American History

A holiday postcard from 1908.

Your Thanksgiving Turkey Is a Quintessentially American Bird: An Immigrant

The turkeys common on U.S. tables descended from a Mexican species and were originally bred for Maya rituals

How NASA's Flight Plan Described the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

A second-by-second guide to the historic mission

Get Reintroduced to Rosa Parks as a New Archive Reveals the Woman Behind the Boycott

The Rosa Parks collection adds depth to the story of the civil rights heroine

In 1856, a Nantucket sailor sketched the killing of his crew’s “100-barrel” prize.

How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World

Ron Howard's new film "In the Heart of the Sea" captures the greed and blood lust of the Massachusetts island

John Steinbeck

Steinbeck’s Boat the "Western Flyer" Will Voyage Again for Science

The $1 million boat will see the water once again as an updated research vessel

Revolution-Era Building Buried Beneath Future Hotel Uncovered by Construction Crew

Intact foundations, including wooden beams, floorboards and what might even be a repurposed ship’s mast, were found just 8 feet underground

The Classic Coca-Cola Bottle Turns 100 Today

To this day, the shapely glass bottle defines the classic drink

A group of escaped former slaves gathered at the plantation of Confederate General Thomas Drayton. After Federal troops occupied the plantation they began to harvest and gin cotton for their own profit

A Free Man's Letter to A Former Slaveowner in 1865

When asked to return to the farm where he was held in bondage, Jourdon Anderson wrote this thoughtful reply

Meet Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Genius Behind "Hamilton," Broadway's Newest Hit

Composer, lyricist and performer, Miranda wows audiences and upends U.S. history with his dazzlingly fresh hip-hop musical

When the Empire State Building Was Just an Architect's Sketch

How one of the world's most famous skyscrapers was built

A photo of the Hydrus before the ship sank in November, 1913

Divers Discover 102-Year-Old Shipwreck in Lake Huron

The Hydrus and her crew were lost during the Great Storm of 1913

The Telegram That Broke News of the Civil War

After Confederate forces seized Fort Sumter, a U.S. Army officer dashed off this message to Washington

Why Marquis de Lafayette Is Still America's Best Friend

A conversation with Sarah Vowell about her new book, the American Revolution and what we can learn from the Founding Fathers

How 'Bewitched' Helped Salem Embrace Its Grim Past

A popular 1960s sitcom helped the New England town turn witches into big business

Boss Tweed and the Tammany Ring, caricatured by Thomas Nast, c. 1870

To Stop an Endless Cycle of Corruption, History Says Fix the System, Not the Politician

A turn-of-the-century muckraker named Lincoln Steffens understood the true problem with a "throw the bums out" strategy

Why Do Astronauts on the International Space Station Float and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

A bowl done in a style first seen around A.D. 1100 has “acid blooms” on its interior—imperfections suggesting that someone used modern soaps to clean the bowl up, possibly to fetch a higher price on the black market.

An Exclusive Look at the Greatest Haul of Native American Artifacts, Ever

In a warehouse in Utah, federal agents are storing tens of thousands of looted objects recovered in a massive sting

A coffle of slaves being marched from Virginia west into Tennessee, c. 1850.

Retracing Slavery's Trail of Tears

America's forgotten migration – the journeys of a million African-Americans from the tobacco South to the cotton South

Thirty Years Later, We Still Don't Truly Know Who Betrayed These Spies

Was there a fourth mole in the U.S. intelligence system that blew these secret agents' covers?

The pivotal accuser at the trials, Tituba, would go down in history as a purveyor of satanic magic. An 1880s engraving depicts her in the act of terrifying children.

Unraveling the Many Mysteries of Tituba, the Star Witness of the Salem Witch Trials

No one really knows the true motives of the character central to one of America's greatest secrets

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