Newspapers
When 170 Wild Monkeys Escaped From a 'Jungle Camp' and Terrorized New York
In 1935, dozens of rhesus macaques absconded from Frank Buck's Long Island menagerie. Nearly a century later, 43 members of the same species broke out of a South Carolina research facility
Six Cars Raced to the Finish Line of the U.S.'s First Automobile Race—at Speeds of Seven Miles Per Hour
Held on this day in 1895, the 54-mile round trip took more than ten hours and involved accidents with streetcars, horses and snowbanks
Archaeologists Piece Together the Origin Story of Florida's Manatees, Revealing They Were Once Tourists
A new study suggests manatees weren’t permanent residents in the Sunshine State until around the 20th century, drawn in by a warming climate and construction of power plants
How an Interracial Marriage Sparked One of the Most Scandalous Trials of the Roaring Twenties
Under pressure from his wealthy family, real estate heir Leonard "Kip" Rhinelander claimed that his new wife, Alice Beatrice Jones, had tricked him into believing she was white
How British College Students Convinced Authorities That Flying Saucers Were Invading the U.K.
To raise awareness for a charity event, aspiring engineers planted six UFOs across southern England on a single day in 1967
Americans Fell in Love With Science When the Breathtaking Leonid Meteor Shower Lit Up the Skies Across the Nation
In 1833, hundreds of thousands of shooting stars inspired songs, prophecies and a crowdsourced research paper on the origins of meteors
When White Supremacists Staged the Only Successful Coup in U.S. History
The 1898 Wilmington massacre left dozens of Black North Carolinians dead. Conspirators also forced the city's multiracial government to resign at gunpoint
Amateur Historian Discovers Lost Story by 'Dracula' Author Bram Stoker Hiding in Plain Sight at a Dublin Library
History forgot about "Gibbet Hill" for more than a century—until a fan of the Gothic horror writer stumbled upon the haunting tale at the National Library of Ireland
When Republicans Became 'Red' and Democrats Became 'Blue'
The 2000 presidential election cemented the color-coded nature of political parties. Prior to that race, the colors were often reversed on electoral maps
Why a Minnesota Man Walked Around the World, Traversing 13 Countries and 14,450 Miles in Four Years
Fifty years ago, on October 5, 1974, David Kunst completed the first verified circumnavigation of the globe on foot. Along the way, he met Princess Grace of Monaco, raised money for UNICEF and lost a brother to bandits
Why the Debut Issue of America's First Newspaper Was Also the Publication's Last
On this day in 1690, "Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick" attracted colonial officials' ire by repeating a scandalous rumor and condemning a British alliance with the Mohawk
This Defeated Presidential Candidate, Once the 'Best-Known Man in America,' Died in a Sanatorium Less Than a Month After Losing the Election
Newspaper editor Horace Greeley unsuccessfully ran against incumbent Ulysses S. Grant in November 1872. Twenty-four days later, he died of unknown causes at a private mental health facility
After the Titanic Sank, Families and Friends of People on the Ship Anxiously Waited to See Who Survived and Who Perished
A newspaper detailing the accounts of loved ones, published on April 20, 1912, was recently discovered in a wardrobe and sold at auction
How the Great Depression Fueled a Grassroots Movement to Create a New State Called Absaroka
In the 1930s, disillusioned farmers and ranchers fought to carve a 49th state out of northern Wyoming, southeastern Montana and western South Dakota
This Little-Known Civil Rights Activist Refused to Give Up His Bus Seat Four Years Before Rosa Parks Did
William "W.R." Saxon filed a lawsuit against the company that forced him to move to the back of the bus, seeking damages for the discrimination and mental anguish he’d faced
The Real Story Behind the Baltimore Deaths That Inspired 'Lady in the Lake'
A new mini-series offers a fictionalized take on two unrelated 1969 cases: the mysterious disappearance of bartender Shirley Lee Parker and the murder of 11-year-old Esther Lebowitz
How One Man Discovered the Obscure Origins of the Word 'OK'
From Civil War biscuits to a Haitian port town, theories about the word's beginnings abounded
How the Rise of the Camera Launched a Fight to Protect Gilded Age Americans' Privacy
Early photographers sold their snapshots to advertisers, who reused the individuals' likenesses without their permission
You Could Own Rare Copies of the Nation's Founding Documents, Just in Time for the Fourth of July
Sotheby's is auctioning early printings of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as well as a 1790 Rhode Island broadside
Ancestry Releases Records of 183,000 Enslaved Individuals in America
The genealogy company has digitized and published 38,000 newspaper articles from between 1788 and 1867—before Black Americans were counted as citizens in the U.S. census
Page 1 of 6