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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

Upton Sinclair ran a partisan newspaper as part of his campaign for California governor.

The Story of Muckraker Upton Sinclair’s Dramatic Campaign for Governor of California

Sinclair was as famous in his day as any movie-star candidate who came later

An Enigma machine used during World War II to send coded messages

Family Travel

More Than 5,000 Objects of Espionage Are Coming to the Spy Museum

The trove of cool artifacts comes from the world’s largest private collection of spycraft

A man named Georgios Papanicolaou invented the Pap smear, but Elizabeth Stern helped figure out how to interpret it.

Why The Pap Test Could Also Be Called the Stern Test

Elizabeth Stern played a vital role in cervical cancer testing and treatment

Stanislav Yevgrafovich in Petrov, Friazino, on October 30, 2011.

Trending Today

Man Who Saved the World From Nuclear Annihilation Dies at 77

In 1983, Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov kept his cool and reported a U.S. missile strike as a false alarm, preventing a massive counterstrike

A typical day for three musicians in the Medici Court. This portrait, of three unnamed musicians, was painted circa 1687.

Three Things to Know About Francesca Caccini, the Renaissance Musical Genius You’ve Never Heard Of

The first female opera composer, Caccini worked for the super-rich-and-powerful Medici family

Trending Today

Brazil Investigates Alleged Murders of “Uncontacted” Amazon Tribe Members

Gold miners were heard in a bar talking about killing 10 indigenous people in the remote Javari Valley

The room where Abraham Lincoln died in the Petersen House

House Where Lincoln Died to Close for Renovations

The Petersen House, across the street from Ford’s Theatre, will undergo preservation work to keep it as a museum of the president’s final moments

Carbon Dating Reveals the History of Zero Is Older Than Previously Thought

An ancient text called the Bakhshali manuscript has bumped zero’s origin story back by 500 years

One of the Roman cavalry swords recovered from Vindolanda

Cool Finds

Rare Roman Cavalry Swords And Toys Unearthed Along Hadrian’s Wall

The newly discovered artifacts are the latest discovery at Vindolanda, once a remote outpost of the Roman empire

A 1905 artist's rendering of the assassination.

How President William McKinley’s Assassination Led to the Modern Secret Service

Before McKinley’s death, the president didn’t have one united protective squad

An unknown woman spinning, circa 1900.

‘Spinster’ and ‘Bachelor’ Were, Until 2005, Official Terms for Single People

Being single is hard enough without these pejoratives.

Christopher Columbus Monument Defaced in Central Park

Vandals covered the statue’s hands in red paint and wrote “Hate will not be tolerated” on its base

An Electric Vehicle Company cab.

Henry Bliss, America’s First Pedestrian Fatality, Was Hit By an Electric Taxi

The driver was arrested but released after hitting Bliss

Chocolate was in North America as early as 900-1200 A.D.

A Brief History of Chocolate in the United States

Eating chocolate is a relatively new innovation

While tame by today's standards, the graphic violence in Mortal Kombat shocked parents in the 1990s.

How ‘Mortal Kombat’ Changed Video Games

According to one of its creators, the infamously gory game got caught up in a transitional moment in video gaming

A friendly Nauga.

How the Nauga and its Fictional Friends Helped Make Synthetic Fabric Cuddly

What started out as an advertising ploy turned into a low-key cultural phenomenon

This 1846 map of the solar system includes Vulcan as the planet closest to the sun.

Why Everyone Went on a Wild Goose Chase Looking for the Planet Vulcan

The idea of a ninth planet in the Solar System would resolve a mathematical conundrum about Mercury–only problem is, it wasn’t there

Here’s What You Need to Know About the Mysterious Voynich Manuscript

The book has been confounding scholars, cryptologists and sleuths for centuries

Cool Finds

New Kingdom Goldsmith’s Tomb Discovered in Egypt

The tomb of Amenemhat and his wife Amenhotep includes a statue of the couple, mummies, statues and funerary masks

Jenny Lind was massively popular in Europe and England, but she was a virtual unknown in America before 1849.

Why 30,000 People Came Out to See a Swedish Singer Arrive in New York

Most of them had never even heard Jenny Lind sing

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