Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

The 1759 cannonball

Cool Finds

Found: 200-Year-Old Cannonball From French and Indian War

Potentially still live, the incendiary device has been moved to a safe location to be neutralized

The daughter of an enslaved woman, Maggie L. Walker led the fight for civil rights and women's rights in Richmond, Virginia.

Champion of the Black Community Is Given Her Rightful Due in Richmond

Maggie L. Walker fought segregation her whole life in the former capital of the Confederacy. Now her statue towers over the Virginia city

On December 17, 1944 the bomber crashed into the Adriatic sea.

Cool Finds

Bones Recovered From Wreckage of WWII Plane May Belong to Missing Airmen

If researchers can confirm their identity, the long-lost crewmembers may finally receive a proper burial

Taking a stroll to the Pump Room–the fashionable place to be seen in Bath during Austen's time.

Five Things to Know About Bath, Jane Austen’s Home and Inspiration

Two hundred years after her death, Bath hasn’t forgotten about Jane Austen

The point of the bow from the port side, taken by the remotely operated vehicle Jason Jr.

The Story of the First Manned Expedition to the Sunken Wreck of the ‘Titanic’

The manned exploration in 1986 brought back the first high-quality images of the ship since it sank

The hilt of Robert Gould Shaw's sword

Cool Finds

Civil War Hero’s Long-Lost Sword Was Hiding in an Attic

Union Colonel Robert Gould Shaw led the legendary 54th Massachusetts Regiment, one of the first official black military units in the United States

Why Censors Are Targeting Winnie-the-Pooh in China

Social media users have compared the honey-loving bear to Chinese President Xi Jinping

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

Page 253 of 351