Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

European History

Henri IV depicted as Hercules vanquishing a hydra. All in a day's work.

The Second Life of Henri IV’s Severed Head

Whether it’s lying in the grave or sitting in a Paris bank vault, the monarch’s cranium has been the subject of much debate since his untimely demise

Sidney Bechet, one of the early jazz greats, made his name on the clarinet, not the cornet or trumpet.

Listen to This First 1920s Recording By One of the Kings of Jazz

Sidney Bechet was one of the first big jazz soloists, and brought the soprano saxophone into the jazz fold

Ukraine's Jamala (right) at the press conference after she won Eurovision 2016 with "1944."

The Eurovision Song Contest Rocks Europe This Week. Here’s How It All Got Started

It was the idea of the European Broadcasting Union, who wanted to put the relatively new technology of television through its paces

After Brexit, A Tiny German Town Will Become the Center of the EU

Residents of the area thought the announcement was an April Fool’s joke

The Mausoleum of Augustus

Trending Today

Rome Is Finally Restoring the Mausoleum of Augustus

Once the tomb of emperors, a project funded by a telecom company hopes to revive the massive monument now covered in trash and weeds

Handprint from Maltravieso Cave in Caceres, Spain.

Cool Finds

Project Is Making 3D Scans of Ancient Handprints

The Handpas Project is looking to unlock who made the prehistoric art and why

This copy of the first chart of the Gulf Stream was printed in 1786, ten years after Benjamin Franklin first drew it up.

Benjamin Franklin Was the First to Chart the Gulf Stream

Franklin’s cousin, Timothy Folger, knew how the then-unnamed current worked from his days as a whaler

Illustration of the cat piano from 1657.

Music or Animal Abuse? A Brief History of the Cat Piano

In the early 1800s, the katzenklavier was hailed as a treatment for distracted people

Garment workers and union members from the Puritan Underwear Company taking part in the 1916 May Day parade in New York. While these parades were common early in the century, they began to disappear over time.

The US Declared “Loyalty Day” in the 1950s to Erase Worker Protest

Under Eisenhower during the Cold War, “Loyalty Day” was declared to paper over International Workers’ Day

When Londoners worried about losing their jobs in 1517, they turned against foreigners.

On Evil May Day, Londoners Rioted Over Foreigners Stealing Their Jobs

It’s been 500 years since London’s artisans turned a festival into a rampage

An artist's rendering of a meteor passing over the British Isles in 1783. Unlike the L'Aigle meteor a few decades later, the meteorites from this event were not witnessed falling to the ground, and thus meteorites remained a scientific mystery for another 20 years.

Scientists Didn’t Believe in Meteorites Until 1803

The l’Aigle meteorite fall involved more than 3,000 pieces of rock and numerous witnesses, and it changed everything

Comedy in Ancient Rome could be a matter of life and death.

When Actors Mixed Politics and Comedy in Ancient Rome

Laughter was one way to challenge authority, but it could also mean risking your life

The Tennis Court Oath in June 1789 marked the unification of the French Estates-General, who came to call themselves the National Assembly. In the oath, they vowed not to separate until they established a constitution.

History of Now

Why Is France in Its Fifth Republic?

An explainer on the many evolutions of the country’s government

John Adams's official presidential portrait, painted circa 1792 by John Turnbull.

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

Men liberated from concentration camp, 1945

Trending Today

Sealed Files of the United Nations War Crimes Commission Will Finally See Light of Day

The massive archive has already revealed that war crimes charges against Hitler were drawn up as early as 1944

Aromatic New Museum Celebrates the Art and History of Perfume

From the ancient Egyptians to Elizabeth Taylor, the Grand Musée du Parfum tells the story of fragrance

Computer-assisted reconstruction of the cavities

New Research

13,000-Year-Old Fillings Were “Drilled” With Stone and Packed With Tar

You can’t handle the tooth

The Eighteenth-Century Founder of Homeopathy Said His Treatments Were Better Than Bloodletting

Samuel Hahnemann was trying to fix the unscientific field of medicine

Baby in Pip & Grow's Smitten box

The Finnish Baby Box Is Becoming Popular Around the World

But does a cardboard bassinet actually reduce infant mortality?

A vintage ad for Coca Cola from around the late 19th or early 20th century.

Coca-Cola’s Creator Said the Drink Would Make You Smarter

Like the wine and cocaine drink that preceded it, Coca-Cola was first marketed as a brain tonic

Page 66 of 79