Since 1972, the Iowa Caucus has been the first—and some argue most important—electoral test on the road to each party’s presidential nomination. But how did it get that way?  It all started with the 1968 Democratic Convention. The lead up to the convention had been tumultuous. ...read more

The White Helmets comprise an unarmed, neutral organization of more than 3,000 volunteer rescue workers operating in opposition-held areas of Syria. When airstrikes rain down on civilian targets in the war-torn nation, the men and women of the White Helmets carry out ...read more

History and lore of the American frontier have long been dominated by an iconic figure: the grizzled, gunslinging man, going it alone, leaving behind his home and family to brave the rugged, undiscovered wilderness. But as scholars of the American West continue to explore the ...read more

Netflix’s hit TV series The Crown, which goes deep inside the private world of Queen Elizabeth II and Britain’s royal family, chronicles their lives within the sweep of global events during and after World War II—from the Suez Crisis to John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Below, our ...read more

How often do we get a nitty-gritty view into the daily life of a medieval knight—one based on fact and not misty mythology? The Templars, founded in 1119 as a band of poor, pious knights, have been romantically reimagined in art, literature, film and folklore for centuries. The ...read more

It looks like a duck, it walks like a duck, and it swims like a duck—but it’s a predatory dinosaur unlike any scientists have seen before. A study published this week in the journal Nature has introduced the world to the Halszkaraptor escuilliei, the first amphibious dinosaur ...read more

In the world of Zodiac Killer experts, Dave Peterson was the real deal. As a police reporter for the Vallejo Times-Herald in California when the Zodiac began to terrorize the Bay Area with his murders, letters and ciphers in the late 1960s, Peterson covered the ...read more

The second-largest private collection of Dead Sea Scroll fragments, an early copy of the Psalms and interactive exhibits are among the features of the 430,000-square-foot Museum of the Bible that opened its doors to the public in Washington, D.C. on November 17, ...read more

History can be crazy and complex. But sometimes, old-fashioned common sense can prevail. Here are some experts’ picks for history’s best common-sense moments: KIDS School’s in Session: Compulsory Education Laws Debut Kids, we’re sorry if you disagree, but this one makes all kinds ...read more

Today, it’s hard to imagine a Halloween not filled with doorbells, costumes, and treats. In 2016 Americans spent $8.4 billion on the holiday. But while trick-or-treating is many children’s favorite pastime, it hasn’t been a pastime for all that long. The tradition didn’t make its ...read more

Every year, the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) puts together a shortlist to predict the winners of the annual Nobel Peace Prize. This year, Iran nuclear dealmakers Federica Mogherini and Mohammad Javad Zarif are at the top of the list. Also among the top five, for two years ...read more

It’s hard to keep up with the treatment recommendations coming out of the medical community. One day something is good for you, and the next day it’s deadly and should be avoided. Addictive drugs like heroin were given to kids to cure coughs, electric shock therapy has been a ...read more

Few medical doctors have been as lauded—and loathed—as James Marion Sims.  Credited as the “father of modern gynecology,” Sims developed pioneering tools and surgical techniques related to women’s reproductive health. In 1876, he was named president of the American Medical ...read more

An enclosed water slide with a complete loop where customers ended up with bloody noses. A wheeled ride with no brakes that shot down a concrete-and-fiberglass track. A freshwater pool with giant waves that required lifeguards to rescue over two dozen people a day. New Jersey’s ...read more

Danish archeologists have uncovered a technologically advanced fortress from the late 10th century—the first one discovered in more than six decades. Located south of Copenhagen on the island of Zealand and known as Borgring, this perfect circle fortress was discovered by using ...read more

Did you know lemons were a sign of privilege and wealth in ancient Rome? Even though citrus fruits are quite common in the Mediterranean and United States today, they actually originated in Southeast Asia. A new study led by Dr. Dafna Langgut, an Archaeobotanist at the Institute ...read more

