Christopher Klein

Olympic organizers through history have hired snow dancers, called in the military and helicoptered in snow to ensure the Games go on.

How an accidental call to NORAD's top-secret military hotline led to a Christmas tradition.

The annual Thanksgiving ritual of granting presidential pardons to White House turkeys is not as hallowed as you may think.

Some risked imprisonment or death to help win America’s freedom.

The cause of the 1975 wreck remains shrouded in mystery.

They banned the public celebration of Christmas for an entire generation.

Think the office holiday party got out of control? That was nothing compared to an alcohol-fueled Christmas celebration at West Point.

Look back at the moment when the holiday spirit sparked impromptu ceasefires along World War I’s Western Front.

Sixty years after the Gateway Arch’s completion, see the drastically different ideas that were considered for the St. Louis monument.

Charles Guiteau claimed God ordered him to do it.

Concealed from the public, Woodrow Wilson's medical crisis sparked constitutional questions that still reverberate.

The surprising maritime origins of New Year’s Eve’s biggest party.

A little-known chamber concealed behind the head of Abraham Lincoln was intended to contain a shrine to America.

10 surprising facts about the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The idea has nothing to do with farmers, for one thing.

The program had its largest expansion under a Republican president.

The post-World War II trials marked the first-ever prosecutions for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Inventors rushed to patent escapable 'safety coffins.'

A day after George Washington’s death, a doctor arrived at Mount Vernon and proposed a procedure to resurrect America’s first president.

It wasn’t gasoline—but moonshine—that fueled the growth of stock car racing in Appalachia and led to the rise of NASCAR.

It wasn’t safe to go back in the water of the Jersey Shore in 1916, as a series of deadly shark attacks forever changed Americans’ attitudes toward the sea creatures.

When Thomas Edison demonstrated the first practical incandescent light bulb on New Year’s Eve 1879, it marked the dawn of the electric age.

'Bear' Bryant, who became a legend at Alabama, and future Pro Football Hall of Famers were among the all-star collection of talent.

The ritual grew as ownership of automobiles and then mass production of portable grills and plastic coolers soared.

Using fame as a cover, the glamorous entertainer spied for the French Resistance against the Nazis.

Two years before Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’ debuted, frenzied seabirds swarmed a California beach town frequented by the director.

America’s bloodiest day changed the course of the Civil War—and the country itself—forever.

Find out how the Battle of Hastings forever changed England—and the English language.

The dark, foamy stout wasn't the first beer they produced.

Dwight Eisenhower’s grueling, 62-day cross-country road trip in 1919 planted the seeds for the creation of the Interstate Highway System.

The first Latino Hall of Famer made charity work a priority.

Franklin Roosevelt’s children offered physical, emotional and political support throughout his presidency.

Find out about the accusations and trials that rattled Hartford, Connecticut, in 1662.

Much of England's elite lost land, power and privilege.

These World War I inventions made life easier during—and after—the war.

Some argue that Jesus wasn't an actual man, but within a few decades of his lifetime, he was mentioned by Jewish and Roman historians.

An unpaid bakery debt launched the 'Pastry War' between France and Mexico.

The South American hero went from liberator to dictator.

This 230-foot embroidery tells the story of the Norman Conquest.

Look back at the NFL’s strange first championship game, played indoors on a 60-yard field squeezed into a hockey rink.

China was a vital, but often forgotten, member of the Allies battling Japan—two years before the official start of World War II.

These classic works of literature ran afoul of government censors.

Widely acclaimed as the first movie star, Florence Lawrence was the first film actress whose name was used to promote her films.

Laura Ingalls Wilder had a secret collaborator with Libertarian Party connections.

At its height, the USSR comprised of more than a dozen republics stretching across Europe and Asia. After the collapse, each forged a different path.

Over her lifetime, the first Social Security recipient received nearly 1,000 times what she paid into the system.

Was it born from baseball or the boxing ring?

They were less religious refugees than economic migrants.

The magnate with humble roots claimed to be pro-union, but his actions didn’t match his rhetoric.

The Apollo program’s sixth human landing on the moon ended an epic chapter in space exploration.