American History
Without Edgar Allan Poe, We Wouldn't Have Sherlock Holmes
C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's main character, was the first genius detective
George Washington Had Nothing Good to Say About Nepotism
The first president was exceedingly wary of any semblance of impropriety
This Jigsaw Puzzle Was Given to Ellis Island Immigrants to Test Their Intelligence
A confusing set of blocks could seal their fate
John Adams Was the United States’ First Ambassador as Well as Its Second President
Adams's house in the Hague was the first-ever U.S. Embassy
The Trial of the Century That Wasn't
The case against Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, would have been a legal showdown of the ages
A Paean to PBS’ “Mercy Street”: The One Show That Got the Civil War Right
The short-lived show offered the best screen portrayal of the war the country has ever seen
These Photos Offer a Glimpse Into the Racial Politics of the 1950s South
Before he became a sports photographer, John G. Zimmerman captured a past that feels all too present
Would the Legendary Babe Ruth Still Be a Star if He Played Today?
Award-winning sportswriter Jane Leavy says the Bambino would be as big a personality as he was in his own time
Learn the Secret History of Your State With These Addictive Podcasts
Use this indispensable guide to find out which podcast will be next on your listen list
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere and Some Other Guys
The midnight ride wasn’t so much a solo operation as it was a relay
A Look Back at the 1925 Woman’s World Fair
After the success of the Chicago World's Fair, women made their own event
Sneak Peek: The Lost Tapes: LA Riots
On April 29, 1992, Los Angeles erupted into chaos after four white LAPD officers were acquitted for beating African-American motorist Rodney King
“Are Women Animals?” Asked One 19th-Century Letter Writer
If women couldn't have the rights of full human beings, "An Earnest Englishwoman" asked, could they at least have as many legal protections as animals?
The Story of Hollywood's Most Famous Lion
Actually, there have been five of them
The Curious History of the White House Easter Egg Roll
Thousands of families enter the lottery each year to take part in this White House tradition
This 1000-Mile Long Storm Showed the Horror of Life in the Dust Bowl
In the American history of extreme weather events, ‘Black Sunday’ sticks out
What We Know About the CIA's Midcentury Mind-Control Project
Project MKUltra began on this day in 1953 and continued for years
The Tournament Scrabble Dictionary Contains More Than A Hundred Slurs
One woman first raised the issue of the Scrabble dictionary containing offensive words in the 1990s
The First Manned Space Flight Was the Rocket Designer’s Victory as Much as Yuri Gagarin’s
Sergei Korolev designed the entire Soviet rocket program. But nobody knew his name until after he died
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 Laid Bare the Divide Between the North and the South
The 1927 disaster exposed a country divided by stereotypes and united by modernity
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