HISTORY
Louis de Wohl, the Astrologer Who Was Hired By MI5
How a Former First Lady Helped Save Grand Central Terminal
Shortly after New York City's Penn Station was torn down in 1963, its east side counterpart—Grand Central Terminal—nearly suffered the safe fate. Fortunately, there was a former First Lady who understood the importance of preservation.
Baseball's First Rules
8 Pillow Fights That Caused Serious Trouble
Pillow fights can lead to some serious trouble. Don’t believe us? Here are some examples of times pillow fights took a turn for the worse.
The Brief, Enduring Life of the Pony Express
How Thomas Jefferson Invented A New Way Of Saying “Goodbye”
The History of the White House Easter Egg Roll
On April 6, most of us will be filling our lunch bags with egg salad sandwiches and wondering if Cadbury eggs count as a healthy breakfast. The folks who call the White House home, however, will still be celebrating Easter with 35,000 of their closest fri
Medieval Medicine Could Help Fight Superbug MRSA
A 1000-year-old recipe translated from Old English proves effective at killing MRSA.
The Most Secretive Book in History
A bizarre medieval manuscript written in a language no one can read has baffled the world’s best cryptologists, stumped the most powerful code-breaking computers, and been written off as a masterful hoax. Can the hive mind finally unlock the secrets of th
The Fascinating History of Lithuania’s Day of the Book Smugglers
In Lithuania, March 16 is Knygnešio diena, or the Day of the Book Smugglers, to commemorate the birthday of Jurgis Bielinis, who created a secret distribution network in order to smuggle banned Lithuanian books into the country.
Fall of the South: Last Hurrah, Final Words
5 Theories on Why We Dye Eggs for Easter
Every year at Easter, people hardboil eggs and dye them brilliant colors. Where did this tradition come from?
The Time New England Colonized Kansas
In 1854, one ill-advised bill turned the Great Plains into a war zone. To understand why, we’ll need to wind back the clock.
5 Graves That Were Lost, Then Found
The Straw Hat Riots of 1922
15 Women Who Could Replace Andrew Jackson on the $20
Andrew Jackson will always be the seventh President of the United States. But if Women on 20s get its way, his mug will no longer be on our money.
How an Intelligence Officer Used Monopoly to Free POWs
Christopher Clayton Hutton's concealments were genius, but the Germans inevitably figured them out. All of them, that is, but one, which wouldn’t come to light until the documents were declassified four decades after the end of the war.