America’s “scariest motel” can be yours for $900,000. Located on a stretch of highway in Tonopah, Nevada, halfway between Las Vegas and Reno, and next to the town’s first cemetery, rests this potentially haunted, clown-filled motel. Yes, you heard that right—a ...read more

The Controversy Yesterday, the Bank of England unveiled a new 10-pound banknote featuring Jane Austen, on the 200th anniversary of her death. While fans and equality advocates alike were thrilled at the nod to the beloved author (especially after the Bank sparked outrage when it ...read more

Not only did the Tyrannosaurus rex have tiny arms in relation to its giant body, but according to a new study, it apparently couldn’t move faster than 12 miles per hour. The consequences of moving faster than this speed were great; its legs would have broken under its own ...read more

More than 150 years ago, a dead Union officer’s sword was claimed by Confederate troops after a bloody battle near Charleston, South Carolina. Owned by the commanding officer of the North’s first all-black regiment, the historic English sword marked with the engraved initials of ...read more

1. First woman to make a transatlantic flight In 1928 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger with pilots Wilmer Stultz and Luis Gordon. With this feat she gained international attention, providing an opportunity for her to become a ...read more

They flew under the cover of darkness in bare-bones plywood biplanes. They braved bullets and frostbite in the air, while battling skepticism and sexual harassment on the ground. They were feared and hated so much by the Nazis that any German airman who downed one was ...read more

It’s rare that you go to an event these days where a person doesn’t take out their smartphone. In the 10 years since the iPhone was first released, smartphone images posted to social media have sparked protests and provided crucial evidence to the authorities, as well as allowed ...read more

Their marriages were long in coming—and tragically shortened by illness. But for two same-sex couples, their unions became crucial legal litmus tests that would change the course of LGBTQ rights in America.  It was the union of Edith (“Edie”) Windsor and Thea Spyer, together for ...read more

It was an unlikely partnership. But between New York’s LGBT community in the 1960s being forced to live on the outskirts of society and the Mafia’s disregard for the law, the two made a profitable, if uneasy, match. As the gay community blossomed in New York City in the 1960s, ...read more

Barbara Poma originally opened Pulse in 2004 to honor her brother, John, whom she lost to HIV/AIDS in 1991. She wanted to create a space that would embody the loving and accepting spirit her brother had found in underground gay nightclubs. At 2:02 a.m. on June 12, 2016 the lives ...read more

The effect a Tony Award has on a Broadway production is similar to what an Oscar can do for a Hollywood film. It’s the industry’s highest honor, and can make or break a play when it is given—or not. Although it may seem like a mainstay now, the Antoinette Perry Award for ...read more

Everything changed at 1:20 a.m. on June 28, 1969, when the New York city police barged into the Stonewall Inn. The Stonewall was operating without a liquor license at 51-53 Christopher Street in Manhattan. The N.Y. State Liquor Authority did not give out licenses to ...read more

MTV made waves when Emma Watson was awarded a non-gender specific “Best Actor” award for her performance in “Beauty and the Beast.” But while this may be a first for the MTV Movie & TV Awards, it’s not a first for the entertainment industry. For the top honors in film and ...read more

Mount Vesuvius, a volcano near the Bay of Naples in Italy, is hundreds of thousands of years old and has erupted more than 50 times. Its most famous eruption took place in 79 A.D., when the volcano buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii under a thick carpet of volcanic ash. Two ...read more

Today, the sorcerer’s stone is seen as fiction off the pages of Harry Potter. But in the Middle Ages, the quest for the sorcerer’s stone—or philosopher’s stone—was second only to the Holy Grail. The stone was made from a compound of secret ingredients, said to have the power to ...read more

In 2015, Allen started the Declaration Resources Project when she realized how much was still unknown about one of the most important documents in the history of the United States. Sneff joined the project as a researcher, and was busy assembling a database of every known edition ...read more

