History Staff

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Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens is shown in his wind up and pitch during the 1st inning of the Detroit-Boston game in this multiple exposure.

A Civil War hero named Abner Doubleday is often credited with developing the game in 1839, but the real history is older.

The game has ancient origins, but in the late 19th century, Walter Camp helped shape football—the American kind—into the sport we know today.

The burning of Rome in 64 AD (1771 oil on canvas 0, 75 x 0, 93), Robert Hubert ( 1733-1808 ), Museum of Fine Arts, Le Havre, Italy. (Photo by: Christophel Fine Art/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Nero had many enemies and is remembered as one of history’s most sadistic and cruelest leaders. But there are a couple of problems with the story.

HISTORY: Summer Solstice

Theories run the gamut, casting Stonehenge as anything from an ancient healing center to an alien landing site.

Illustration of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in the Tomb of Tutankhamun

In early 1923, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his financier friend George Herbert, Lord Carnarvon, ceremoniously opened the long-obscured burial chamber of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamen in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Two months later, Carnarvon was dead, killed by blood poisoning from an infected mosquito bite on his cheek.  Newspapers speculated that he was […]

Nixon Watergate

Trace the milestones of a scandal that rocked the nation.

From Karl Marx to Joseph Stalin to Mao Zedong, the label of communism has been attached to these figures—and their often ruthless governments—through history.

This year's most compelling cultural fare looked to the past. Here are our top picks.

D-Day

This multimedia journey tells the story of June 6, 1944, and the unlikely triumph at Normandy that would go down in history.

Fire at night, Perth Hills, Australia - stock photo

For several centuries, people have debated whether human beings can spontaneously combust, or burst into flames without being ignited by an external source. Though the first known accounts of spontaneous human combustion (SHC) date all the way back to 1641, the phenomenon gained wider exposure in the 19th century after popular author Charles Dickens used […]

Rex Tillerson with his wife after being sworn in as Secretary of State by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in the Oval Office of the White House, February 1, 2017.

Rex Tillerson is out. Here’s who left more quickly—and who stayed a lot longer.

Paper-cut - Dollar sign. These are scalpel cut real dollar notes. All hand crafted.

If you're wondering where the dollar sign ($) came from, you're in good company.