Smart News

Lethal injection as a means to execute condemned prisoners was first used thirty-four years ago.

Thirty-four Years Ago, the First Person Died by Lethal Injection. It Was Controversial Then, Too

It was seen as more humane and relatively painless, but that's not certain

Protesting Ford’s Theatre Jim Crow admission policy, ca. 1951.

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Historic Photos of Baltimore Show the Real-Life "Hairspray"

<i>Hairspray Live!</i> fans, learn the history behind the beloved story

The Beckery monastery as it would have looked in the fifith century

Cool Finds

Oldest Community of Monks in U.K. Discovered

The find was thanks to a community training dig

Don't look for official memorials to the dead dictator—there won't be any.

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Why There Won’t Be Any Monuments to Fidel Castro in Cuba

El Comandante had one last dictate

An early cotton-candy machine.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

People at the 1904 World's Fair Paid Half the Price of Admission for a Box of Cotton Candy

Celebrating cotton candy's sugary, innovative goodness

Bathochordaeus charon

Cool Finds

Scientists Finally Spot Giant, Slimy Sea Blob First Found Over a Century Ago

Discovered in 1899, the creature recently popped up in Monterey Bay

A visualization of Eyal Gever's #Laugh art project

Future of Space Exploration

This Artist Wants to Send a Sculpture of Your Laughs Into Space

#Laugh is on orbit to become the first art piece created in space

The monument at sunset.

The Washington Monument Looks Like an Obelisk Because of Egyptomania

In the 1800s, America was desperate to look like it had been around for a while, so it was adopting old styles. Really old

Ever Wonder Why Encylopedia Is Sometimes Spelled Encyclopædia?

Scribes added the ash to the Roman alphabet so they could phonetically spell sounds that Latin didn't include

Today, America's founding documents reside in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in the National Archives.

Cool Finds

What Happened to America’s Most Precious Documents After Pearl Harbor?

Librarians and archivists made sure the nation’s records didn’t become casualties of World War II

The gate stolen from Dachau concentration camp

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Gate Stolen From Dachau Concentration Camp Recovered in Norway

The metal gate bearing the slogan <i>Arbeit Macht Frei</i>was recently found outside the city of Bergen

Love Locks on the Pont de l'Archevêché bridge in 2012.

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Paris Is Selling Old Love Locks to Raise Money For Refugees

Putting clipped locks to good use

Queen Nefertari's knees

New Research

Researchers Identify Queen Nefertari's Mummified Knees

Found in 1904, new research confirms the mummified fragments in a Turin museum likely belong to ancient Egypt's beautiful and revered queen

New Research

You May Not Have Rhythm, But Your Eyeballs Sure Do

Tracking eye movement gives researchers a peek into how the brain reacts to music

New Research

Archeologists Discover Nearly 2,000-Year-Old Pet Cemetery in Egypt

Containing 100 lovingly positioned creatures, the site suggests that the ancients could have valued their companion animals as much as we do

The mansion at Bletchley Park.

Cool Finds

Alan Turing’s World War II Headquarters Will Once Again House Codebreakers

Bletchley Park is being revived as a cybersecurity training center

Protestors at the Oceti Sakowin Camp

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Dakota Access Pipeline Protests Are Over, For Now

The Army Corps of Engineers announced it will not issue an easement to complete the pipeline, but the incoming administration could change course

Grab your coats—this was the scene on Mauna Kea this morning.

Trending Today

Hawaii Faces Down Nearly Three Feet of Snow

And more of the white stuff is on its way to the Big Island’s tallest peaks

Feeling down? Many would reach for comfort food like pasta casserole—but you may as well go for a salad, research says.

Comfort Foods Aren't Magic, But Memory Might Be

On National Comfort Food Day (yeah it's a thing), dig into the powers of food and how it makes us feel

Abraham Ortelius created the world's first modern atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, or "Theater of the World," in 1570. Shakespeare, who famously wrote that "all the world's a stage," was doubtless influenced by the maps that flourished during his lifetime.

Cool Finds

How Maps Shaped Shakespeare

An exhibition in Boston delves into historical maps to show how the Bard saw the wider world

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