Casey Anthony, a young, attractive single mother, stood accused of the murder of her adorable 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. Hailed as “the trial of the decade,” the proceedings generated a media feeding frenzy, as each new disclosure provoked a blizzard of coverage leading up to ...read more

Many “420” revelers don’t know the origins of the word, but have vague recollections of once-heard tales about its origins. Some believe it’s the number of active chemicals in marijuana, others that it’s based on teatime in Holland. Some reference the birthday of Adolf Hitler ...read more

Lead by Mostafa Waziri, the team discovered the tomb on the west bank of the Nile River in Luxor. The tomb was likely built during the 18th Dynasty (1550–1298 B.C.), but the team thinks it was opened during the 21st Dynasty (about 3,500 years ago) to add additional mummies (and ...read more

According to some hypotheses, Titanic was doomed from the start by the design so many lauded as state-of-the-art. The Olympic-class ship featured a double bottom and 15 watertight bulkheads equipped with electric watertight doors which could be operated individually or ...read more

On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany and the Central Powers. The United States would cast its lot with the Allies four days later. What caused President Wilson to abandon his policy of neutrality? Germany’s policy of unchecked submarine ...read more

Criado-Perez’s campaign kicked off last year with an open letter to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. She called on Khan to erect a statue of a woman in Parliament Square by February 2018, to honor the 100th anniversary of legislation granting limited suffrage to British women. ...read more

Teaming up with police divers and officials from Italy’s civil protection agency, the mayor of Nemi, Alberto Bertucci, has initiated searches of the lake. Using sonar to sweep the waters and high-tech scanners that use ground-penetrating sound waves to detect objects buried up to ...read more

The pyramid was discovered by an Egyptian archaeological mission working approximately 25 miles south of Cairo, near the location of King Sneferu’s Bent Pyramid. Adel Okasha, the head of the Dahshur necropolis site, confirmed that the team uncovered an interior corridor leading ...read more

Titled, “Shakespeare: Comedies and Tragedies,” the matchbook-sized notebook is written in a 17th century hand in Latin—believed to be the notes of a student. Was this student writing during the time of Shakespeare? To date, no other scholarship, notes, or edits on Shakespeare ...read more

The collection includes 26 letters from Susan B. Anthony and 10 from Elizabeth Cady Stanton written to advocate, abolitionist and lecturer, Isabella Beecher Hooker (the half-sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe). What makes these artifacts so unique is that they are political, not ...read more

Born on August 21, 1929, to a South African immigrant family of Indian-Muslim background, Ahmed Kathranda moved from the Western Transvaal region to Johannesburg to be educated because he was not allowed to attend any of the European or African schools. It was in Johannesburg, ...read more

Originally discovered in 2012, the Viking burial site in Hørning, Denmark consists of two graves and a tomb that is believed to contain two or three burial chambers. Excavations have started on the first of the chambers, and so far, the archaeologists have been astounded by what ...read more

Assault from the air didn’t begin with the era of the airplane. In Airborne Assault, we are taking a look at ancient weapons the came from the sky. The kite bomb was a medieval siege weapon that dropped bombs over cities from an airborne kite. Ever heard of ancient bouncing ...read more

Four months after Adolph Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin, a 28-year-old Hearst newspaper war correspondent visited the Fuhrer’s Bavarian Berghof residence and Eagle’s Nest mountain retreat—both which had been decimated by bombs. John F. Kennedy, fresh out of the ...read more

Dr. James Barry was actually born Margaret Ann Bulky around 1789 in County Cork, Ireland, at a time when women were barred from most formal education, and were certainly not allowed to practice medicine. She was the second child of Jeremiah (a grocer) and Mary-Ann Bulky. While ...read more

1. Sergeant Stubby—The Most Decorated Dog of World War I On a fateful day in 1917, a stray pit bull mix wandered onto the Yale University campus while members of the 102nd Infantry Regiment were training. This lost pup fit right in, participating in drills and even learning to ...read more