Smart News History & Archaeology

Cangrande della Scalla was one of the most respected warriors of his day.

Cool Finds

Mummy Feces Solve the Mystery of How Verona's Most Powerful Man Died

Digging deep for the secret behind a medieval warlord's mysterious death

Bayard Holmes as a medical student

Cool Finds

Two Men Tried To Cure Schizophrenia by Removing Their Patients’ Intestines

Bayard Holmes and Henry Cotton were separated by a generation, but both thought that mental illness arose from toxins produced within the body

Cool Finds

How a Single Penny Became Worth More Than $2 Million

Fifteen years ago, few would pay $1 million for a coin—no matter how rare. That's changing.

Hattie Wyatt Caraway on November 6, 1942.

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On This Day in 1932, America Elected Its First Female Senator

This year, a record number of women are serving in Congress; Hattie Wyatt Caraway was the first ever in the Senate

Harvey W. Wiley and his Poison Squad in 1902

Early Food Safety Workers Tested Poisons by Eating Them

They were hailed as heroes and even had a song

The soaring choir at Beauvais Cathedral was first constructed in the 1200s.

New Research

Europe's Great Gothic Cathedrals Weren't Built Just of Concrete

The designers and builders of Europe's great Gothic cathedrals weren't actually so innovative

Cattle graze on the open range in this shot from ca. 1920-1930.

Cool Finds

The 1887 Blizzard That Changed the American Frontier Forever

A blizzard hit the western open range, causing the “Great Die Up” and transforming America’s agricultural history

Doctors, army officers and reporters protect themselves during the 1918 pandemic.

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The Flu Has Been Making People Sick for At Least 500 Years

The 1918 flu pandemic gets all the headlines, but the malady is thought to have first appeared in the 16th century—and possibly earlier

European immigrants arrive in America.

Cool Finds

Ellis Island Isn’t to Blame for Your Family’s Name Change

A long-standing myth obscures the truth behind the Americanization of some European names

Henry Ford whispers in Thomas Edison's ear

Cool Finds

A Test Tube in Michigan Holds the Air From Thomas Edison's Death Room

Two famous inventors, one glass tube and a museum mystery

A newspaper was the first item found upon opening the capsule.

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What Was Found Inside the Oldest American Time Capsule

Historians in Boston have just cracked open a brass box originally buried in 1795 by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams

The location of Genghis Khan's grave has been a mystery for centuries.

New Research

Amateur Explorers Are Using High-Res Satellite Images to Search for Genghis Khan's Tomb

Amateur explorers used ultra-high resolution satellite images to help search for the grave of one of the world’s most powerful rulers

Stony Ground by Edwin Austin Abbey

Cool Finds

The Second Divorce in Colonial America Happened Today in 1643

The Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans weren’t as conservative as you may have thought

Spores on the conidiophores of the fungus Penicillium notatum.

Cool Finds

We Used to Recycle Drugs From Patients' Urine

Penicillin extracted from a patient's urine could be reused

A ninth century merchant ship unearthed in Turkey.

New Research

Nearly 40 Byzantine Shipwrecks Were Recently Unearthed in Turkey

The exceptionally well-preserved ships offer new insight into ship-building history

Shrine to Uwais al-Qurani and Ammar Bin Yasser. After: October 6, 2014. All three tombs on the outside of the shrine, their minarets and a section of the linking arcaded pricinct have been destroyed.

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Satellite Photos Show Hundreds of Syrian Heritage Sites Damaged In Ongoing Fighting

The new satellite photos show the extent of the damage

Sculptures in St. Anthony's Chapel in Pittsburgh.

Cool Finds

Pittsburgh Has a Huge Collection of Relics

St. Anthony’s Chapel contains the largest number of relics outside of the Vatican

New Research

The Oldest Olive Oil Ever Found Is 8,000 Years Old

Chemical analyses unveil traces of olive oil in ancient Israeli pottery

A recreation of the test that led to Louis Slotin's accident

Cool Finds

After WWII, Scientists Conducted Deadly Tests With an Unexploded Nuclear Bomb Core

Physicist Richard Feynman called the tests "tickling the tail of a sleeping dragon"

Cuban Fruit peddlers stopped along Malecon Sea drive in Havana, to peddle their wares: Mangos, melons, and pineapples. March 30, 1949,

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Back When Americans Could Travel Freely to Cuba, Here's What It Looked Like

The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1960

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