National Park Service Seeks Public Help in Death Valley Fossil Theft

Fossilized footprints, which had been left in a lakebed by ancient mammals and birds, have been swiped

WWII Marine Buried at Arlington, 73 Years After His Death

Harry K. Tye’s body went missing after the 1943 Battle of Tarawa. Decades later, his remains were discovered and returned home.

Sourdough starters can be used to make all kinds of things: –pancakes, waffles, even cake–but the staple is sourdough bread.

Gold Miners Kept Their Sourdough Starters Alive By Cuddling Them

San Francisco-area miners used sourdough starters as a replacement for commercial leavening agents

Was sticking an eraser on the back of a pencil common sense, or a new invention?

Happy Birthday to the Modern Pencil

The patent for this supremely convenient invention didn’t last long

By the time Harvard relented and offered Mary Whiton Calkins a special Ph.D, she turned it down.

This ‘Brilliant’ Pioneering Psychologist Never Got a Ph.D….Technically

Despite “the most brilliant examination” Harvard had ever seen, the school didn’t grant degrees to women at the time

The queen

Trending Today

Corrosion Could Bring a Premature End to This Legendary Ship

New report sounds the alarm on the RMS Queen Mary

A vintage ad for Coca Cola from around the late 19th or early 20th century.

Coca-Cola’s Creator Said the Drink Would Make You Smarter

Like the wine and cocaine drink that preceded it, Coca-Cola was first marketed as a brain tonic

"Straight Outta Compton" just landed a spot in the National Recording Registry.

Trending Today

N.W.A., NPR Among This Year’s National Recording Registry Inductees

The latest class of 25 also includes Judy Garland and Vin Scully

Corbin Fleming plays with President Obama's desk phone in 2012.

Before 1929, Nobody Thought the President Needed a Telephone in his Office

Herbert Hoover got a phone in the Oval Office over fifty years after the White House first got a switchboard

The first Budweiser Clydesdale team paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue to deliver a case of Budweiser to President Roosevelt. The fancy horses have been a company tradition ever since.

The Budweiser Clydesdales’ First Gig Was the End of Prohibition

August Busch, born on this day in 1899, came up with the concept of the Budweiser Clydesdales to celebrate the repeal of anti-liquor laws

Conservators carefully unfold the shroud, which had been stored in a brown paper parcel for some 80 years.

Ancient Egyptian Shroud Gets New Life After Rediscovery in Scottish Museum Collections

The shroud, which dates to Egypt’s Roman period, is etched with a hieroglyphic inscription and “unusual” art

This dioarama, which used actual human remains, is another example of the ways Ruysch used bodies to make art.

This 17th-Century Anatomist Made Art Out of Bodies

Using human bodies in this way still happens–and it’s controversial

A woman marks a bombardier enclosure for a B-24 Liberator bomber at the Ford Willow Run plant.

How Detroit Went from Motor City to the Arsenal of Democracy

Detroit already had car manufacturing capability: that turned into war production capability in the early 1940s

In the eyes of Joseph Guillotin, the guillotine was an invention in the best ideals of the Revolution: humane, equalizing and scientific.

The Guillotine’s Namesake Was Against Capital Punishment

And contrary to popular myth, he died of natural causes, not by beheading

One of the submerged walls found in Ampelakia Bay

Cool Finds

Naval Base Believed to Have Been Used in the Legendary Battle of Salamis Found

Researchers have discovered the harbor in Salamis’ Ampelakia Bay where the Greek fleet prepared to battle the much larger Persian navy

The University of London's Senate House inspired Orwell's description of the Ministry of Truth. Orwell's wife Eileen Blair worked in the building during World War II, when it was the real headquarters of the Ministry of Information.

George Orwell Wrote ‘1984’ While Dying of Tuberculosis

Orwell, like thousands around the globe today, struggled with tuberculosis for many years before finally succumbing to the disease

George Francis Train, somewhere around 1855-1865.

This Eccentric 19th-Century Transportation Magnate May Have Inspired Jules Verne

George Francis Train traveled around the world three times in his increasingly weird life

Hundreds of Liquor Bottles, Downed by British Soldiers during WWI, Found in Israel

For nine months, the troops waited for orders to advance into Jerusalem. And while they waited, they drank

A new website features 100 years of Japanese animation.

Cool Finds

New Website Documents 100 Years of Japanese Animation

From propaganda to experimental cartoons, these films showcase the early days of a national art form

Researcher Sarah Inskip examines the skull of Context 958.

Facial Reconstruction of Medieval Man Sheds Light on England’s ‘Ordinary Poor’

“Context 958” lived a harsh life and died destitute

Page 253 of 337