Smart News History & Archaeology

A MONIAC at Roosevelt College, pictured with economics professor Abba P. Lerner

Cool Finds

This Computer From 1949 Runs on Water

Computers at the time didn’t have displays; one economics student created a visualization using water-filled tanks and tubes

A Civil War historical re-enactment at Tunnel Hill, Georgia

Cool Finds

A Nurse Describes the Smell of the Civil War

The overpowering stink of blood and decaying flesh can surprise even trained soldiers

Who is this random guy? It's John Tyler, the tenth president of the United States.

New Research

Soon Enough No One Will Remember Bill Clinton

People mostly remember first and recent US presidents, forgetting almost all the ones that came between

This relatives and friends of this 30-something-year-old woman suspected she might come back from the grave as a vampire, as indicated by the sickle placed directly across her neck, and meant to keep her in the ground.

New Research

The 17th-Century Polish Vampire Next Door

In 17th century Poland, people pegged as vampires weren't weirdo foreigners but locals who freaked their neighbors out

Artifacts from the Antikythera Shipwreck, the famous mechanism in the center, as exhibited in Athens, Greece

New Research

Mysterious Antikythera Mechanism Is Even Older Than We Thought

This ancient astronomical calculator is now dated to 205 B.C. and is 1,000 years more advanced than anything else found from that time

Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad sets up the American flag on the Moon during Apollo 12 on November 19, 1969.

Cool Finds

How NASA Censored Dirty-Mouthed Astronauts

NASA really didn't want astronauts swearing on air

A Coptic depiction of Christ and of Abbot Mena dating to around the same time as the recently translated book of rituals.

New Research

An Ancient Egyptian Spellbook Has Been Translated

It's like the researchers have never seen a horror movie

New Research

How One Crop Allowed Humans to Conquer the Himalaya

Hardy barley enabled us to survive at altitudes that were previously beyond reach

Cool Finds

India Once Released 25,000 Flesh-Eating Turtles Into the Ganges

A plan to clean up corpses failed due to lack of planning

Previously excavated art from the ancient city of Karkemish

Cool Finds

This Archaeology Site Is Guarded by 500 Turkish Soldiers

The excavation of a 5,000 year old city on the Turkey-Syrian border continues despite nearby presence of the Islamic State extremists

Cool Finds

Europeans Thought Coffee Was Satanic

Until the Pope tried it out and became a fan

Cool Finds

19th Century Concern Trolling: Chess Is “a Mere Amusement of a Very Inferior Character”

The writers of Scientific American had some not nice things to say about chess

Cool Finds

A Soldier’s Room Has Remained Virtually Untouched Since WWI

The home's current owner, however, says he feels little connection to the dead soldier

George Washington's only complete set of dentures, made out of lead, human teeth, cow teeth and elephant ivory.  

Cool Finds

George Washington Didn’t Have Wooden Teeth—They Were Ivory

Washington's teeth were made of a lot of things, but not wood

Newspaper headlines in New York, where people react to the news that Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid in Pakistan.

Trending Today

The Navy SEAL Who Says He Shot Bin Laden Goes Public

Robert O'Neill says he is the SEAL who killed bin Laden

Participants in costume process with an effigy of Guy Fawkes, to be burned, as they take part in one of a series of processions during Bonfire night celebrations in Lewes, southern England.

Trending Today

Guy Fawkes May Be the Root of the Word “Guys”

The word's meaning has changed a lot throughout the centuries

A Big Circle named J1 in Jordan stretches 1,280 feet in diameter and the center has been bulldozed

Cool Finds

These Giant Circles in the Mideast Are One of the World's Last Mysteries

Archaeologists have found more than a dozen ancient circles in Turkey, Syria and Jordan—but don’t know why they were built

Cool Finds

Great Britain Still Has Significant Debt From World War I

The U.K. is committing itself to paying off a small fraction of that debt next year by issuing new debt

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Cool Finds

Someone Just Bought an Entire Connecticut Ghost Town for $1.2 Million

Johnsonville was once a 62-acre mill village

Did this piece of debris come from Amelia Earhart's plane? Some think so; others disagree.

Trending Today

Aircraft Hunters Think They’ve Found a Scrap of Amelia Earhart’s Plane

This isn't the first time a seemingly game-changing piece of evidence about Earhart's disappearance has arisen, however

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