Sarah Pruitt

The Independence Day tradition dates nearly as far back as the country's beginning and was proposed by one of the Founding Fathers.

The Remembrance Day symbolism of the poppy started with a poem written by a World War I brigade surgeon who was struck by the sight of the red flowers growing on a ravaged battlefield.

Beginning in the late 19th century, around a dozen carved skulls made of clear or milky white quartz—also known as rock crystal—made their way into private and public collections around the globe.

Mamie Tape's bid to desegregate San Francisco schools went to the California Supreme Court seven decades before Brown v. Board.

Now an elite police squad tasked with the state’s most serious criminal investigations, the Texas Rangers have undergone many changes in their colorful history—and some particularly memorable characters have emerged over the years.

Today we may know them simply as Texans, but deciding what to call the people living in Texas in the pre-Texas Revolution era was a matter of some confusion. According to an issue of the Telegraph and Texas Register published on November 7, 1835, various people used the terms Texans, Texonians, Texasians and Texicans, but: […]

From 1778 to 1871, the United States signed some 368 treaties with various Indigenous people across the North American continent.

Albert Einstein's concept of general relativity is now a bedrock of physics, but it took years to confirm.

Florence Owens Thompson was a Cherokee woman who was a young mother and cotton picker when Dorothea Lange captured her image in the Depression-era photo.

Eighty years ago, people across the allied nations rejoiced in the defeat of Hitler and the Nazis with mass parades and celebrations.

When it comes to the U.S. presidency, how did the first 100 days come to loom so large as a political benchmark?

Anna Jarvis, who founded Mother's Day in 1908, passionately opposed its growing commercialization and eventually campaigned against the holiday.

Once one of Jesus’s most trusted disciples, Judas became the poster child for treachery and cowardice.

Their designs were so radical that test flights over the Nevada desert often prompted a rash of 'UFO' sightings.

Bulgur biscuits and a granulated synthetic protein dubbed 'multi-purpose food' promised long shelf life—but not much else.

Scholars have investigated the issue for centuries, but many questions persist.

Not only was it the first 'people's Bible,' but its poetic cadences and vivid imagery have had an enduring influence on Western culture.

What's really known about the Bible's most mysterious woman?

Scientists say wounds found on the heel of a man buried some 2,000 years ago in northern Italy suggest he had been nailed to a wooden cross.

A sixth-century image discovered in Israel depicts Jesus with short, curly hair.

He is one of the most commonly painted figures in Western art. But what do we really know about his appearance?

The 2005 hurricane and subsequent levee failures led to death and destruction—and dealt a lasting blow to leadership and the Gulf region.

Many Allied bombings released the equivalent energy of 300 lightning strikes and temporarily weakened the ionosphere, say researchers.

With a focus on racial pride and self-determination, leaders of the Black Power movement argued that civil rights activism did not go far enough.

An explosive bestseller mined the records of Adolf Hitler’s personal doctor, among other sources, to uncover details of the long-rumored drug use by many in the Nazi regime.

Though Clinton admitted the policy was “not a perfect solution,” he presented it as a “major step forward” from the existing ban.

New evidence supports a theory that the pioneering U.N. secretary general was assassinated.

The catalog was the Amazon.com of its time—packaged in hundreds of pages.

Reagan's words reflected a shift that was underway as Soviet reforms and protests were pressuring the East German government to open barriers to the West.

Many saw this multi-talented president as as a symbol of American promise and potential—but he would only end up serving four months in office.

Amid fierce controversy, public health officials in both cities decided children would be better off in classrooms.

The Supreme Court ruling was met with inertia and, in many states, active resistance.

Clothing made from cat pelts was fashionable with Viking warriors.

“His death may be the most famous case of pseudothanatos, or false diagnosis of death, ever recorded.”

Jude Hall was one of the most revered Black veterans of the American Revolution. That didn't stop the kidnappers from targeting his boys.

In colonial America, some settlers imported Christmas traditions from Europe, while others rejected the holiday due to its pagan roots.

Despite the important role of the Electoral College, the Constitution doesn’t say much about the electors themselves.

Most may not think of Mexico as contributing to the Allied effort, but it contributed key resources, as well as fighting power.

Those accused lacked basic legal protections, including the premise that one was innocent until proven guilty.

Since 1950, individual income taxes have been the primary source of revenue for the U.S. federal government.

The election of 1800 marked the first time the leader of one political party handed the reins of government to his opponent.

The Japanese attack caught the U.S. Navy off guard but ultimately failed to cripple its war effort at sea, thanks to a massive salvage effort that began almost as soon as the smoke cleared.

The 15th Amendment was supposed to guarantee Black men the right to vote, but exercising that right became another challenge.

All but one of the remains tested so far have been African-American males.

The massive dinosaur also lived longer than any other T. rex discovered to date.

Who sent the series of letters in the wake of the 9/11 attacks? Investigators zeroed in on a possible culprit.

After a long, desperate search, it would be Ted Kaczynski's own words that would lead to his capture.

Timothy McVeigh developed his suspicion of government authority at a young age—but two pivotal events pushed him over the edge.

The split between the two main sects within Islam goes back some 1,400 years.

