unsurprising, since Fuller meant it to fly.

Buckminster Fuller Was Good at Ideas, Terrible at Car Design

Fuller held more than 30 patents during his life, but many of his ideas didn’t make it off the page–or not for long

Completed in 1939, the Fiat Tagliero service station is one of the city's many Art Deco structures.

Asmara, the Capital of Eritrea, Named World Heritage Site

Eritrean officials lobbied for the designation in a bid to reform their country’s isolationist image

Mutineers walk in on a chaplain "with a smoking pistol in his hand" in the Arthur Conan Doyle short story "The Adventure of the Gloria Scott."

Thank Sherlock Holmes for the Phrase ‘Smoking Gun’

From its origins to modern day, the favorite cliché of detectives and journalists everywhere refuses to kick the bucket

Josiah Wedgwood, of Wedgwood pottery fame, was also a staunch abolitionist and designed this medallion to further the cause.

This Anti-Slavery Jewelry Shows the Social Concerns (and the Technology) of Its Time

The ‘Wedgwood Slave Medallion’ was the first modern piece of protest jewelry

Police remove peaceful protestors from a sit-in at the U.S. Capitol in 1965.

Martin Luther King and Gandhi Weren’t the Only Ones Inspired By Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience’

Thoreau’s essay became a cornerstone of 20th-century protest

One of the tablets found at the fort

Cool Finds

Cache of Roman Messages Found Near Hadrian’s Wall

The 25 well-preserved wooden tablets include a soldier’s request for time off

The Lenox Madeira

Cool Finds

New Jersey Museum Discovers Stash of Madeira from 1796

Liberty Hall Museum owns the wine and will decide if anyone will be allowed to sample the Revolutionary libation

The Declaration of Independence in its first known newspaper printing on July 6, 1776.

Watch How (Slowly) News of the Declaration of Independence Spread in Real Time

Before social media, TV, radio and even telegraphs, news of America’s independence took a long time to reach some Americans

The women faced temperatures of almost -50 degrees Fahrenheit, blasting winds and ever-changing ice conditions.

Trending Today

The Amazing Story of the First All-Women North Pole Expedition

Answering an ad in a newspaper, 20 amateur explorers attempted to ski from Arctic Canada to the top of the world

Page 239 of 337