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History / U.S. History

The comedy show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin (above), debuted on NBC on January 22, 1968.

In 1968, When Nixon Said ‘Sock It To Me’ on ‘Laugh-In,’ TV Was Never Quite the Same Again

The show’s rollicking one-liners and bawdy routines paved the way for “Saturday Night Live” and other cutting-edge television satire

Boston Bruins forward Willie O'Ree warms up prior to a game against the New York Rangers in 1960.

Sixty Years Ago, Willie O’Ree Broke the NHL’s Color Barrier

A debilitating eye injury and racial epithets weren’t enough to derail the player’s resolve

Baber gathering fossils at Mazon Creek, Illinois, 1895, during the first field class at the University of Chicago to which women were admitted.

Women Who Shaped History

The Woman Who Transformed How We Teach Geography

By blending education and activism, Zonia Baber made geography a means of uniting—not conquering—the globe

Quasi-catalogues like Comfort came with a surprising side effect: communication between women that otherwise would have been impossible.

From Helping Shut-Ins to Sisterly Advice, Mail-Order Magazines Did More Than Just Sell Things

The cheap monthly publications that flooded rural homes offered more than just advertising—they also provided companionship

Black Lightning's costume favors style over subtlety.

The TV Show ‘Black Lightning’ Gives the Superhero World a Jolt of Social Justice

For the protagonist of WB’s new comic book show, community and family come first

In 1997, the world gasped as Gianni Versace was shot to death on the doorstep of his Miami mansion.

The True Story of “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”

Did the designer meet his killer seven years earlier?

Google's latest app seems to think National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet has a lot in common with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Future of Art

Here’s My Problem With the Google Arts & Culture Face-Matching App

Kim Sajet, the director of the National Portrait Gallery, offers ideas to make it better

On long-term loan from Warner Bros., the Burton Batmobile will be on view at the National Museum of American History for the next 3 years.

What the Batmobile Tells Us About the American Dream

Fans of DC Comics will go batty for this new installation at the National Museum of American History

In 1968, at Resurrection City, a multicultural, multi-racial people shaped a campaign of hurt and hope out of a tumultuous year, including the war in Vietnam, and the assassinations of King and Robert F. Kennedy.

Deeply Grieving MLK’s Death, Activists Shaped a Campaign of Hurt and Hope

At Resurrection City, an epic 1968 demonstration on the National Mall in Washington D.C., protesters defined the next 50 years of activism

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. chats with African-Americans during a door-to-door campaign in 1964.

This Theologian Helped MLK See the Value of Nonviolence

Minister, theologian and mystic Howard Thurman had a profound influence on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

After the Revolution, Americans sought a national identity. American Cookery, the first cookbook written and published in the country, proposed one approach to American cuisine.

What America’s First Cookbook Says About Our Country and Its Cuisine

An 18th-century kitchen guide taught Americans how to eat simply but sumptuously

Dale Messick, creator of the comic strip "Brenda Starr," looks up from some of her strips in her studio in her Chicago apartment in 1975.

Women Who Shaped History

How Women Broke Into the Male-Dominated World of Cartoons and Illustrations

A new exhibition at the Library of Congress highlights female artists and their contributions to comic strips, magazine covers and political cartoons

Major General Cates with War Correspondents Aboard Ship, Febraury 1945. Robert Sherrod is second from left.

The Reporter Who Helped Persuade FDR to Tell the Truth About War

After witnessing the bloody struggle with Japan, Robert Sherrod thought the public should face the ‘cruel’ facts

1968: The Year That Shattered America

Rage Against the Machine

A short story reimagines the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the chaos that shocked the world

Locals cross a small wooden foot bridge in Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam, just downriver from the My Lai Massacre in 1968.

1968: The Year That Shattered America

The Ghosts of My Lai

In the hamlet where U.S. troops killed hundreds of men, women and children, survivors are ready to forgive the most infamous American soldier of the war

During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F Kennedy discusses results of surveillance missions in Cuba

History of Now

How the Presidency Took Control of America’s Nuclear Arsenal

From Truman onwards, the ability to order a nuclear strike has shaped the office

A Timeline of 1968: The Year That Shattered America

The nation is still reckoning with the changes that came in that fateful year

This cartoon from Harper's Weekly depicts how opiates were used in the 19th century to help babies cope with teething.

Inside the Story of America’s 19th-Century Opiate Addiction

Doctors then, as now, overprescribed the painkiller to patients in need, and then, as now, government policy had a distinct bias

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