HISTORY

Ninety years ago, the Black Sunday dust storm blasted the Great Plains with millions of tons of topsoil scoured from the once-rich prairies. The Dust Bowl had arrived.

The U.S. Constitution doesn't specify how many Supreme Court justices are necessary—and there weren’t always nine on the bench.

From a now-regretted counter-counterculture anthem to an oft-misunderstood ’80s hit to the song that allegedly got its singer followed by the CIA.

Ed Helms (‘The Hangover,’ ‘The Office’) helps Arturo unfurl a daring escape from one of the Cold War’s most eccentric double agents: Oleg Gordievsky.

Delve into the history of Khutulun, the 13th-century Mongolian princess—and descendant of Genghis Khan—who challenged marriage suitors to wrestling matches.

Discover how King Henry VIII and other members of the Tudor nobility handled going to the bathroom in the mid-1500s. (Spoiler: There was velvet involved, but it still wasn’t pretty.)

There’s no accounting for taste when it comes to critics’ misguided impressions of cultural classics, from mini-skirts to ‘Moby-Dick.’

History is teeming with unlikely heroes—these ones just happen to have feathers and fur. 

From "scrabbling games" to hunting hares, these old Easter traditions have fallen out of fashion.

Potential recruits had to answer questions like ‘Is genuine happiness a priceless treasure?,’ ‘Are avenues usually paved with oxygen?,’ and ‘Do you cordially recommend forgery?’

The typo in a 1928 opinion may have inadvertently influenced an unknown number of decisions to follow.

Scholars believe the tale—which has versions around the world—represents everything from the pain of motherhood to childhood jealousy (and some even think it might be based on real history).