A lot was on the line, and not just for Democrats in Congress.

Women working while pregnant in the United States have faced shifting rules and protections through the decades.

Revisit some of the most historic moments in the reign of Britain’s record-setting monarch.

From stagecoach to pneumatic tube, the post office finds a way to get Americans their mail.

This is where 12-century warriors went to unwind.

Crashed UFOs, alien autopsies and government cover-ups—untangling the legend surrounding Ohio’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Scientists have confirmed that the Black Death and another huge plague epidemic in the sixth century were caused by different strains of the same bacterium.

High speeds, a fatal wrong turn, weather conditions, a dismissed iceberg warning and lack of binoculars and lifeboats all contributed to one of the worst maritime tragedies.

What was supposed to be the third space mission to land on the moon ended in disaster. But NASA learned from its mistakes.

From new money to consumer culture to lavish parties, F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel depicted the heyday of the 1920s—and foreshadowed the doom that would follow.

Atlantis has been an object of fascination for thousands of years. Explore six theories behind Plato's account of the great, but doomed civilization.

The most important members of Inca society continued to be treated as living beings after death—and provided a powerful link to the gods.

The Great Sphinx of Giza, a giant limestone figure with the body of a lion and the head of a man wearing a pharaoh’s headdress, is the national symbol of Egypt—both ancient and modern—and one of the world’s most famous monuments. Despite its iconic status, geologists, archaeologists, Egyptologists and others continue to debate the Sphinx’s […]

The iron blade of an ornate dagger buried with Egypt’s King Tutankhamun in the 14th century B.C. likely came from a fallen meteorite, according to a new study.

On March 29, 1974, Chinese farmers digging a well near Xi’an made one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

Presidential transitions through U.S. political history have ranged from smooth to awkward to adversarial.

For soldiers on both sides, music was a vital source of inspiration and comfort.

Both are non-democratic political systems, but there are key differences between the two.

Countless history books, TV documentaries and feature films made about World War II, many accept a similar narrative of the war in the West, which may not be entirely accurate.

Skeletons buried deep beneath a square in London yield information about how one of history’s deadliest plagues spread through 14th-century Britain.

Mexican and British researchers have uncovered a possible reason for the mysterious collapse of one of the Western Hemisphere's most advanced civilizations.

In 1925, John T. Scopes—the defendant in the famous “Monkey Trial”—was indicted for teaching the theory of evolution in his high school science class.

In a must-win clash, Union forces halted the northern invasion of Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army.

This Celtic queen took no prisoners after Romans annexed her family's kingdom and raped her daughters.

The history of established feminist movements in the United States roughly breaks down into four different time periods.

The treaty that made the first Thanksgiving possible has a dark backstory.

From pagan fertility rituals to hallucinogenic herbs, the story of witches and brooms is a wild ride.

On April 22, 1970, a nationwide “teach-in” inspired millions of Americans to care more about the environment.

The assassination of “las Mariposas” (“the Butterflies”) fueled public outrage against one of the longest and most ruthless regimes in modern history.

Here are the most-wanted holiday toys of the past century.

A close look at an infamous baseball scandal.

Though the terms are often used interchangeably, socialism and communism are different in key ways.

As part of the U.S. Open’s third annual Military Appreciation Day, the tennis world remembers Joe Hunt, who won a dramatic victory in the 1943 men’s championship.

Gospels recount that it was delivered on a platter to Herod Antipas. After that, things got murky.

Though International Women’s Day may be more widely celebrated abroad than in the United States, its roots are planted firmly in American soil.

Archaeologists working on the famed Terra Cotta Army in China believe their lifelike appearance could have been modeled on ancient Greek sculptures.

By analyzing concrete used to build 2,000-year-old Roman structures, a team of scientists discovered why it's so durable.

The centuries following the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. are often referred to as the Dark Ages—but were they really?

It’s been an Olympic event since 1984, but the sport formerly known as synchronized swimming, has ancient origins.

The hippie counterculture reached its height during the escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and subsided as the conflict drew to a close.

Here are the 10 most revealing highlights from the 2,800 JFK assassination files declassified in October 2017.

Do the documents released in 2017 shed new light on the 1963 killing—or launch new conspiracy theories?

A computer analysis of the British monarch's writing supports the long-held belief that he suffered from a mental illness.

The often-rocky relationship between Britain and the European Union stretches back nearly half a century.

The 'Iron Lady' earned her reputation for toughness when coal miners called a nationwide strike in 1984.

The ruthless power struggle in Queen Anne's court between her ladies-in-waiting Sarah Churchill and Abigail Masham had some sexual overtones.

Although his roots were as royal as they come, Philip was considered a controversial choice of husband for Queen Elizabeth II.

Once titled "defender" of the Catholic church, Henry's personal circumstances would drive him to break his Catholic ties and found the Church of England.

Declassified Cold War-era documents reveal how the Central Intelligence Agency used the epic novel <em>Dr. Zhivago</em> as a tool to undermine the Soviet Union.

Bureau director J. Edgar Hoover had made his career fighting the perceived threat of communism.

Long before he rose to become a ruthless dictator, the Nazi leader was a struggling young artist.