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Games and Competition

Dice from the now-closed Southern Club, established in 1893.

Before Vegas Became Vegas, Hot Springs Was America’s Sin City. Now the Arkansas Spa Town Embraces Its Colorful and Seedy History

A life-size statue of Al Capone greets downtown visitors, and you can stay in his hotel suite. The town where gangsters once vacationed with movie stars and athletes is still open for a getaway

On August 31, Dale Sanders reclaimed the title of oldest person to complete the Appalachian Trail. He'd previously broken the record in 2017, at age 82.

This 91-Year-Old Man Fell 71 Times While Hiking the Appalachian Trail. He Just Became the Oldest Person to Complete the 2,190-Mile Trek

Dale Sanders finished the hike in just under a year. Nicknamed “Grey Beard,” he’s no stranger to age-defying feats of endurance

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Bishop Odo rallying William's army during the Battle of Hastings in 1066

How Should the Bayeux Tapestry End? A New Competition Invites Children to Reimagine Its Missing Final Panel

Some historians think the 230-foot-long artwork is missing its final panel, which may have once depicted William the Conqueror’s coronation. As the tapestry goes on view in London, students will be drafting endings of their own

With Eco Purge, Arya Satheesh won the European category of the 2026 Earth Prize, the largest environmental competition in the world for young students. She was awarded $12,500 to continue to develop her prototype.

This High Schooler Invented a Plant-Based Plastic That Removes Microplastics From the Environment as It Biodegrades

Eighteen-year-old Arya Satheesh created her award-winning Eco Purge to help address the global problem of plastic pollution

Archaeologists created a curved support structure that mimics the ceiling’s original shape.

Cool Finds

See a Rare Ceiling Fresco From Pompeii That Archaeologists Are Carefully Reassembling, Piece by Piece, Like an Ancient Puzzle

Located in the banquet hall of a home with an adjoining bakery, the fresco shows the mythological romance of Dionysus, the god of revelry and wine, and Ariadne, the Cretan princess

Josh Kerr celebrates after setting the new 1-mile world record, shattering the previous mark, which had stood for 27 years.

For the First Time in 27 Years, a Man Set a New World Record for Fastest Mile. People Have Chased the Goal for Centuries

British runners in particular have long tried to cross the finish line in less than 4 minutes, records show, sometimes running in the nude or trying to win a bet

Greek statue of a lion, c. 400-390 B.C.E.

Can You Guess the Origins of Papyrus Fragments or Painted Ceramics? A College Student Turned the Met’s Open-Access Database Into an Online Game

If you consider yourself an art history buff, test your smarts with Anthropeum. The game pulls ten images from the Met’s open-access archive and challenges players to identify each artifact’s time and place of origin

The 3D-printed board based on scans of the original game board discovered at Vindolanda

3D Printing Gives New Life to an Ancient Game Board Discovered at a Roman Fort Near Hadrian’s Wall in England

Soldiers and civilians alike enjoyed the strategy game Ludus Latrunculorum in the Roman Empire, especially in Roman Britain

Two people wearing hot dog hats line up to watch the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4, 2025.

From a Sea Turtle Release to an Outhouse Race, These Ten Fourth of July Traditions Celebrate America Like No Other

Revelers typically mark Independence Day with a barbecue and fireworks show, but these festivities across the country offer quirky alternatives

Researchers have virtually unwrapped a nearly five-foot-long segment of PHerc. 1667.

Scientists Have Deciphered the Surviving Fragments of a 2,000-Year-Old Philosophical Treatise Frozen in Time by Mount Vesuvius’ Eruption

The papyrus manuscript was part of a vast library preserved by volcanic ash. Now, the remaining passages—which examine ethics, knowledge and human nature—are accessible for the first time since 79 C.E.

Neon lights illuminate an oddly empty Santa Monica Pier at night.

You’ll Be More Than Amused by These 15 Photos of Theme Parks. Their Electrifying Attractions Will Have Your Heart Racing Before You Even Set Foot on a Ride

These images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest remind us that amusement parks have entertained generations of thrill-seekers

Jerry Lawson’s gaming system featured interchangeable cartridges, so users could swap out titles like “Space War” and “Math Quiz.”

America at 250: The Revolutionary Spark

This Unsung Black Developer Unlocked the Code to Turning a Video Game Console Into a Virtual Living Room Arcade

Jerry Lawson’s Channel F system was the first to put games on interchangeable cartridges, paving the way for Atari, Nintendo, Xbox and PlayStation

Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards, Bonifacio Bembo

See Visions of the Past and Future in This New York City Exhibition on the Renaissance Roots of Tarot Cards

The Morgan Library & Museum traces the history of beautifully illustrated tarot cards from their origins as a card game to modern occult fascination

The sycamore tree before it was felled in 2023

How Do You Honor a Fallen Tree? In England, a Sound Sculpture Will Broadcast the ‘Voice’ of a Beloved Sycamore Felled Near Hadrian’s Wall

“The People’s Tree” will also incorporate the tree’s wood and archive recordings from the public in a series of community artworks

The game has taken a variety of twists and turns.

How the Classic American Game of Twister Went From Risqué to Record-Breaking

Sixty years ago, Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played Twister on “The Tonight Show,” and the public took it as permission to buy the controversial game

The 1851 $50 gold slug was one of the first coins minted in San Francisco.

This Rare-Coin Scavenger Hunt in San Francisco Offers Participants the Chance to Relive the California Gold Rush

A local coin dealer will hide historic currency worth a total of $50,000 in its third annual citywide challenge on April 25

A 1936 photo of the Timleck family, one of four winners of the Great Stork Derby

An Eccentric Tycoon Left a Fortune to the Winner of a Baby-Making Contest. The Great Stork Derby Divided Canadians During the Great Depression

In his will, Charles Vance Millar offered roughly 500,000 Canadian dollars to the mother who “has since my death given birth in Toronto to the greatest number of children”

Early examples of Native American dice discovered in the United States

Are These the Earliest Known Dice in the World? Native Americans May Have Used Them to Play Games of Chance More Than 12,000 Years Ago

A new study suggests that humans were playing with probability during the Ice Age—and that dice were invented 6,000 years earlier than previously thought

The Roman stone pictured with pieces that were not found with the artifact.

New Research

This Ancient Roman Game Board Was a Mystery. Researchers Used A.I. to Figure Out How to Play

The limestone oval is carved with a dark, thin rectangle on which ancient people repeatedly moved game pieces

A Van Gogh Pikachu Pokémon card, on January 14, 2026, in Los Angeles, California

Nintendo Released Its First ‘Pokémon’ Games 30 Years Ago. Here’s How the Beloved Catchable ‘Pocket Monsters’ Became the World’s Biggest Media Franchise

The phenomenon—with its video games, trading cards, shows, movies and merchandise—has generated billions in revenue

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