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World War II

Winston Churchill painting in Belgium, September 1946

Catch a Surprising Glimpse at WWII Leader Winston Churchill’s Pastime—Painting—at the First Major British Retrospective Since His Death

More than 50 canvases on view in London detail the prime minister’s quieter moments away from wars, speeches and politics

The USS Herring entered service in 1942 and completed eight war patrols.

This American Submarine Lost During WWII—Along With 83 Crew Members—Has Been Discovered in the Pacific Ocean

The honors-earning USS “Herring” sank in 1944 after taking down Japanese ships

The Leonora Carrington exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris

No Mere Muse, This Influential Surrealist Artist and Feminist Gets Her Due in a New Biopic and Art Exhibitions

Leonora Carrington’s life and work are celebrated with the new film “Leonora in the Morning Light.” Meanwhile, an exhibition at the Freud Museum showcases for the first time artwork she created inside a psychiatric hospital

Brendan Fraser (left) as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Andrew Scott (right) as James Stagg in Pressure, a new WWII drama about the weather forecast for D-Day

Based on a True Story

One Weather Forecast Changed the Course of WWII. Here’s the Real Story Behind ‘Pressure,’ a Drama About the Meteorologist Who Convinced the Allies to Delay D-Day

A new movie starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser dramatizes the tense 72 hours before the Allied invasion of Normandy, revealing how meteorology helped determine Operation Overlord’s success

Museumgoers can read the labels on the backs of the paintings, which may provide clues about each work's provenance.

Who Are the Owners of These Nazi-Looted Masterpieces—and Could Displaying Them at One of France’s Most Popular Museums Help Track Them Down?

A new permanent display at the Musée d’Orsay showcases artworks that may have been stolen or sold under suspicious circumstances during World War II. Officials are still hoping to find the families of their rightful owners

The Roman funerary marker in the custody of FBI New Orleans in November 2025

Cool Finds

Why Was This Ancient Roman Soldier’s Gravestone Hidden in a Louisiana Backyard? Archaeologists Solved the Mystery—and Helped Return the Artifact to Italy

The funerary marker, which surfaced on a New Orleans property last year, once belonged to a Roman soldier who died nearly 2,000 years ago. Officials repatriated the stone in a recent ceremony in Rome

More than 5,000 photographs, including these polaroids, from the archives of Mel Brooks will be donated to the National Comedy Center.

No Joke, Ahead of His 100th Birthday, Mel Brooks Donates His Hilarious Archive to the National Comedy Center

Thousands of notes, storyboards, early scripts and photographs belonging to the “2,000-year-old man” and EGOT winner will join material from Lucille Ball, Joan Rivers and George Carlin

Cupid Complaining to Venus, Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526-1527

This Renaissance Painting Took a Winding Path From Hitler’s Munich Apartment to an American Journalist’s Home to the National Gallery in London

An art historian recently spotted the 16th-century artwork in a rare photograph of Hitler’s old apartment that was printed in a 1978 furniture catalog

The Painter in His Bed etc., Georg Baselitz, 2023

After World War II, This German Artist Turned the Art World Upside Down—Literally, by Inverting His Paintings

Georg Baselitz, the renowned painter who played with perspective and flipped canvases on their head, died recently at age 88

William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies

‘Lord of the Flies’ Comes to Television for the First Time in a New Miniseries. In the 1950s, the Now-Famous Novel Almost Never Got Published

Publishers rejected the original manuscript for “Lord of the Flies” many times, yet the story still sparks a buzz today. Author William Golding later won the Nobel Prize in Literature

A photograph taken in 1926 depicting paintings by Peter Paul Rubens that likely burned in a fire in 1945

Fires in Berlin Destroyed Hundreds of Paintings During World War II. Now, a Museum Will Publish Photo Archives of the Lost Artworks Online

A proactive effort to document the collection of the Gemäldegalerie will pay off a century later as negatives of lost paintings by Rubens and Caravaggio are digitized and published online

The Strait of Gibraltar 

Cool Finds

In a Graveyard of Shipwrecks Between Europe and Africa, Archaeologists Discovered Vessels Doomed Over Thousands of Years

The “harbor” of the Strait of Gibraltar is the final resting place for shipwrecks from ancient Rome, the medieval era and World War II, according to a new archaeological survey

Archaeologists uncovered a Cold War bunker underneath an English castle.

Cool Finds

Why Is a Cold War Bunker Buried Underneath This Medieval English Castle? In Case of Nuclear ‘Armageddon’

Archaeologists uncovered a relic of the 20th-century conflict beneath Scarborough Castle, decades after the bunker was sealed and its exact location was forgotten

Fish swim around the Antilla shipwreck.

The ‘Antilla’ Shipwreck Tells the Story of When World War II Came to Aruba

Tourists can learn about this history by snorkeling over the wreck of the German ship in shallow waters just off the island’s coast

The left page contains a photo of Lee Miller with Pablo Picasso, while the right contains a never-before-seen alternate version of the famous picture of Miller in Hitler’s bathtub

War Can Feel Surreal. See How This American Photojournalist Captured the Horrors—and Dark Humor—of World War II

A rediscovered scrapbook showcases never-before-seen images by Lee Miller, a war correspondent for British “Vogue” who followed American troops through Europe

A damaged portrait of Mary Magdalene by Artemisia Gentileschi (left) and a similar version of the same scene (right) housed at the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy

Rolled Up in a Cellar for Decades, This Artemisia Gentileschi Painting Is Now Up for Auction. Why Is Mary Magdalene’s Face Missing From the Portrait?

Found in Berlin, the artwork was probably damaged in the chaotic aftermath of World War II. Despite the gaping hole in the canvas, it could sell for upwards of $180,000 later this month

“Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art” is showing at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

This Fashion Designer Collaborated With Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau to Imagine Fabulous Surrealist Ensembles

A new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum lays out the history and legacy of the House of Schiaparelli, focusing on its founder’s unique creative processes

A photograph of Sophia Duleep Singh (on the right) with her older sisters, Catherine (left) and Bamba (middle)

This Punjabi Princess Fought for Women’s Suffrage and Sheltered Refugees During World War II. A Goddaughter of Queen Victoria, She Rejected British Imperialism

A new exhibition at Kensington Palace tells the riveting story of Sophia Duleep Singh, daughter of the last maharaja of the Sikh Empire

Demolition expert Thomas Zowalla after defusing the World War II-era bomb in Dresden

Specialists Carefully Defuse a 550-Pound Bomb in Dresden—Eight Decades After It Fell During World War II

After the ordnance was discovered, 18,000 people were evacuated from the city. Experts worked for several hours to safely dispose of the device

Caitríona Balfe as Claire Fraser (left) and Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser (right) in season one of "Outlander"

Based on a True Story

The Final Season of ‘Outlander’ Is Here. See the Most Iconic Kilts, Gowns and Other Costumes From the Time Travel Drama

An exhibition at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown showcases 26 ensembles from the Starz series’ first four seasons

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