American History

Funding Gaps Have Only Forced Government Shutdowns Since the 1980s

Funding gaps didn't always bring a shut down of the federal government

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Listen to the Entire Evolution of the Guitar Solo in Six Minutes

The guitar is a symbol for rock and roll, and the lead guitarist its champion

Soldiers at the Korean War Veterans Memorial

Be Careful When Taking Pictures of Other People’s Art

The U.S. Postal Service owes the man who sculpted the Korean War memorial nearly $685,000

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The U.S. Nearly Nuked North Carolina

North Carolina was saved from nuclear devastation by one little switch

Bagels And Lox Are a Uniquely American Creation

Lox didn't originate in New York City. Nor did bagels. But putting them together, that is a distinctly New York Creation

The top five contestants in the 4–6-year-old section wait on the judges' final decisions during the Little Miss Perfect competition at Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center in Montgomery, Alabama.

France Bans Child Beauty Pageants, America Unlikely to Follow

But, even in America, the land of Honey Boo Boo, the question of whether these contests should be banned has been percolating for years

“The Eight Years of the War of the American Revolution,” wood engraving by John Warner Barber c 1871. You’re really going to want to zoom in on this one.

This Engraved Infographic of the Revolutionary War Is From 1871

This engraved infographic from 1871 shows the major events of the Revolutionary War, and some beautiful subtle additions

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Bearing Witness to the Aftermath of the Birmingham Church Bombing

On September 15, 1963, four were killed in the Ku Klux Klan bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama

Shoes worn by Maria Cecilia Benavente on September 11, 2001

Remembering 9/11: Maria Cecilia Benavente's Sandals

Maria Cecilia Benavente escaped Tower Two barefoot; in shock, she held onto her sandals

William Jay Gaynor

An Assassin’s Bullet Took Three Years to Kill NYC Mayor William Jay Gaynor

Gaynor collapsed and died from a bullet that had been lodged in his throat for three years - put there by an eventually successful assassin

Nobody Knows How to Interpret This Doomsday Stonehenge in Georgia

We know where they are and what they say, but everything else is all hotly debated

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A 1928 Yiddish-English-Hebrew Dictionary May Be the First Official Record of “Meh”

The term “meh,” defined as “an expression of indifference or boredom,” entered the Collins English Dictionary in 2008

Obama Isn’t the First Peace Prize Laureate to Support a War

This isn't the first time a Peace Prize winner has pushed for war

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This 1970s Underground Bomb Shelter Is Impeccably Designed And For Sale

3970 Spencer St seems pretty normal, until you look more closely that you realize that the trees in the background are fake, and the sky is painted on

A woman operates an early decryption machine for the NSA’s progenitor

How the NSA Stopped Trying to Prevent the Spread of Encryption And Decided to Just Break It Instead

The NSA spent decades trying to stop the spread of encryption technology

“Jews praying on Jewish New Year”

See How New Yorkers Celebrated Rosh Hashanah a Century Ago

Photographs from the early 1900s show Rosh Hashanah in New York

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Cow Tipping Never Was And Never Will Be a Thing People Actually Do

Scientists have actually taken the time to investigate the idea, and produced some hard numbers that indicated that cow-tipping "has no leg to stand on"

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A Reminder From Yosemite’s Massive 1988 Fire: Wildfire Is Largely a Human Problem

This isn't the first time fire has threatened a national park

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Why the Smithsonian Just Can’t Quit Studying the Civil War

150 years later, the war is still in focus

What Isaac Asimov Thought 2014 Would Look Like

Past predictions about the future oftentimes fail miserably, but many of Isaac Asimov's futuristic visions were pretty accurate

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