Obama Isn’t the First Peace Prize Laureate to Support a War

This isn’t the first time a Peace Prize winner has pushed for war

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The Conflict in Syria Is Damaging the Country’s Historic Sites

The ongoing fighting in Syria is devastating irreplaceable artifacts

A woman operates an early decryption machine for the NSA’s progenitor

How the NSA Stopped Trying to Prevent the Spread of Encryption And Decided to Just Break It Instead

The NSA spent decades trying to stop the spread of encryption technology

The ancient Roman fort Dura Europos, in Syria

One of the First Known Chemical Attacks Took Place 1,700 Years Ago in Syria

Sasanian Persians gassed at least 19 Romans by adding sulfur crystals and bitumen to fire in 256 CE

The library at Strahov Monastery

Libraries Used to Chain Their Books to Shelves, With the Spines Hidden Away

Books have been around a long time, but the way we store them—stacked vertically, spines out—is a relatively recent invention

The Field Deployable Hydrolysis System is built to neutralize chemical weapons on site.

The Pentagon Just Built a Mobile Chemical Weapons-Neutralizing Factory

The U.S. army just built a mobile factory that can break down chemical weapons on site

“Jews praying on Jewish New Year”

See How New Yorkers Celebrated Rosh Hashanah a Century Ago

Photographs from the early 1900s show Rosh Hashanah in New York

Melting Glaciers Are Liberating Ancient Clothes, Like This 1,700-Year-Old Sweater

The well worn, patched up tunic turned up after sections of Norway’s quickly-melting Lendbreen glacier retreated

Tourists explore the Crescent Moon Spring along the historic Silk Road trade route.

How Third-Century China Saw Rome, a Land Ruled by “Minor Kings”

Translations of a 3rd century Chinese text describe Roman life

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North Korea Reportedly Executed Pop Singers And Dancers

So far, only one South Korean outlet has reported on this latest possible atrocity, and unfortunately it will probably remain that way

The symbol for chemical weapons

The U.S. Knew Iraq Was Using Chemical Weapons, Helped Out Anyway

Recently declassified documents detail the CIA’s knowledge of Iraq’s chemical weapon program in the 1980s

Muriel Siebert, First Woman With a Seat on the Stock Exchange, Dies at Age 80

Siebert bought her seat in 1967, but she remained the only woman on the exchange for almost 10 years after that

The Last of the Watergate Tapes Show Just How Weasely Nixon Was

Nixon’s public declarations and his private communications were a bundle of contradictions

There’s Now Evidence That Other Europeans Beat the Vikings to the North Atlantic

Someone, and we don’t know who, beat the Vikings to the Faroe Islands by as much as 500 years

Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza with President Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in 1962

The CIA Finally Admitted It Orchestrated the Iranian Coup of 1953

A newly-released 1970s internal CIA report admits the agency’s involvement in the 1953 coup

183 Children Died in a Stampede for Toys in 1883

Victoria Hall had at least one good outcome: the invention of outward opening emergency exits and the invention of the “push bar” emergency door

Before Robots, Japan Had Tiny Dolls That Tumbled Down Stairs And Served Tea

Automata paved the way for the creepy, lifelike robots we see today

Crashed Costa Concordia Is Still Sitting in the Water in Italy

It’s been 19 months since the crash, but the ship is still in the water

Discoveries by European explorers that didn’t involve claiming land where people were already living.

These Are All the Places That Europeans Actually Discovered

Of all the places you think were discovered by Europeans, how many were actually discovered by Europeans?

The Royal Game of Ur is one of the oldest known board games, but newly discovered pieces may be even older.

These Complex, Beautiful Board Game Pieces Are 5,000 Years Old

With pigs and pyramids and dog-shaped tokens, what kind of game might they have been playing?

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