Historians

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Watch How the Cultural Hubs of Civilization Have Shifted Over Centuries

A study follows the births and deaths of notable people

George Fabian Lawrence, better known as “Stoney Jack,” parlayed his friendships with London navvies into a stunning series of archaeological discoveries between 1895 and 1939.

The Commoner Who Salvaged a King’s Ransom

A furtive antiquarian nicknamed Stoney Jack was responsible for almost every major archaeological find made in London between 1895 and 1939

Portrait of a young revolutionary: Friedrich Engels at age 21, in 1842, the year he moved to Manchester–and the year before he met Mary Burns.

How Friedrich Engels’ Radical Lover Helped Him Father Socialism

Mary Burns exposed the capitalist's son to the plight of the working people of Manchester

An Arab city of the early medieval period. Urban centers in the Middle East were of a size and wealth all but unknown in the Christian west during this period, encouraging the development of a large and diverse fraternity of criminals.

Islam’s Medieval Underworld

In the medieval period, the Middle East was home to many of the world's wealthiest cities—and to a large proportion of its most desperate criminals

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The Octogenarian Who Took on the Shoguns

A tribesman who led a doomed revolt against Japan in 1669 still inspires new generations of Ainu nationalists

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The Trial That Gave Vodou A Bad Name

An 1864 case that ended with the execution of eight Haitians for child murder and cannibalism has helped define attitudes toward the nation and the religion ever since

A contemporary painting depicting—rather sensationally—the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. The events surrounding their deaths have attracted abundant rumor and legend, none stranger than the suggestion that the car that they were murdered in was cursed.

Curses! Archduke Franz Ferdinand and His Astounding Death Car

Was the man whose assassination began World War I riding in a car destined to bring death to a series of owners?

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When New York City Tamed the Feared Gunslinger Bat Masterson

The lawman had a reputation to protect—but that reputation shifted after he moved East

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The Secret Plot to Rescue Napoleon by Submarine

In 1820, one of Britain's most notorious criminals hatched a plan to rescue the emperor from exile on the Atlantic isle of St Helena -- but did he try it?

Justice Robert Jackson, Lyudmila Pavlichenko and Eleanor Roosevelt in 1942.

Eleanor Roosevelt and the Soviet Sniper

Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper credited with 309 kills—and an advocate for women's rights. On a U.S. tour in 1942, she found a friend in the first lady

A photo sometimes said to depict members of Chiloé’s murderous society of warlocks—founded, so they claimed, in 1786 and destroyed by the great trial of 1880-81.

Into the Cave of Chile’s Witches

Did members of a powerful society of warlocks actually murder their enemies and kidnap children?

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The Candor and Lies of Nazi Officer Albert Speer

The minister of armaments was happy to tell his captors about the war machine he had built. But it was a different story when he was asked about the Holocaust

A yard on an Antiguan sugar plantation in 1823. A windmill powers the rollers used to crush the cane before it was boiled to release its sugar.

Antigua’s Disputed Slave Conspiracy of 1736

Does the evidence against these 44 slaves really stack up?

A still from Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg.

Mr. Lincoln Goes to Hollywood

Steven Spielberg, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Tony Kushner talk about what it takes to wrestle an epic presidency into a feature film

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The Demonization of Empress Wu

"She killed her sister, butchered her elder brothers, murdered the ruler, poisoned her mother," the chronicles say. But is the empress unfairly maligned?

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The Woman Who Took on the Tycoon

John D. Rockefeller Sr. epitomized Gilded Age capitalism. Ida Tarbell was one of the few willing to hold him accountable

A Bolivian donkey of the 1850s. From Herndon and Gibbon, Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon (1854).

Run Out of Town on an Ass

According to legend, Queen Victoria, informed of an early president's angry insult to her ambassador, struck Bolivia off the map. But is it true?

Edward S. Curtis' Canon de Chelly—Navajo (1904).

Edward Curtis’ Epic Project to Photograph Native Americans

His 20-volume masterwork was hailed as "the most ambitious enterprise in publishing since the production of the King James Bible"

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The Mysterious Mr. Zedzed: The Wickedest Man in the World

Sir Basil Zaharoff was the archetypal "merchant of death"—an arms salesman who made a career out of selling to both sides in a conflict

Attila entertains–as imagined by a 19th- century artist.

Nice Things to Say About Attila the Hun

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