A modern flight data recorder, a.k.a. a "black box." Despite the name, these recorders are typically painted orange.

On This Day, The Black Box Proved Its Worth

The Park Slope plane crash was a tragedy, but it proved the importance of the flight data recorder

Bei Bei, the National Zoo's youngest giant panda cub, during a veterinary exam when he was less than three months old.

The Long, Adorable History of Pandas in America

Su Lin was the first giant panda to come to America, landing in San Francisco in 1936

Gold armband

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Dutch Court Rules Crimean Artifacts on Loan Will Return to Ukraine

Following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula, Ukraine’s government asked that the artifacts be returned to Kiev

Pinball players are no longer scofflaws in the eyes of Kokomo, Indiana law.

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Pinball Is Finally Legal Again in This Indiana City

Kokomo, Indiana, has reversed a 61-year-old ban on the game

Photo of Olivia de Havilland (left), Leslie Howard (center) and Vivien Leigh (right) from Gone With The Wind.

Why Do We Love Period Dramas So Much?

Gone With The Wind, the highest-grossing period drama ever, premiered on this day in 1939

Glad tidings! There's a new Christmas song in town.

Researchers Found a Long-Lost Christmas Song

“Crown Winter With Green” has some serious archival cred—and a sad story to tell

The Russian Front of World War II as of 1942.

Cool Finds

The CIA Is Celebrating Its Cartography Division’s 75th Anniversary by Sharing Declassified Maps

Decades of once-secret maps are now freely available online

The stone in front of the home in Braunau am Inn, Austria, where Adolf Hitler was born reads "For peace, freedom and democracy, never again fascism, millions of dead are a warning"

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Austria Will Seize the Home Where Hitler Was Born

The government doesn’t want the apartment complex turning into a Neo-Nazi shrine

The tea bag made it possible to brew a single cup of tea rather than a whole pot.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Ever Wonder Who Invented the Tea Bag?

Its two competing origin stories are linked by one thing: convenience

An official notice of exclusion and removal posted on April 1, 1942.

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75 Years Ago, the Secretary of the Navy Falsely Blamed Japanese-Americans for Pearl Harbor

The baseless accusation sparked the road to the infamous internment camps

Tycho Brahe was extremely wealthy and lived an unusual life that included a pet moose.

Astronomer and Alchemist Tycho Brahe Died Full of Gold

The shiny element was important to Renaissance scientists. Very important

This Christmas, St. Peter's Square has a tree, a nativity scene and a message about refugees.

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Pope’s New Nativity Scene Raises Awareness of Worldwide Refugee Crisis

It’s a lavish display complete with a plea for racial tolerance

An ancient grape seed found at the Lake Hula site

New Research

The Paleo Diet May Need a Rewrite, Ancient Humans Feasted on a Wide Variety of Plants

Archaeologists in Israel have counted 55 species of plant foods a an early hominid site on Lake Hula

Ellen Willis in upstate New York in 1970

One of the First Female Rock Critics Battled Sexism and Obscurity To Document the 1970s

Willis was The New Yorker’s first pop music critic, but to her, everything was open for criticism

Graves of Franklin Expedition members on Beechey Island

New Research

Thumbnail Reveals the Final Days of Franklin Expedition Explorer

A synchrotron micro-x-ray sheds new light on the cause that led to one crew member’s death

Now more of the Princeton Battlefield, where Washington and his troops scored a pivotal victory, will be preserved.

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Preservationists Score Victory at Revolutionary War Battlefield

Most of the Princeton battlefield where Washington’s troops fought will be saved from development

People Have Spent Years Trying to Diagnose Mary Todd Lincoln From Beyond the Grave

Abraham Lincoln’s wife has been called a “wildcat,” “menstrual” and “bipolar” among other things

Men smoke pipes and drink on the London streets. Booth's police notebooks reveal the everyday habits of Londoners.

Cool Finds

Explore the Seedy Reality of a London Long Gone

Charles Booth explored the poorest parts of England’s capital—and changed the way social scientists think about the world

This Egon Schiele painting, Portrait of Wally, was looted during World War II and became the subject of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in the 2000s after it was exhibited in New York.

Trending Today

Reclaiming Nazi-Looted Art Is About to Get Easier

HEAR Act removes legal loopholes that prevented victims of Nazi art plunder to restore what’s rightfully theirs

Robert Noyce (left) and Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in from of the Intel SC1 building in Santa Clara, 1970.

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Silicon Valley Owes Its Success To This Tech Genius You’ve Never Heard Of

Robert Noyce was one of the founders of Silicon Valley

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