Found: A Forgotten Stretch of the Berlin Wall

It formed an outer defensive barrier that stopped East Germans from getting close to the main wall

In the spring of 2018, Angeline Nanni revisited Arlington Hall, where the Venona team got cracking. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Secrets of American History

The Women Code Breakers Who Unmasked Soviet Spies

At the height of the Cold War, America’s most secretive counterespionage effort set out to crack unbreakable ciphers

Cover of a propaganda comic book, 1947. During the Cold War, book publishing and popular culture became an ideological battleground.

This Cold War-Era Publishing House Wanted To Share American Values With the World

Funded by the U.S. government, Franklin Publications was viewed as pushing imperialist propaganda

Fifty Years Ago, Airline Diplomacy Sought to Bring the U.S. and U.S.S.R. Closer Together

Hopes for a Cold War détente were sky high when the first American and Soviet flights took off 50 years ago

Artist’s impression of satellites and debris in low-Earth orbit. Currently 70 percent of all cataloged objects are in low-Earth orbit, which extends to 2000 km above the Earth’s surface.

Greening the Future of Outer Space

A team of scientists and policy experts want to develop space sustainably for future generations

American girl Samantha Smith (center) visited the U.S.S.R. on the invitation of General Secretary Yuri Andropov in July 1983. Here, she's visiting the Artek pioneer camp.

The Surprising Story of the American Girl Who Broke Through the Iron Curtain

Samantha Smith was only 10 when she wrote to Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov about the Cold War. In response, he invited her for a visit

After the 1943 publication of Ayn Rand's book "The Fountainhead," she amassed a cult-like following that spread her message far and wide.

The Literary Salon That Made Ayn Rand Famous

Seventy-five years after the publishing of ‘The Fountainhead’, a look back at the public intellectuals who disseminated her Objectivist philosophy

When the director of DARPA heard about the blasts and their purpose, he had an immediate reaction: “Holy shit. This is dangerous.”

How Soviet Bomb Tests Paved the Way For U.S. Climate Science

The untold story of a failed Russian geoengineering scheme, panic in the Pentagon, and a Nixon-era effort to study global cooling

View of two farmers checking the corpses of dead sheep on a farm ranch near the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.

How the Death of 6,000 Sheep Spurred the American Debate on Chemical Weapons

The Dugway sheep incident of March 1968 made visible the military’s covert attempts to test and stockpile millions of dollars worth of chemical weapons

U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev exchange pens during the signing ceremony for the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in the White House East Room on December 8, 1987.

Why “The Americans” Is Taking a Big Leap Forward to 1987

The beginning of the end of the Soviet Union provides great drama for the show’s final season

Amateur Historian Reveals Forgotten Stretch of the Berlin Wall

The dilapidated structure appears to be an early iteration of the infamous Cold War partition

Women grieving over the coffins of those killed in the Kielce pogrom as they are transported to the burial site in the Jewish cemetery.

Kielce: The Post-Holocaust Pogrom That Poland Is Still Fighting Over

After World War II, Jewish refugees found they could never return to their native land—a sentiment that some echo today

During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F Kennedy discusses results of surveillance missions in Cuba

History of Now

How the Presidency Took Control of America’s Nuclear Arsenal

From Truman onwards, the ability to order a nuclear strike has shaped the office

Evel Knievel's trademark red, white and blue leathers, with accompanying cape and boots, joined the Smithsonian's American history collection in the early 1990s.

This Woeful Wipeout Made Evel Knievel an Instant Legend

In 1967, a bone-shattering spill at Caesars Palace spawned a career in self-endangerment

'It's a Wonderful Life' protagonist George Bailey with his family, Mary Hatch Bailey and Little Mary Hatch, at the end of the film.

The Weird Story of the FBI and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’

The film supposedly had Communistic tendencies

'The Nutcracker' is performed across North America each Christmas season.

How 1950s America Shaped ‘The Nutcracker’

It took the marketing insight of a Russian choreographer to make it all happen

More than 50 percent of Sweden is covered in forest, making bunkers easy to disguise in plain sight.

New Video Highlights Hidden Cold War Bunker in Sweden

Viral footage shows off the site that appears to have been inhabited by Swedish intelligence workers

For the first time, human beings harnessed the power of atomic fission.

The Science Behind the First Nuclear Chain Reaction, Which Ushered in the Atomic Age 75 Years Ago

That fateful discovery helped give us nuclear power reactors and the atomic bomb

What would the days, weeks, years after a nuclear explosion really look like? In 1983, Carl Sagan gave the public their first imagining.

When Carl Sagan Warned the World About Nuclear Winter

Before the official report came out, the popular scientist took to the presses to paint a dire picture of what nuclear war might look like

Robin Hood in a modern production of a play.

Students Allied Themselves With Robin Hood During This Anti-McCarthyism Movement

The students of the Green Feather Movement caused an on-campus controversy at Indiana University

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