Elizabeth Hanes

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Painting of St. Valentine
Valentine's Day

6 Surprising Facts About St. Valentine

Who was St. Valentine, and why do we celebrate him on February 14? Get the facts about this enigmatic character.

U.S. Navy nuclear test, Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands.
Cold War

9 Nuclear Near-Misses During the Cold War

Called 'broken arrows,' these accidents came dangerously close to wreaking atomic devastation.

Fred Noonan with Amelia Earhart on June 11, 1937.
Exploration

Amelia Earhart’s Navigator: The Life and Loss of Fred Noonan

Forever remembered as "Amelia Earhart's navigator," Fred Noonan disappeared with the famous aviator on July 2, 1937.

Amelia Earhart
Exploration

Tantalizing Theories About the Earhart Disappearance

Explore theories about Amelia Earhart’s final days—some more plausible than others.

Physicist Leon Lederman moves the hands of the Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight on February 27, 2002.
Inventions & Science

The End of Civilization?: 7 Moments in the History of the Doomsday Clock

Since its debut in 1947, the clock's minute hand has indicated the potential for global destruction—or world peace.

Surface of Mars, taken by Viking 1. The round areas are impact craters where asteroids have hit the planet. 1975.
Space Exploration

Mars and Martian Mania: A Brief History

As NASA’s rover Curiosity continues the quest to find life on Mars, explore five key events that piqued the public interest in the Red Planet.

From Sputnik to Spacewalking: 7 Soviet Space Firsts
Space Exploration

From Sputnik to Spacewalking: 7 Soviet Space Firsts

On the anniversary of Sputnik's launch, explore seven of the Soviet Union’s firsts in the history of space exploration.

19th Century

10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Old West

Explore 10 true stories of the Wild West, some of them stranger than fiction.

Free Soil Party, presidential elections, martin van buren
U.S. Government and Politics

9 Lesser-Known Political Parties

Get the facts about nine political parties now consigned to the historic graveyard.

Skylab floats above Earth in February 1974.
Space Exploration

The Day Skylab Crashed to Earth: Facts About the First U.S. Space Station’s Re-Entry

The world celebrated, feared and commercialized the spectacular return of America's first space station.

CHIBA, JAPAN - JUNE 03: A wartime Zero fighter plane flies over Tokyo Bay off Chiba on June 3, 2017 in Chiba, Japan. After the end of World War II, Zero planes flew a few times over Japanese airspace. However, all those flights were undertaken with American pilots at the controls. The Zero aircraft is a Model 22 manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. in 1942. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)
World War II

The Akutan Zero: How a Captured Japanese Fighter Plane Helped Win World War II

While the Battle of Midway raged, Allied fighters in the Aleutian Islands quietly captured a Japanese fighter plane that helped them win World War II.