Smart News History & Archaeology

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Tourists Will Soon Be Able to Sleep Over at Versailles

Let them eat cake (at a five-star hotel)

New Research

Scientists Just Identified a Pinkie That’s Almost 2 Million Years Old

And it could be a major evolutionary breakthrough

U.S. Army Spc. Amanda Vasquez, with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, salutes the flag in 2009.

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The First Two Female Army Rangers Are About to Graduate

After completing a grueling course, two women have proved they have what it takes to join the Army's best

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Elizabeth II Isn’t England’s Longest-Ruling Monarch Just Yet

But she's about to set a royal record

New Research

The Color White Has a Dark Past

From race to wealth to cleanliness, the color's connotations have a long history

The motor convoy departed D.C. on July 7, 1919.

Cool Finds

How a Hellish Road Trip Revolutionized American Highways

Quicksand, food rationing, and embarrassment may have prompted Ike to push for a better highway system

Loren P. Woods, curator of fish at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in 1968. But could he handle a horse?

Cool Finds

Would You Pass This 1910 Museum Curator Test?

Don't know how to steer a canoe? Instant fail

A painting of a bird from the 1633 Manual of Calligraphy and Painting.

Cool Finds

The World's Oldest Multicolor Printed Book Was Too Fragile to Read...Until Now

The 1633 book has now been digitized

The bust of Nefertiti at the Altes Museum in Berlin

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Could a Door in King Tut's Tomb Lead to Nefertiti?

There could be more in Tutanhkamun's burial chamber than meets the eye

The famous terracotta army guards the tomb of Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang. Dozens of other graves and ruins around China are not so well secured.

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What's Behind China's Professional Tomb Raiding Trend?

Move over, Lara Croft: raiding tombs is an increasingly viable career in China

Does this look like a stoner to you?

New Research

Did Shakespeare Smoke Pot?

Tobacco pipes in the Bard’s backyard may retain traces of cannabis, but some historians remain skeptical

A hyalotype photo printed and mounted as a glass lantern slide, by William and Frederick Langenheim.

Cool Finds

This is the First Known Photo of the Smithsonian Castle

On the Smithsonian's 175th birthday, a glimpse into the iconic Castle's construction

Cool Finds

Bats and Balloon Bombs: The Weird Weapons That Could Have Won WWII

World War II's lesser-known weapons were ingenious, indeed

Johannes Vermeer's "The Concert" was one of the most valuable paintings stolen from the Gardener Museum

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Could This Video Solve One of History's Greatest Art Mysteries?

Footage shows an unknown man entering the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum the night before the infamous robbery

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These Academics Are Outracing (and Outwitting) ISIS

Historians, archaeologists and librarians scramble to save precious cultural capital before it can be sold or destroyed by militants

A family tunes in to the 1976 debate

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Americans Have Always Loved to Hate Presidential Debates

Audiences are ambivalent — but they still tune in

The crew of the Bockscar

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The Nagasaki Bombing Almost Didn’t Happen

What really happened on the mission to drop the second atomic bomb

Tsuyuko Nakao, 92 and Kinuyo Ikegami, 77 both survived the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, pictured here in 2010.

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The Health Effects of the Atom Bomb Are Still Being Studied

Studies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors influence worldwide radiation standards, even 70 years later

Cool Finds

Blueberries: A Biography

The world's commercial blueberries all have their roots in New Jersey

The Sydney Opera House at night

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He Designed the Sydney Opera House...But Wasn't Even Invited to its Opening

Somehow, an inexperienced architect and a mismanaged project still produced one of the world's most iconic buildings

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