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Individuals and objects associated with Irish contributions to the American Revolution (clockwise from top left): Surgeon and statesman James McHenry, Quaker spy Lydia Barrington Darragh, Commodore John Barry, a letter written by Irish-born printer John Dunlap, Continental Army officer Stephen Moylan, Pennsylvania politician James Smith, Delaware politician Thomas McKean, and Charles Thomson's proposal for the Great Seal

America's 250th Anniversary

How Tens of Thousands of Irish Immigrants Led the Patriots to Victory During the American Revolution

Soldiers of Irish heritage accounted for up to 50 percent of the Continental Army’s ranks. Driven from their homeland by British oppression, Irish-born rebels also served as spies, politicians and more

An early 20th-century depiction of the Battle of Little Bighorn

A Century and a Half After Custer’s Last Stand, the Battle of Little Bighorn Continues to Mystify

The June 1876 firefight resulted in the deaths of George Armstrong Custer and 267 of his men. Historians continue to debate exactly how the Lakota Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne secured their victory over the U.S. Army

A painting of the Hannah, a Continental schooner that captured a British vessel in September 1775

America's 250th Anniversary

How Angry, Out-of-Work Fishermen Saved the Patriots During the American Revolution

The British punished rebellious New Englanders by depriving them of their livelihood. This led unemployed mariners to enlist in the patriot cause

Archaeologists discovered musket balls thought to have been fired during the Battle of Bunker Hill.

America's 250th Anniversary

In June 1775, the American Patriots Faced Off With the British at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Archaeologists Are Uncovering Evidence of the Fighting 251 Years Later

Researchers discovered gun parts, musket balls and other artifacts in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood

Archaeologists discovered the artifacts on Liberty Hill, a strategic hilltop near Fort Ticonderoga.

America's 250th Anniversary

Archaeologists Unearth Hundreds of Artifacts at Fort Ticonderoga, the Site of America’s First Offensive Victory of the Revolutionary War

The objects were discovered on Liberty Hill, the place where many Continental Army soldiers heard the text of the Declaration of Independence for the first time

Brendan Fraser (left) as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Andrew Scott (right) as James Stagg in Pressure, a new WWII drama about the weather forecast for D-Day

Based on a True Story

One Weather Forecast Changed the Course of WWII. Here’s the Real Story Behind ‘Pressure,’ a Drama About the Meteorologist Who Convinced the Allies to Delay D-Day

A new movie starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser dramatizes the tense 72 hours before the Allied invasion of Normandy, revealing how meteorology helped determine Operation Overlord’s success

During World War I, the Tampa protected convoys from submarine attacks.

Divers Discover the Shipwreck of a World War I-Era Coast Guard Cutter, Which Vanished With 131 Sailors on Board in 1918

The wreckage of the “Tampa,” which was torpedoed by a German submarine, was found 50 miles off the coast of Cornwall, England. The disaster was the largest single American naval combat loss of life during the war

Pearl Fryar in his topiary garden

Born to a Family of Sharecroppers, This Topiary Artist Overcame Discrimination to Become the ‘Picasso of Plants’

Self-taught artist Pearl Fryar, who died this month at age 86, got his start when he tried to win an award from his local garden club. He ended up becoming a celebrity in the horticultural world

Now part of Dry Tortugas National Park, Fort Jefferson was built starting in 1846.

This Soldier Died of Yellow Fever During a Hurricane 153 Years Ago. Archaeologists Just Found His Grave

George Tupper, a 22-year-old from Massachusetts, was nearly a year into his military service when a yellow fever outbreak struck Fort Jefferson

The artist who custom-painted the helmet for Colonel Nicole Malachowski wrote a note of congrats to Malachowski: “I’ve been polishing and designing these helmets for many Thunderbird teams. My young daughter never expressed any interest ... [but] I told her this was for the first woman pilot, and she wanted to help me polish it.”

This Helmet Kept an Air Force Pilot Safe as She Was Soaring Through the Glass Ceiling

When a young Nicole Malachowski was dreaming about becoming a fighter pilot, she couldn’t have imagined the heights she’d fly as part of the elite Thunderbirds

She was known as Vicky With Three Kisses— a German radio star whose singing and sweet talk comforted weary Nazi soldiers. She was actually a secret weapon in a little-known Allied propaganda effort.

One of the Allies’ Secret Weapons Against the Nazis Was a 21-Year-Old Woman Armed With a Microphone and a Script of Lies

As “Vicky With Three Kisses,” she strategically sweet-talked and sang to German troops over the airwaves of Europe. But Agnes Bernauer didn’t mean anything she was saying

President Lyndon B. Johnson awards the Medal of Honor to Dwight Hal Johnson on November 19, 1968.

Untold Stories of American History

History Remembered This Black Medal of Honor Recipient for the Two Worst Days of His Life. A New Book Dives Into the Vietnam Vet’s Story

Dwight Hal Johnson received the nation’s highest military honor in 1968. Three years later, he was killed during an attempted robbery at age 23

MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum developed Eliza in the mid-1960s. His views on artificial intelligence were often at odds with many of his fellow pioneers in the field.

Why the Computer Scientist Behind the World’s First Chatbot Dedicated His Life to Publicizing the Threat Posed by A.I.

Joseph Weizenbaum realized that programs like his Eliza chatbot could “induce powerful delusional thinking in quite normal people”

The U.S. military will no longer shoot live goats and pigs to help combat medics learn to treat battlefield injuries.

U.S. Military Ends Practice of Shooting Live Animals to Train Medics to Treat Battlefield Wounds

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act bans the use of live animals in live-fire training exercises and prohibits “painful” research on domestic cats and dogs

Walter Reed Parpart Jr. (right), the radioman on one of the missing planes, poses in front of a Fort Lauderdale sign in 1945.

How the Disappearance of Flight 19, a Navy Squadron Lost in 1945, Fueled the Legend of the Bermuda Triangle

Eighty years ago, five planes vanished during a training run off the Florida coast. A patrol plane sent to search for the men went missing, too, giving rise to a host of conspiracy theories

A John Trumbull painting of the death of General Hugh Mercer at the Battle of Princeton in 1777

America's 250th Anniversary

Ken Burns Says His New Documentary Forced Him to Revisit Everything He Thought He Knew About the American Revolution

Ahead of the PBS production’s premiere, the legendary filmmaker and co-director Sarah Botstein share insights on their research process and the surprising, long-overlooked stories featured in the six-part series

Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring in Nuremberg, a new film written and directed by James Vanderbilt

Based on a True Story

The True Story Behind ‘Nuremberg,’ a WWII Drama About Hermann Göring’s Cat-and-Mouse Game With an American Psychiatrist

Starring Russell Crowe as the high-ranking Nazi and Rami Malek as Army officer Douglas M. Kelley, the film dramatizes the intense dynamic between its central characters during the Nuremberg trials

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America's 250th Anniversary

The Underappreciated True Story of the Brash Prussian Military Officer Who Whipped the Patriots Into Shape at Valley Forge

Most Americans think of George Washington’s winter encampment as brutal and deadly. But Friedrich von Steuben, an out-of-work military veteran from Europe, turned it into a fruitful training ground

Donald McPherson flew during the United States' Okinawa campaign in Japan.

Last Known Surviving American Ace Pilot From World War II Dies at 103

Donald McPherson shot down five planes in the Pacific theater in the final years of the war, earning him the title of “ace”

The horses that transport caskets at Arlington National Cemetery will remain in service.

The U.S. Army Is Getting Rid of Most of Its Ceremonial Horse Units

Senior military leaders at five forts will have one year to transfer, adopt out or donate the horses under their command

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