https://www.smithsonianmag.com/rss/history/RSS feed for HistoryenTue, 09 Apr 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-town-that-kept-its-nuclear-bunker-a-secret-for-three-decades-180984107/The people of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, helped keep the Greenbrier resort's bunker—designed to hold the entirety of Congress—hidden from 1958 to 1992Tue, 09 Apr 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-hindu-deity-hanuman-inspired-dev-patels-monkey-man-180984098/The story of the half-human, half-monkey god mirrors the journey of the protagonist in Patel's directorial debutFri, 05 Apr 2024 16:35:47 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-story-behind-mary-george-180984086/The new mini-series dramatizes the Villiers family’s scandalous rise to power at the court of England's James IFri, 05 Apr 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-eclipse-chaser-who-led-an-expedition-behind-enemy-lines-during-the-revolutionary-war-180984082/In 1780, astronomer Samuel Williams journeyed to British-controlled territory to view a total solar eclipseThu, 04 Apr 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/stressed-about-taxes-blame-the-ancient-egyptians-180984059/The civilization developed the world’s first known tax system around 3000 B.C.E.Wed, 03 Apr 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-ben-franklin-invented-library-as-we-know-it-180983983/Books were rare and expensive in colonial America, but the founding father had an ideaWed, 03 Apr 2024 11:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-notorious-pirate-king-who-vanished-with-the-riches-of-mughal-treasure-ship-180984035/In the late 17th century, Henry Avery—the subject of the first global manhunt—bribed his way into the BahamasTue, 02 Apr 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/club-cape-wearing-activists-helped-elect-lincoln-spark-civil-war-180984000/The untold story of the Wide Awakes, the young Americans who took up the torch for their antislavery cause and stirred the nationMon, 01 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-debutantes-volunteered-to-be-horse-riding-couriers-in-rural-kentucky-180984010/Between the 1920s and 1940s, wealthy young women signed up to run errands and carry messages for the Frontier Nursing Service, whose nurse-midwives provided care to patients in hard-to-reach areasThu, 28 Mar 2024 13:45:51 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/baseball-official-historian-dug-up-games-unknown-origins-180983981/A lifelong passion for the national pastime led John Thorn to redefine the sport's relationship with statistics and reveal the truth behind its earliest daysThu, 28 Mar 2024 11:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/seven-of-the-worst-bridge-disasters-in-world-history-180984032/The collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge is shocking—but not unprecedentedWed, 27 Mar 2024 12:48:58 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-all-woman-secret-society-that-paved-the-way-for-modern-feminism-180983989/Based in Greenwich Village, Heterodoxy had just one requirement for membership: An applicant must "not be orthodox in her opinion"Mon, 25 Mar 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-history-behind-netflixs-shirley-chisholm-movie-180984008/A new film dramatizes Shirley Chisholm's history-making bid to become the first Black woman president in 1972Fri, 22 Mar 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-amelia-earhart-and-the-queen-of-diamonds-raced-to-become-the-first-woman-to-fly-across-the-atlantic-180983960/Mabel Boll, a wealthy New York socialite, dreamed of making aviation history. But Earhart beat her to the finish line, completing the trans-Atlantic journey as a passenger in June 1928Thu, 21 Mar 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-behind-manhunt-the-new-apple-tv-show-about-the-lincoln-assassination-180983992/Meet James Swanson, the lifelong Abraham Lincoln obsessive who wrote the nonfiction thriller that inspired the acclaimed miniseriesThu, 21 Mar 2024 11:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-medieval-women-expressed-their-forbidden-emotions-180983953/Upper-class women used letters and embroidery to reflect on their inner livesMon, 18 Mar 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/saint-patrick-opened-a-portal-to-purgatory-on-this-little-known-irish-island-180983948/Medieval pilgrims flocked to the site for spiritual purificationFri, 15 Mar 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-apple-tvs-manhunt-and-the-search-for-abraham-lincolns-killer-180983943/A new series dramatizes Edwin Stanton's hunt for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators in the aftermath of the president’s 1865 assassinationThu, 14 Mar 