History

The wife and daughters of Mark Twain

For Mark Twain, It Was Love At First Sight

The aspiring author knew Olivia Langdon was the one when he first laid eyes on a photograph of her

The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, Utah), Sunday, Apr 28, 1935

How the “Heart Balm Racket” Convinced America That Women Were Up to No Good

Being engaged carried some legal consequences until the news media got a hold of a sensational story

This 1977 Plane Crash Occurred Right on the Runway

On March 27, 1977, at Los Rodeos airport in Tenerife, Pan Am Flight 1736 was sitting on the taxiway waiting to take off

Both Kehinde Wiley and Obama said they were struck by parallels in their life stories. “Both of us had American mothers who raised us, with extraordinary love and support,” Obama said.

Artists Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald Capture the Unflinching Gaze of the President and First Lady

The nation's first African-American presidency is marked by two prominent African-American portraitists

Bulgogi is a classic Korean dish of thinly sliced, marinated beef.

A Brief History of Bulgogi, Korea's Most Delicious Export (Recipe)

And how you can get some of the tender, marinated beef stateside

Figure skater Adam Rippon will be one of two openly gay Americans competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics, a first for the U.S.

Winter Olympics

A Brief History of Openly Gay Olympians

Americans Adam Rippon and Gus Kenworthy are the latest LGBTQ athletes to go for the gold

The Olympic Flame was lit from the sun's rays using a parabolic mirror, during the final dress rehearsal for the lighting ceremony at Ancient Olympia, in southwestern Greece, on Monday, Oct. 23, 2017.

Ask Smithsonian 2017

Your Burning Questions About the Olympic Torch, Answered

Curious minds will want to know that the blaze is lit not with matches or a lighter, but using a method that dates to Ancient Greece

How Americans Found a Clever Loophole in the Prohibition Act

Just because the country had voted to outlaw alcohol, didn't mean that people would comply. The legal case wasn't much helped by a quirky loophole

This copy of David Walker’s “Appeal”, held in the collections of Emory University's Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, was owned and signed by W.E.B. Du Bois.

The Book That Spooked the South

David Walker’s “Appeal” laid bare the ethical bankruptcy of slavery moreso than any other book of its time

How Edith Roosevelt Completely Transformed the White House

Edith Roosevelt was a reluctant First Lady. Despite this, she had the presence and determination to bring about a major innovation to the White House

Frederick Douglass, ca. 1875

Frederick Douglass’ 200th Birthday Invites Remembrance and Reflection

This Douglass Day, celebrate an icon’s bicentennial while helping to transcribe the nation’s black history

Cleveland Sellers, center, stands with officers after his arrest in Orangeburg, S.C., where three were killed and 28 others wounded on Feb. 8, 1968.

In 1968, Three Students Were Killed by Police. Today, Few Remember the Orangeburg Massacre

The shootings occurred two years before the deaths of students at Kent State University, but remain a little-known incident in the Civil Rights Movement

Rare Home Movies of the Secret Manhattan Project Grounds

When physicist Hugh Bradner was brought to work on the Manhattan Project in 1943, the level of secrecy was unparalleled

Figure skating at the Olympic winter games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 1936

Winter Olympics

A Brief History of Women’s Figure Skating

You might be surprised to learn that this sport where women now shine was initially seen as solely the purview of male athletes

These Men Risked Their Lives to Build 1920s New York Skyscrapers

The skyscrapers of Manhattan needed a new, bolder type of construction worker

Dodge City in 1878

Gun Control Is as Old as the Old West

Contrary to the popular imagination, bearing arms on the frontier was a heavily regulated business

This Man Filmed Life Inside an Internment Camp

Dave Tatsuno was one of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans rounded up in the U.S. in 1942 and placed in an internment camp

A replica of Foucault's famous experiment at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e Tecnica in Milan, Italy

Ask Smithsonian

How Does Foucault's Pendulum Prove the Earth Rotates?

This elegant scientific demonstration has been delighting everyday people for nearly 200 years

Reports of weird, wondrous, and worrying objects in the skies date to ancient times.

How UFO Reports Change With the Technology of the Times

Fears of Zeppelins, rockets and drones have replaced the "celestial wonders" of ancient times

Eighmey's colonial-style corn cakes (top), forcemeat balls (lower right) and pickled French beans (lower left).

The Ben Franklin-Inspired Super Bowl Recipes You Never Knew You Needed

We don't know who Ben Franklin would root for, but we do know what he'd eat on Super Bowl Sunday

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