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It's the 150th anniversary of one of the most appalling massacres of Indians ever

by Ned Blackhawk

In terms of sheer horror, few events matched Sand Creek. Pregnant women were murdered and scalped, genitalia were paraded as trophies.

US cathedral may become museum to the slave trade

The museum at the shuttered Cathedral of St. John, a church where slaves once worshipped, would explore how the church benefited from the trade and helped bring it to an end, said Bishop Nicholas Knisely of the Diocese of Rhode Island.

Scientists may be cracking mystery of big 1872 earthquake

Geologists may be close to cracking one of the biggest seismological mysteries in the Pacific Northwest: the origin of a powerful earthquake that rattled seven states and provinces when Ulysses S. Grant was president.

Prehistoric conflict hastened human brain’s capacity for collaboration, study says

Warfare not only hastened human technological progress and vast social and political changes, but may have greatly contributed to the evolutionary emergence of humans’ high intelligence and ability to work together toward common goals.

Stalin, Father of Ukraine?

Yes, he was a murderous tyrant, but he was also a father of today’s Ukraine.

3,500-Year-Old Dagger Found Being Used As A Doorstop

Only five other daggers like the Rudham Dirk have been found in Europe.

East Germany looted art like Nazis

Until recently, few Germans realized that the covert program, with its echoes of Holocaust-era looting, had ever taken place in the German Democratic Republic.

Study on Cultural Memory Confirms: Chester A. Arthur, We Hardly Knew Ye

Quick: Which American president served before slavery ended, John Tyler or Rutherford B. Hayes?

ISIS destroying sites in Salah-ad-Din Province

Until the past week, there were few reports of the destruction of antiquities and cultural heritage sites, possibly because ISIS forces were hard pressed on multiple fronts.

Golden Fleece myth was based on real events, geologists contend

Villagers who collected gold in sheepskins inspired legend of Jason’s voyage.

Iconic Cold War Spyplane May Get A Drone Makeover

Based at times in Area 51, the U-2 spyplane tested the very limits of human endurance and Cold War technology when it first flew in 1955.

Why Americans Call Turkey 'Turkey'

"Turkey" the bird is native to North America. But "turkey" the word is a geographic mess—a tribute to the vagaries of colonial trade and conquest.

Thanksgiving Used to Look a Lot Like Halloween, Except More Racist

Thanksgiving used to look a lot more like Halloween.

How the World’s First Computer Was Rescued From the Scrap Heap

The ENIAC was a 27-ton, 1,800-square-foot bundle of vacuum tubes and diodes that was arguably the world’s first true computer.

America’s Oldest Political Insult

Presidents have always been ‘kings’ to their enemies.

Shakespeare Folio Discovered in France

“First folios don’t turn up very often, and when they do, it’s usually a really chewed up, uninteresting copy. But this one is magnificent.”

Souvenirs of a Literary Alchemist

Gabriel García Márquez’s Archive Goes to University of Texas

France awards highest honour to modest WWII spy heroine

A World War II heroine who parachuted behind German lines on "perilous" spy missions, but was so modest she only told her children about it 15 years ago, was Tuesday presented with France's highest honour.

Swiss Museum Accepts Art Trove Amassed Under Nazis

Kunstmuseum Bern Obtains Trove From Gurlitt Collection

Turkish Governor Threatens To Turn Synagogue Into Museum

“Hatred and anti-Semitism have seized the state,” says opposition lawmaker