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Smart News / Smart News History & Archaeology

An undated box that originally held Eskimo Fudge Pies.

The Weird, Brief History of the Eskimo Pie Corporation

It was America’s first chocolate-covered ice cream bar, patented on this day in 1922

Cool Finds

A London Music Hall Hid a Long-Forgotten Storeroom Packed With Condiments

Construction workers uncovered the tasty trove while excavating its foundations

A reconstruction of Ötzi the Iceman at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Cool Finds

Ötzi the Iceman’s Last Meal Included Goat Bacon

Analysis of the 5,300-year-old mummy’s stomach contents shows he ate dry-cured meat from a mountain ibex

Microscope not included.

Cool Finds

This Necklace Contains All of the World’s Languages

Because cultural preservation never goes out of fashion

Paul Robeson, photographed by Alfredo Valente in 1940.

Remembering Paul Robeson, Actor, Sportsman and Leader

Among other things, Robeson transformed one of history’s most famous showtunes into a protest song

Watercolor painting of the Battle of Texel by painter Léon Morel-Fatio.

The Only Time in History When Men on Horseback Captured a Fleet of Ships

A Dutch fleet stuck in the ice. A group of French soldiers sent to capture it. What could go wrong?

Central High School, where school integration battles of the Civil Rights Movement played out, is among 39 sites and historical projects to get National Park Service grants.

Trending Today

New Grants Give Out Millions to Preserve African-American History

A $7.5 million grant program will fund 39 projects in over 20 states

Edgar Allan Poe as imagined in an 1895 image by Swiss/French printmaker Félix Valloton.

Who Was the Poe Toaster? We Still Have No Idea

In Baltimore, they’re keeping the tradition of visiting Edgar Allan Poe’s grave for his birthday—but without the mystery

A mug shot of Iva Toguri d'Aquino, taken in prison in 1946.

How Iva Toguri d’Aquino Went From Being a U.S. Citizen Convicted of Treason to Ultimately Being Pardoned

She was an American D.J. who served six years in prison for her wartime radio broadcasts from Japan

A 1952 report on a flying saucer sighting in East Germany housed in the CIA's recently released archive suggests that the truth is, perhaps, out there.

Cool Finds

Over 12 Million Pages of CIA Documents Are Now Accessible Online

Coups, clairvoyants, invisible ink

Samuel Zemurray was sometimes called "The Banana Man."

Where We Got the Term “Banana Republic”

Hint: it’s not a great moment in American history

Detail of a surfer in "A View of Karakakooa, in Owyhee," an etching made by an artist accompanying the Cook expedition.

What the First European to Visit Hawaii Thought About Surfers

The Europeans were fascinated by Pacific Islanders’ comfort in the water

Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan inside the lunar module on the moon after his second moonwalk of the mission. His spacesuit is covered with lunar dust.

Trending Today

Eugene Cernan: The Last Man on the Moon and So Much More

His experience helped make spaceflight safer

Cool Finds

This Altar Cloth Might Have Been Elizabeth I’s Skirt

It belonged to a parish church for centuries

Benjamin Franklin's portrait on the 2009 design of the hundred dollar bill.

Benjamin Franklin Was a Middle-Aged Widow Named Silence Dogood (And a Few Other Women)

The founding father wrote letters in the voice of female pseudonyms throughout his life

The White Spy and Black Spy have inspired video games, action figures, and an animated TV series.

This Cuban Cartoonist Drew the Cold War for MAD Magazine

The Black Spy and the White Spy have been chasing each other around in MAD Magazine for 56 years

The Saalfelden hermitage

Austria

Austrian Town Seeks Professional Hermit

The beautiful locale makes up for the spartan lifestyle expected of successful applicants

This pendant is thought to have been owned by Karoline Cohn, who was born in the same city in the same year as Anne Frank.

Trending Today

Necklace Similar to One Owned by Anne Frank Found at Nazi Death Camp

Researchers say the remarkable find likely belonged to another victim who may have known Frank and her family

An early B-52.

In 1957, The U.S. Flew a Jet Around the World to Prove it Could Drop a Nuclear Bomb Anywhere

The B-52 bomber that made the flight was part of a new bomber class that was still proving its worth

Some states still celebrate the birthdays of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the same day.

Some States Celebrate MLK Day and Robert E. Lee’s Birthday on the Same Day

Martin Luther King, Jr. has been celebrated on the third Monday in January since the federal holiday was first observed in 1986

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