Top: Rubble inside Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019. Bottom: The cathedral's renovated interior (including the tabernacle designed by French artist Guillaume Bardet) in 2024

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See Inside Notre-Dame Cathedral in These Breathtaking Images of Its Newly Unveiled Interior

The historic church was devastated by a fire in 2019. After five years of painstaking work, it’s finally scheduled to reopen to the public this weekend

A policeman uses flares to guide traffic during the Great Smog of 1952.

On This Day in History

How an Extreme Combination of Fog and Air Pollution Brought London to a Standstill and Resulted in Thousands of Fatalities

On this day in 1952, buses stood still, cars were abandoned in the street, and residents couldn’t see even a few feet in front of themselves as the lethal Great Smog descended on the city

The temple's north tower, which holds a newly discovered chamber

Cool Finds

Hidden Entrance to a Mysterious Ancient Temple Found Tucked Away in an Egyptian Cliff Face

Researchers have been carefully excavating the artifacts and decorative reliefs found at the 2,100-year-old site in the ancient city of Athribis

Thessaloniki's Venizelou subway station contains the ruins of a Roman-era thoroughfare.

Cool Finds

A New Subway System in Greece Is Decorated With the Artifacts Unearthed During Its Construction

An ancient marble thoroughfare and shards of classical pottery are on display in the city of Thessaloniki’s new underground “archaeo-stations”

An illustration of the Mary Celeste in 1861, when the ship was known as the Amazon

On This Day in History

An Abandoned Merchant Ship Was Discovered Floating in the Atlantic in 1872. The Mystery of Its Missing Crew Was Never Solved

Speculation about what happened to the “Mary Celeste,” found empty on this day in 1872, was so rife that even famed author Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a sensational short story about it

The coin features the bust of Honorius on one side. The other side depicts a person holding a banner or flag with a cross on it.

Cool Finds

This Mysterious Gold Pendant Featuring a Misspelled Inscription Is an Early Medieval Imitation of a Roman Coin

A metal detectorist in England discovered the unusual piece of jewelry, which was likely made in the late fifth or early sixth century C.E.

Jim Sichko, a Catholic priest from Lexington, Kentucky, visited Pope Francis in May and asked him to sign two bottles of bourbon for charity. 

Pope Francis Signed These Two Bottles of Bourbon to Support Charities in Kentucky

Earlier this year, a priest from Lexington brought the spirits to the Vatican to get the pope’s autograph. They will soon be sold at auction, where they could raise up to $20,000

Archaeologists Caesar Bita and Filipe Castro dove to investigate the wreck.

New Research

A Mysterious Shipwreck Rests Just 20 Feet Below the Surface. It May Be Connected to Vasco da Gama’s Final Voyage

Researchers think a coral-covered vessel discovered off the Kenyan coast could be the “São Jorge,” a galleon that sank 500 years ago

The Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, India

On This Day in History

The World’s Deadliest Industrial Disaster Exposed 500,000 People to Toxic Gas and Claimed Thousands of Lives

A web of technical failures, human errors and corporate malpractice in Bhopal, India, culminated in an unthinkable tragedy on this day in 1984

Researchers hypothesize that this footprint was made by a member of the hominin species Paranthropus boisei.

Footprints Reveal Two Early Human Species Walked the Same Lakeshore in Kenya 1.5 Million Years Ago

A new, “mind-blowing” discovery reveals evidence that Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei stepped at the same site within days—or hours—of each other

Scientists created a spear using tar they produced from a makeshift hearth to test whether Neanderthals might have used similar methods to obtain tar.

New Research

A 65,000-Year-Old Hearth Reveals Evidence That Neanderthals Produced Tar for Stone Tools in Iberia

While Neanderthals have been found to create glue-like substances with other materials, this finding, if confirmed, would be the first sign of Neanderthals burning the rockrose plant to make tar

A NASA scientist's picture out the window of a plane over Greenland, combined with the new radar map of Camp Century, at the bottom.

NASA Radar Detects Abandoned Site of Secret Cold War Project in Greenland—a ‘City Under the Ice’

Camp Century was built in 1959 and advertised as a U.S. research site—but it also hosted a clandestine missile facility

Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island

On This Day in History

The Little-Known Story Behind the Oldest Surviving Synagogue in America

Through revolution and war, Touro Synagogue, which opened in Newport, Rhode Island, on this day in 1763, has long been a beacon for religious tolerance on the coast of New England

A political cartoon depicting a footrace for the position of president in the 1824 election

On This Day in History

When No Candidate Won the 1824 Presidential Election, the House of Representatives Was Given the Rare Task of Deciding the Victor

A “corrupt bargain” that delivered John Quincy Adams the presidency ended the Era of Good Feelings and prompted a new period of partisan hostility

View of the Crystal Palace circa 1854, after the building was relocated to Sydenham in South London

On This Day in History

When London’s Iconic Crystal Palace Burned to the Ground in a Devastating Fire

Three years before World War II, on this day in 1936, an inferno marked the symbolic end of the global hegemony of the British Empire

John J. Egan's massive 24-panel Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the French Colonial Mississippi Valley depicts the Natchez revolt. Created in 1850, the panorama features scenes from across the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys.

On This Day in History

In a ‘Horrific’ Attack Meant to Scare the Intruders, Natchez Warriors Revolted Against the French, Killing 230 Colonists

The 1729 attack in present-day Mississippi was part of a vicious cycle of violence and retribution

J. Frank Duryea and his American-made "motocycle" won first place in the Chicago Times-Herald race on November 28, 1895.

On This Day in History

Six Cars Raced to the Finish Line of the U.S.’s First Automobile Race—at Speeds of Seven Miles Per Hour

Held on this day in 1895, the 54-mile round trip took more than ten hours and involved accidents with streetcars, horses and snowbanks

A 2019 drought allowed researchers to excavate some of the typically waterlogged canals.

New Research

Archaeologists Discover Ancient Canals Used to Trap Fish in Belize 4,000 Years Ago

Pre-Maya hunter-gatherers built the system in Central America in response to a drought between 2200 and 1900 B.C.E., according to a new study

The team stands around one of the stone circles.

Cool Finds

Archaeologist Discovers Two Neolithic Stone Circles in England, Supporting a ‘Sacred Arc’ Theory

The idea suggests prehistoric people built a ring of stone circles in modern-day Dartmoor National Park around the same time that Stonehenge was created—and the new finds have just added another piece to the puzzle

Harvey Milk at the Gay Pride Parade, San Francisco on 23rd June 1978.

On This Day in History

Harvey Milk, One of the World’s First Openly Gay Politicians, Was Assassinated on This Day in 1978

A disgruntled former San Francisco politician killed Milk and the city’s mayor, George Moscone

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