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A new limited series starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin revisits the founding father's years as the American ambassador to France
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In "Sally & Tom," Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks continues her investigation of American myths
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A new limited series starring Michael Douglas as Benjamin Franklin revisits the founding father's years as the American ambassador to France
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In 1942, young Calvin Graham was decorated for valor in battle, before his worried mother learned of his whereabouts and revealed his secret to the Navy
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The people of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, helped keep the Greenbrier resort's bunker—designed to hold the entirety of Congress—hidden from 1958 to 1992
![“For me, [Hanuman] was also a hero that lost faith in himself,” says director and star Dev Patel. “He didn’t have courage at one point and needed to be reminded of who he was.” ](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/7eZMmmuBKwtIItu2sPRoTAF0Mzc=/400x300/filters:no_upscale():focal(2705x1803:2706x1804)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/a4/6d/a46d49f5-d430-4fb9-9a99-a40773a0f0e5/hanuman3.jpg)
The story of the half-human, half-monkey god mirrors the journey of the protagonist in Patel's directorial debut
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The new mini-series dramatizes the Villiers family’s scandalous rise to power at the court of England's James I
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In 1780, astronomer Samuel Williams journeyed to British-controlled territory to view a total solar eclipse
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The civilization developed the world’s first known tax system around 3000 B.C.E.
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Books were rare and expensive in colonial America, but the founding father had an idea
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In the late 17th century, Henry Avery—the subject of the first global manhunt—bribed his way into the Bahamas
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The untold story of the Wide Awakes, the young Americans who took up the torch for their antislavery cause and stirred the nation
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A new book shows how pioneering ballerinas captivated audiences and broke racial barriers
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The tangy tale of how America’s children learned to squeeze life for all it’s worth
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Between the 1920s and 1940s, wealthy young women signed up to run errands and carry messages for the Frontier Nursing Service, whose nurse-midwives provided care to patients in hard-to-reach areas
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A lifelong passion for the national pastime led John Thorn to redefine the sport's relationship with statistics and reveal the truth behind its earliest days
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The collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge is shocking—but not unprecedented
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The Mediterranean capital city savors its connections to antiquity—while reappraising its past
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How do filmmakers get period clothing to look the part? Inside the textile workshop where the past comes to life
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Based in Greenwich Village, Heterodoxy had just one requirement for membership: An applicant must "not be orthodox in her opinion"
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A new film dramatizes Shirley Chisholm's history-making bid to become the first Black woman president in 1972
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West Coast Days
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/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/videos/video/preview_image_oIY3jKux_6f7b5159f3666bff8a6db2e44dfff4b3.jpeg "This Object in History: Fernandomania (5:27.875999999999976)")
/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/videos/video/preview_image_n1dRE04v_7093ab4dc7f4721e9b728d243f76e4f9.jpeg "This Ancient Egyptian Mega-Tomb Is the Largest of Its Kind (3:38.30699999999999)")