HISTORY Vault

Though the long-running war between Iran and Iraq had ended in a United Nations-brokered ceasefire in August 1988, by mid-1990 the two states had yet to begin negotiating a permanent peace treaty. When their foreign ministers met in Geneva that July, prospects for peace seemed ...read more

Illegal drugs have been around for centuries, serving both medical, spiritual and recreational purposes. Today, some drugs are legal while others carry a hefty felony charge with their usage—how did we get here? The turbulent 1960s saw an increase in the use and acceptance of ...read more

Despite having virtually no experience at sea, George Washington believed a navy would be one of the keys to disrupting British supply lines. “It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, ...read more

Women’s History Month can trace its origins to a small-town school event in Sonoma, California, in 1978. That year, presentations were given at dozens of schools, hundreds of students participated in a “Real Woman” essay contest and a parade was held in downtown Santa Rosa. A few ...read more

During World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union fought together as allies against the Axis powers, but the relationship was tense. Americans had long been wary of Soviet communism and Joseph Stalin’s thirst for power and territorial gains. The Soviets resented ...read more

Vatasyayana, an ascetic (and most likely celibate) scholar who lived in classical India around the 5th century A.D. was an unlikely candidate to have written history’s best-known book on erotic love. Little is known about Vatsyayana’s life, but in the “Kama Sutra”—actually a ...read more

Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The effort to create the commemoration began in 1915, half a century ...read more

The federal prison on Alcatraz Island in the chilly waters of California’s San Francisco Bay housed some of America’s most difficult and dangerous felons during its years of operation, from 1934 to 1963. Among those who served time at the maximum-security facility were the ...read more

As legend has it, Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Mars, the god of war. Left to drown in a basket on the Tiber by a king and rescued by a she-wolf, the twins lived to defeat that king and found their own city on the river’s banks in 753 B.C. After killing his ...read more

How did mankind overcome the possibility of extinction, growing from just a few thousand people to the billions in our world today? How did a primate super species combine the capacity to communicate with the ability to create technology in order to speed up the process of ...read more

During World War II, a group of elite U.S. Army Rangers trained at an intensive commando school in Scotland, run by British fighters who wore distinctive green berets. Upon graduation from the program, the soldiers were rewarded with the same berets. Though the U.S. Army did not ...read more

From the catapult to the stealth fighter, the most basic and the most complex weapons have changed the course of history—and with it, our world. Whether it’s the Chinese fire tube or the U.S. Air Force’s laser-guided smart bombs, weapons have enabled humans to be the ultimate ...read more

Christmas in The 60s was a turbulent time, marked by the tragic loss of President John F. Kennedy and absent loved ones fighting in Vietnam. Glimmers of hope emerged, however, as Charlie Brown reminded us of the true meaning of Christmas and a live Christmas Eve broadcast from ...read more

The Maya Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making and mathematics and left behind an astonishing ...read more

Beginning around 800 A.D., seafaring warriors–known collectively as Vikings or Norsemen (“Northmen”)–left their Scandinavian homelands to seek their fortunes elsewhere. While the exact reasons for Vikings venturing out from their homeland are uncertain; some have suggested it was ...read more

The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world. In ancient Rome, centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, the week leading up to the winter solstice kicked off a month-long celebration called Saturnalia—a holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of ...read more

COMING SOON – Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary In order to successfully complete their surprise attack, the Japanese needed to execute a series of interrelated and complex events. At any point, this world-altering mission could have been abandoned by the commander radioing the code ...read more

In response to the new trench warfare used during World War I, the British introduced the tank, an armored vehicle with conveyor-belt-like tracks over its wheels that could break through enemy lines and traverse difficult territory. The first tank prototype, “Little Willie,” was ...read more