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History / World History

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The Next Pandemic

The Next Pandemic

With Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Museum of Natural History, we look at the past, present and future of the flu

The influenza ward at Walter Reed Hospital during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918

The Next Pandemic

Ten Famous People Who Survived the 1918 Flu

The notables who recovered from the pandemic included a pioneer of American animation, world-famous artists and two U.S. presidents

Marie Curie in one of her mobile X-ray units in October 1917

Women Who Shaped History

How Marie Curie Brought X-Ray Machines To the Battlefield

During World War I, the scientist invented a mobile x-ray unit, called a “Little Curie,” and trained 150 women to operate it

The Messburghof in Hamburg, Germany

Inside the House of Zyklon B

An iconic Hamburg building, built by Jews and now a chocolate museum, once housed the distributors of one of Nazi Germany’s most gruesome inventions

"Joseph Stalin" Ernest Hamlin Baker 1939 Crayon on paper

The True Story of the Death of Stalin

“Veep” creator Armando Iannucci’s upcoming dark comedy pulls from the stranger-than-fiction real-life events surrounding Stalin’s death

A 35-foot-tall statue of Lenin speechifying from atop an armored car stands outside Finland Station in St. Petersburg.

What Ever Happened to the Russian Revolution?

We journey through Vladimir Putin’s Russia to measure the aftershocks of the political explosion that rocked the world a century ago

American Expeditionary Force victims of the flu pandemic at U.S. Army Camp Hospital no. 45 in Aix-les-Bains, France, in 1918.

The Next Pandemic

How the 1918 Flu Pandemic Revolutionized Public Health

Mass death changed how we think about illness, and government’s role in treating it

Victoria and Abdul: The Friendship that Scandalized England

Near the end of her reign, Queen Victoria developed a friendship with an Indian servant, elevating him to trusted advisor and infuriating her court

Salih reports that ISIS “looted all movable objects” from this tunnel at ancient Nineveh.

The Salvation of Mosul

An Iraqi archaeologist braved ISIS snipers and booby-trapped ruins to rescue cultural treasures in the city and nearby legendary Nineveh and Nimrud

A late 19th century photograph from Antwerp, Belgium shows a typical milk cart pulled by dogs.

Four Weird Ways Dogs Have Earned Their Keep

From pulling milk carts to herding reindeer, dogs have had some odd jobs

The Tulip Folly

There Never Was a Real Tulip Fever

A new movie sets its doomed entrepreneurs amidst 17th-century “tulipmania”—but historians of the phenomenon have their own bubble to burst

A reproduction 5th century Corinthian helmet given by a visiting Greek Army officer. It's become the logo for "The Art of War – Gifts of Peace" initiative.

At an Army Base in Kansas, There’s a Secret Collection of Incredible Finds

Are these priceless artifacts or worthless trinkets? No one knows for sure, but a local art gallery is pitching in to find out

How Agriculture Came to Be a Political Weapon—And What That Means for Farmers

In his new book, Ted Genoways follows a family farm and the ways they’re impacted by geopolitics

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