Smart News History & Archaeology

Cool Finds

Five Things to Know About the Diamond Sutra, the World’s Oldest Dated Printed Book

Printed over 1,100 years ago, a Chinese copy of the Diamond Sutra at the British Library is one of the most intriguing documents in the world

A portrait photograph of Victoria Woodhull.

Cool Finds

Victoria Woodhull Ran for President Before Women Had the Right to Vote

Her 1872 campaign platform focused on women’s rights and sexual freedom

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The Bison Is Now the Official Mammal of the United States

The big beasts are the first official mammals recognized by the federal government

Ifo Camp, a recent extension to Dadaab, a 24-year-old refugee camp with over 300,000 inhabitants near the Kenya/Somalia border

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Kenya Moves to Shut Down the World's Largest Refugee Camp

Over the weekend, Kenya announced plans to shut the Dadaab and Kakuma camps, which house hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees

Sisters Emilia Ponzoni, Regina Colombo, Concetta Finardi and Luigia Panceri mapped the positions and brightness of 481,215 stars.

Cool Finds

These Little-Known Nuns Helped Map the Stars

A century later, the identities of women who mapped over 481,000 stars are finally known

Mary Kies' patented technique wove silk and straw together to make fetching bonnets like this 1815 specimen.

Cool Finds

Meet Mary Kies, America’s First Woman to Become a Patent Holder

Brains plus bonnets equal a historic first

The diarist's hiding place will soon come to life in Anne, a virtual reality film.

Cool Finds

Virtual Reality Film Will Simulate Anne Frank’s Hiding Place

'Anne' will give audiences a sense of what it was like to be in the "Secret Annex"

Lee Harvey Oswald, center, handing out fliers. According to a conspiracy theory floated by the National Enquirer, the unidentified man on the left wearing a black tie is the father of Senator Ted Cruz.

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A Brief History of Lee Harvey Oswald's Connection to Cuba

For over 50 years, conspiracy theorists have linked JFK’s assassin to Fidel Castro’s Cuba

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Marines Are Investigating the Identity of a Flag Raiser in the Iconic Iwo Jima Photo

Amateur historians have called into question the identity of a soldier in Joe Rosenthal's 1945 Pulitzer prize-winning image

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Mountaineers Have Discovered the Bodies of Alex Lowe and David Bridges

The climbers died in an avalanche on Shishapangma in 1999

This 98-foot-long figure appears to represent an animal sticking out its tongue.

Cool Finds

“New” 2,000-Year-Old Geoglyph Spotted in Peru

There’s always more to learn about the mysterious Nazca lines

OceanOne is designed to work alongside human divers.

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A "Merbot" Retrieved Artifacts From Louis XIV’s Sunken Flagship

The humanoid diving robot could help researchers explore fragile wrecks from the surface of the sea

Cool Finds

Spanish Ditch Diggers Unearth 1,300 Pounds of Roman Coins

Workers near Seville, Spain, found a hoard of 19 amphora filled with mint-condition coins from the third and fourth centuries

This building at Highlands was just the guest house.

Cool Finds

James Monroe’s House Was Way Bigger Than Historians Thought

It turns out that Highland was more "castle" than "cabin"

Switzerland

The Swiss Have Made Cheese Since the Iron Age

This discovery pushes Swiss cheesemaking traditions back millennia

Five tribes fought for 20 years to have Kennewick Man recognized as Native American.

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Over 9,000 Years Later, Kennewick Man Will Be Given a Native American Burial

Five Native American nations will join together to bury his remains

The ruins of the ancient city of Palmyra after it was recaptured by the Syrian army in March.

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Unesco: Don’t Worry, Palmyra Is Still Authentic

The ancient city may have been destroyed, but it is still a treasured cultural site

Builders work on the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement arch in April 2016. Once complete, the massive arch will be slid over the reactor's current concrete sarcophagus.

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Thirty Years Later, a Gigantic Arch Is Set to Cover Chernobyl

The New Safe Confinement is one of history’s most ambitious engineering projects—and it comes not a moment too soon

The page of The Consolation of Philosophy once stolen from The Cambridge Songs

Cool Finds

'Lost' Medieval Music Performed for the First Time in 1,000 Years

Researchers and musicians at Cambridge reconstruct songs from 'The Consolation of Philosophy'

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Cool Finds

Oldest Message in a Bottle Ever Found

The 108-year-old message in a bottle from a British marine researcher washed up on a German beach

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