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this-russian-noblewoman-beloved-by-catherine-the-great-and-benjamin-franklin-embodied-the-age-of-enlightenment-180983910/Princess Dashkova led research institutes, wrote plays and music, and embarked on a Grand Tour of 18th-century EuropeTue, 12 Mar 2024 11:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-moroccan-sultan-who-protected-his-countrys-jews-during-world-war-ii-180983903/Mohammed V defied the collaborationist Vichy regime, saving Morocco's 250,000 Jews from deportation to Nazi death campsFri, 08 Mar 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-forgotten-sisters-behind-happy-birthday-to-you-180983885/Mildred and Patty Hill wrote the popular song's melody, but their contributions to American culture have long been overlookedThu, 07 Mar 2024 14:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/world-war-ii-rumor-clinics-helped-america-battle-wild-gossip-180983883/Newspapers and magazines across the United States published weekly columns debunking lurid claims that were detrimental to the war effortWed, 06 Mar 2024 14:35:47 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-black-western-has-been-around-for-a-century-heres-what-the-genre-represents-in-movie-and-american-history-180983868/Mario Van Peebles' "Outlaw Posse" is the latest attempt to correct the erasure of people of color from the classic cinema genreFri, 01 Mar 2024 18:05:21 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-memory-of-a-song-reunited-two-women-separated-by-the-trans-atlantic-slave-trade-180983864/In 1990, scholars found a Sierra Leonean woman who remembered a nearly identical version of a tune passed down by a Georgia woman’s enslaved ancestorsThu, 29 Feb 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-history-behind-fxs-shogun-180983848/A new adaptation offers a fresh take on James Clavell's 1975 novel, which fictionalizes the stories of English sailor William Adams, shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and Japanese noblewoman Hosokawa GraciaTue, 27 Feb 2024 16:08:31 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-is-the-dominant-emotion-in-400-years-of-womens-diaries-180983834/A new anthology identifies frustration as a recurring theme in journals written between 1599 and 2015Tue, 27 Feb 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-founder-of-this-trailblazing-opera-company-put-black-singers-at-center-stage-180983828/Mary Cardwell Dawson created unprecedented opportunities for aspiring Black musiciansFri, 23 Feb 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-to-separate-fact-from-myth-in-the-extraordinary-story-of-sojourner-truth-180983820/Two historians tell us why the pioneering 19th-century feminist, suffragist and abolitionist’s legacy has so frequently been misrepresentedThu, 22 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/near-the-site-of-the-gettysburg-address-these-black-civil-war-veterans-remain-segregated-even-in-death-180983790/Denied burial alongside Union soldiers killed during the Battle of Gettysburg, the 30 or so men were instead buried in the all-Black Lincoln CemeteryWed, 21 Feb 2024 14:29:36 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/to-make-tiffany-co-a-household-name-the-luxury-brands-founder-cashed-in-on-the-trans-atlantic-telegraph-craze-180983782/Charles Lewis Tiffany purchased the surplus cable from the 1858 venture, turning it into souvenirs that forever linked his name to the short-lived telecommunications milestoneThu, 15 Feb 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/dazzling-las-vegas-strip-rose-up-from-desert-180983696/The story behind the glitzy stretch of highway that became the destination for America’s most sublime—and most sordid—aspirationsThu, 15 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/recovering-lost-aviators-world-war-ii-180983690/Inside the search for a plane shot down over the Pacific—and the new effort to bring its fallen heroes homeWed, 14 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-a-teachers-letters-reveal-about-robert-smalls-who-stole-a-confederate-ship-to-secure-his-freedom-from-slavery-180983758/Harriet M. Buss' missives home detail the future congressman's candid views on race and the complicity of Confederate womenTue, 13 Feb 2024 12:15:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/remarkable-untold-story-sojourner-truth-180983691/Feminist. Preacher. Abolitionist. Civil rights pioneer. Now the full story of the American icon's life and faith is finally coming to lightMon, 12 Feb 2024 13:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-how-carnival-is-celebrated-around-the-world-180983771/Here’s how Venice, Rio de Janeiro, Trinidad and Tobago, New Orleans, and Quebec City mark the pre-Lenten seasonMon, 12 Feb 2024 12:15:00 +0000