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History / World History

Smoke and flames rise from Notre-Dame Cathedral on April 15, 2019.

Last Night, I Watched Notre-Dame Burn

Our own travel writer, in Paris yesterday, recounts her experience witnessing the devastating fire at the cathedral

A photographic plate of the 1919 total solar eclipse, taken by Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin and Charles Rundle Davidson during an expedition to Sobral, Brazil. The 1919 eclipse was used by Arthur Eddington, who observed it from the island of Principe off the west coast of Africa, to provide the first experimental evidence of Einstein's theory of relativity.

What the Obsolete Art of Mapping the Skies on Glass Plates Can Still Teach Us

The first pictures of the sky were taken on glass photographic plates, and these treasured artifacts can still help scientists make discoveries today

Shortly after the first human space flight, the Soviet Union began planning to send a woman to space.

The First Group of Female Cosmonauts Were Trained to Conquer the Final Frontier

Two decades before the first American woman flew to space, a group of female cosmonauts trained in Star City of the Soviet Union 

Gold tells the "story that colonialism sought to deny, of indigenous, structured, wonderful, cultured civilizations," says the Smithsonian's Gus Casely-Hayford.

Why There Is More to Gold Than Meets the Eye

The Smithsonian’s Gus Casely-Hayford says the precious metal was both a foundation for massive West African empires and a cultural touchstone

Adam Smith and William Shakespeare

How the Invisible Hand of William Shakespeare Influenced Adam Smith

Born more than 150 years apart, the two British luminaries each encountered rough receptions for their radical ideas

The ghosts of Nazis, French resistance fighters and concentration camp survivors still inhabit the grandest hotel on Paris’ famed Left Bank.

Paris’ Hotel Lutetia Is Haunted by History

The ghosts of Nazis, French resistance fighters and concentration camp survivors still inhabit the grand building on Paris’ famed Left Bank

Merrill Joshua, of St. Helena’s tourism board, dressed in full Napoleonic regalia to depict the island’s most famous resident.

A Journey to St. Helena, Home of Napoleon’s Last Days

We crossed the globe to the tiny, remote island to sample the splendid desolation of the emperor’s exile under a scornful British governor

A young boy talks to U.S. Army military police as the exhibit visited Toledo, Ohio.

Americans Flocked to See This Controversial Exhibit of Berlin’s Art Treasures in the Wake of World War II

Discovered in a salt mine in Nazi Germany, these artworks toured the United States in a questionable move that raised serious ethical concerns

American adventurer and archaeologist Wendell Phillips may have provided inspiration for the character of Indiana Jones.

The Complex Legacy of America’s Lawrence of Arabia

Archaeologist Wendell Phillips traveled throughout Yemen in the 1950s, where he found ancient treasures and controversy

Authors and playwrights in 18th-century Europe helped make science accessible to the common reader.

How 18th-Century Writers Created the Genre of Popular Science

French writers such as Voltaire and Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle helped shape the Enlightenment with stories of science

The ancient scorched-earth warfare tactic of well poisoning is still in use today

The History of Poisoning the Well

From ancient Mesopotamia to modern-day Iraq, the threat to a region’s water supply is the cruelest cut of all

Paella, a national favorite in Spain, is a hearty dish prominently featuring two of Linford's Seven Wonders—rice and tomato. It may be seasoned with salt and chili flakes as well.

The Mouthwatering History of Seven Fundamental Foodstuffs

A new Smithsonian book whisks readers on a culinary odyssey, tracing the history of salt, pork, honey, chili, tomato, rice and chocolate

Though Charles Darwin is most famous for his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle and his theory of natural selection, the naturalist was, at heart, a botanist.

How a Love of Flowers Helped Charles Darwin Validate Natural Selection

Though his voyage to the Galapagos and his work with finches dominate the narrative of the famed naturalist, he was, at heart, a botanist

An American infantry camp in Siberia, Russia, December 1918

World War I: 100 Years Later

The Forgotten Story of the American Troops Who Got Caught Up in the Russian Civil War

Even after the armistice was signed ending World War I, the doughboys clashed with Russian forces 100 years ago

Items on display at the recently opened KGB Spy Museum in New York

The Incomplete History Told by New York’s K.G.B. Museum

Designed to be apolitical, the attraction offers whiz-bang tech without the agency’s brutal past

Ed Sullivan interviews Fidel Castro in January 1959, shortly after dictator Fulgencio Batista had fled the country.

Tony Perrottet's Cuba

When Fidel Castro Charmed the United States

Sixty years ago this month, the romantic victory of the young Cuban revolutionaries amazed the world—and led to a surreal evening on “The Ed Sullivan Show”

Herschel Grynszpan in a photo from the German archives

History of Now

How a Jewish Teenager Went From Refugee to Assassin to Puppet of Nazi Propaganda

Herschel Grynszpan wanted to avenge the crimes committed against European Jews. Instead, his actions were used as a justification for Kristallnacht

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America at War

This Map Shows Where in the World the U.S. Military Is Combatting Terrorism

The infographic reveals for the first time that the U.S. is now operating in 40 percent of the world’s nations

A map of the moon with labeled features, from Selenographia by Johannes Hevelius.

The 17th-Century Astronomer Who Made the First Atlas of the Moon

Johannes Hevelius drew some of the first maps of the moon, praised for their detail, from his homemade rooftop observatory in the Kingdom of Poland

A mini-loaf of homemade panettone

A Culinary History of Panettone, the Italian and South American Christmas Treat

The holiday pastry has been a multicultural phenomenon since the very beginning

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