Smart News History & Archaeology

Behind the doors of the Geneva Freeport are untold treasures.

Hollywood’s Next Heist Movie Should Be Shot Here

No one knows exactly what's hidden in a giant warehouse in Sweden, but everyone agrees that it's really, really valuable

Today's Google Doodle celebrates Amelia Earhart's birthday.

Amelia Earhart, Fashionista

A few highlights of coverage celebrating Amelia Earhart's 115th birthday

Today’s the Shared Anniversary of Ruin Porn Poster Children Detroit, Machu Picchu

July 24th marks double jackpot for the intrepid explorers of years past as well for as fans of the latest photographic trend, "ruin porn."

Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on the moon

Here’s What Nixon Would Have Said if Apollo 11 Hadn't Returned

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Twelve Dead In Colorado Theater Shooting

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Six Guys Stood At Nuclear Ground Zero And Lived To Tell The Tale

In 1957, five Air Force officers volunteered (and one cameraman was voluntold) to stand directly below a mid-air detonation of a 2-kiloton nuclear warhead

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The Bra Is 500 Years Older Than We Thought

A devious plan that takes advantage of the charming sweet.

Hitler Plotted to Kill Churchill With Exploding Chocolate

Nazis are known for their heinous wartime crimes and tactics. Now, exploding chocolate can be added to that list, as revealed by a 60-year-old letter

How Common Was Cannibalism?

360-Year-Old Advertisement Extolls Coffee’s Virtues

An advertisement issued by some brilliant London entrepreneurs may well be the first coffee ad ever

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People Wear Pants Because Cavalry Won Wars

For Coal Miners, Back to Black Lungs

The adult female skeleton

In Scotland, Two Mix-and-Match Mummies Contain Parts of Six Corpses

3,000 year old bodies discovered in a bog turned out not to be two bodies at all. The skeletons are stitched together from the remains of six individuals

A mosaic of Hercules with pet Cerberus.

How Ancient Greeks Named Their Puppies

To the ancient Greeks, just like today, picking a name for your new pup was an important step. But the process was a little more peculiar back then

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Viking’s Most Powerful City Unearthed in Northern Germany

Archaeologists working in northern Germany may have found one of the most important cities in Viking history—Sliasthorp, where once sat Scandanavian kings

Karl Marx

Marxism Is Cool Again

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Today is Actually the 1700th Anniversary of the Bikini, not the 66th

July 5th, 1946 is classically regarded as the birth date of what we now call the bikini. But that version of history misses the long view

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Vintage Summer Tips From the U.S. Government: “Overeating Is Overheating”

In the early 1940s, in the years after the country had entered World War II, American government had a particular interest in keeping workers on the job

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One of the First Maps to Include “America” Found in Old Geometry Book

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Timbuktu’s Ancient Relics Lay In Ruins At Hands of Militant Group

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