Smithsonian Journeys Travel Quarterly: Inca Road

Visit Machu Picchu With Google Street View

Armed with a backpack and 15 high-res cameras, Google just tackled one of the world’s wonders

Trending Today

Americans Used to Really Hate Tipping

Are gratuity’s days numbered?

New Research

Europeans Only Started Digesting Dairy 4,000 Years Ago

They can enjoy that cheese thanks to ancient nomadic herders

A booking photo from Rosa Parks' arrest on December 1, 1955.

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Sixty Years Later, Cities Celebrate Rosa Parks’ Legacy

Statues, streets and anti-bias education commemorate the civil rights activist’s historic protest

Cool Finds

What Was the First Thing Sold on the Internet?

The answer depends on how the question is approached

Centurions drink from a fountain near Rome's Coliseum during a heat wave in summer 2014. A recent announcement that centurion reenactors will be banned from the Coliseum during 2016 has led to protests and public outcry.

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Rome Just Banned Centurions

Officials stir up controversy by kicking impersonators out of the Colosseum

"History will be kind to me," wrote Winston Churchill, "for I intend to write it myself."

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UNESCO Honors Winston Churchill’s Writings With the Equivalent of World Heritage Status

Churchill’s papers join the ranks of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Anne Frank’s diary and the Magna Carta

Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan at the Geneva Summit.

Cool Finds

Reagan and Gorbachev Agreed to Pause the Cold War in Case of an Alien Invasion

The 40th President of the United States was a big science-fiction fan

Cool Finds

Why a Yam Is Not a Sweet Potato

Despite grocery store labels, these tubers aren’t at all the same

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A Brief History of Cranberries

Pucker up: Thanksgiving (and plenty of cranberry sauce) is almost here

An illustration of Enrico Fermi and other scientists observing the first artificial nuclear reactor.

Cool Finds

The World’s First Nuclear Reactor Was Built in a Squash Court

It sat right next to University of Chicago’s football field

"After signing this Constitution, shall we go to Washington’s place for a pint? I hear he brews a tasty one."

Cool Finds

Try Out George Washington’s Own Craft Beer Recipe

The recipe for “small beer” includes molasses as a sweetener and instructions on what to do if the weather is very cold

Hello?

American South

A Phone Booth Was Just Put on the National Register of Historic Places

Save your change for a telephonic trip to Prairie Grove, Arkansas

Skeletal cast of "Lucy."

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Lucy the Australopithecus Turns 41 (Plus 3.2 Million Years)

Lucy gets a Google Doodle for the anniversary of her discovery

Cool Finds

The Statue of Liberty Was Originally a Muslim Woman

“The New Colossus” was actually born in Egypt

A modified human skull from the early 6th century

New Research

Parents Have Been Reshaping Their Kids’ Skulls for 45,000 Years

A new find in Patagonia adds to the list of possible reasons for such extreme cranial modification

Julia Child stands in the kitchen of her Massachusetts home. You can own another one of her kitchens—the one in her Provence vacation home—for just $885,000.

Cool Finds

You Could Own One of Julia Child’s Kitchens

Perks include a vacation home in Provence

Endurance was frozen in an ice floe for months before breaking free and sinking. Shackleton's men eventually used a lifeboat they called James Caird to go for help.

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Relatives of Shackleton’s Chief Scientist Want to Finish What He Started

One hundred years after the doomed expedition, James Wordie’s descendants plan a 100-mile journey to the South Pole

The first Denisovan tooth that was discovered in 2008

New Research

DNA from a Huge Tooth Confirms a New Ancient Cousin

The Denisovans may have co-existed and interbred with Neanderthals and Homo sapiens

John Steinbeck

Cool Finds

Steinbeck’s Boat the “Western Flyer” Will Voyage Again for Science

The $1 million boat will see the water once again as an updated research vessel

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