Solomon Northup was a free man living in New York. In 1841, he was lured south and kidnapped and spent more than a decade enslaved. He recorded his experiences in the book 12 Years a Slave, which has been made into an Academy-award winning film. Read this article to find out more about Northup’s struggle for freedom.
Archaeological evidence now supports the idea that the city of Troy was not only larger and more important than previously realized, but that it also may have been able to withstand a ten year siege, just as Homer reported in the Iliad. Was the war really about the kidnapping of Helen? Or might it have been about the city’s overwhelming power? Read to find out.
Many Americans know that the United States and the Soviet Union narrowly avoided nuclear war in 1962. Very few, however, know that poet Robert Frost met with the Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, just as the nuclear crisis got underway. Read this article by Stewart L. Udall to find out why the poet and the premier met, and discover what happened.
Human beings have been telling tales for a very, very long time. Check out this site to learn about four tales you may never have heard before, the stories of the Queen of Sheba, Shangri-La, King Arthur, and Jason and the Argonauts.
When composer Nkeiru Okoye was a young girl, her mother shared stories about Harriet Tubman. Now, Okoye is paying tribute to Tubman with a folk opera that shows audiences Tubman’s life, both in slavery and in freedom.
Before South Africa’s late president Nelson Mandela was an inspiring world leader, he was a prisoner, jailed for 27 years for his actions opposing his country’s apartheid rule. Watch dramatic video documenting his release from prison in 1990.
People often refuse to see facts that disprove a common belief. This excerpt from the book You Are Now Less Dumb by David McRaney examines why we stick to easily-disproved ideas and how we can get smarter about what we see and think.
A new exhibit at the Tennessee State Museum attempts to reconstruct the lives of slaves and slaveholders to give a better understanding of that time in history.
Journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault reflects on the character and achievements of South Africa’s first black president.
Although best know for his fiction, Ernest Hemingway was also a war correspondent and a Red Cross ambulance driver. Read this article from the National Archives to find out how Hemingway’s wartime experiences influenced his writing.
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster was the world’s worst nuclear accident. Thousands of people were relocated to other cities. But 1,200 people, mostly older women, came back to live in the toxic Exclusion Zone, unwilling to be displaced from their homes. Read the article and view the video to find out what bonds these women to their homeland.
Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the first black president of South Africa. He helped bring an end to apartheid and was a global advocate for human rights. Read his biography; then, explore the site to learn more about this remarkable man.
The African country of Mauritania officially ended slavery in 1981; however, an estimated 10%–20% of the population is still enslaved. Read this article to find out more about the struggle to free the last slaves on earth.
The tale of the Trojan War has fascinated people for centuries. Why? Check out this site to learn the story of the war, the epics that mention it, and what archaeologists have discovered over the years. While you’re there, be sure to click links to related topics, such as “Greek Mythology” and “Ancient Greece.” There’s a lot to learn.
Sometimes events fit together as neatly as a five-foot-wide house in an alleyway. In this essay, author Etgar Keret relates how he came to inhabit the world’s narrowest house—one perfectly meshing with his minimalist writing style—located in a place deeply significant to his family.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s life ended before his work was complete, leaving others to interpret his intentions and delineate his legacy. Vern E. Smith and Jon Meacham discuss the history and the ongoing disagreements over who King was and what his work means today.
In this interview, we hear from Simon Winchester, author of The Men Who United The States: America’s Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible, about the people who made the United States such a great nation.
A new digital scrapbook combines images from World War II Amsterdam with images of modern-day Amsterdam to give viewers a unique perspective into the world of Anne Frank.
In 1852–1853, artist Johannes Adam Simon Ortel painted Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, New York City, a work depicting an event that took place shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. How did the era in which Ortel lived and painted affect Ortel’s depiction? Visit this site to view Ortel’s painting and learn the answer.
Our national symbol is the bald eagle, as you know, but few of us know much about eagles at all. Visit this site to read summaries of legends about eagles, and, when you’re done, click the links to learn facts about these incredible birds. If the season is right, you can even watch live videos of eagles in the wild!
