Crystal Ponti

These sites reflection of the nation’s ideals, ambitions and contradictions that have shaped the American story.

The man behind the first drive-in, opened in June 1933, was inspired by his tall mother who felt cramped in movie theater seats.

When outlaw Elmer McCurdy died in a shootout in 1911, his mummified remains started on a long, dark, curious journey.

While standing near a magnetron in an aerospace research facility, an engineer noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket melted—and he got an idea.

Rather than expressing love and affection, these cards were designed to offend.

When the New Madrid earthquakes rattled the Midwest in 1811 and 1812, William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, convinced the government to step in.

The monarch’s chaotic love life led to an unstable succession, foreign policy changes and a break with Rome.

For more than a century, people visiting Gettysburg have claimed to hear phantom footsteps, ghostly drumbeats and echoes of musket fire.

Explore surprising facts about America’s first permanent English settlement.

From contaminated raw milk to tainted meat, outbreaks have spread rapidly through the country's food supply chain, with deadly consequences.

Santa kidnapping children and murderous mice were par for the course in the Victorian-era Christmas card tradition.

These seven artifacts show us that even ancient civilizations couldn’t escape taxes.

As families lost one loved one after another in the 19th century, some believed the undead were preying upon them.

Among tools people used in the past were moss, sponge on a stick, ceramic pieces and bamboo 'spatulas.'

The arrival of the first captives to the Jamestown Colony, in 1619, is often seen as the beginning of slavery in America—but enslaved Africans arrived in North America as early as the 1500s.