History

Autherine Lucy Foster reacts during the dedication ceremony for Autherine Lucy Foster Hall in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Feb. 25, 2022.

National

First Black University of Alabama student dies days after a building is named for her

6:07pm March 04, 2022

by The Associated Press

Autherine Lucy Foster's death comes less than a week after university officials dedicated the campus building where she briefly attended classes in her honor.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, with President Biden and Vice President Harris, speaks after being nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court at the White House on Feb. 25.

National

Civil rights activists are prepared to fight for Jackson's nomination to the court

3:48pm March 04, 2022

by Sandhya Dirks

The confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson are set for March 21. Activists who pushed for a Black woman are excited and ready for a fight.

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World News

How the memory of Nazi atrocities has come to play a role in Russia's war

6:48am March 03, 2022

by Daniel Estrin

Putin's claim that he is fighting a Nazi regime in Ukraine is a falsehood based on historical memory.

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Visitors are seen at Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo., last year.

Yellowstone turns 150. Here's a peek into the national park's history

6:35pm March 01, 2022

by Jaclyn Diaz

Yellowstone became the first national park in the U.S. on March 1, 1872, and it helped usher in the broader national park movement. The park stretches into Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

A mosaic panel depicts the liberation of Kyiv by Russia's Red Army in 1943 at Kievskaya metro station in Moscow.

World News

Putin's claim of fighting against Ukraine 'neo-Nazis' distorts history, scholars say

3:02pm March 01, 2022

by Rachel Treisman

Scholars dismiss the Russian leader's claims as a "mythical use of history." For one: Ukraine overwhelmingly elected a Jewish president, and has a relatively small right-wing movement.

Dragon blood tree at Diksam Plateau, on Yemen's Socotra Island. It's one of the sites included on the 2022 Watch from the World Monuments Fund.

Sites in Beirut, Benghazi and Brownsville, Texas, make a most-endangered list

11:23am March 01, 2022

by Neda Ulaby

Beirut's historic city center and the traditional territory of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas are among 25 places listed by World Monument Watch as in urgent need of preservation.

National

Balls have been a space of freedom for Black queer and trans youth for decades

6:22pm February 28, 2022

by Arielle Gray

Black History Month celebrates stories from the Black community. But often, LGBTQIA+ stories aren't highlighted. In Boston, ball culture provides a space of freedom for Black queer and trans youth.

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Science

The time of year the dinosaur-killing asteroid hit explains why some species survived

4:36pm February 28, 2022

The asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs hit in spring the northern hemisphere, a new study suggests. Scientists say animals in the different hemispheres may have fared differently after the event.

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Smithsonian curator has a fondness for a photo album from the Civil War

5:01am February 28, 2022

Curator Aaron Bryant recently spoke to NPR about his favorite images in the Smithsonian's collection. Among them is a rare album of black soldiers from the Civil War.

How Ukraine's history differs from Putin's version

5:14pm February 26, 2022

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Yale professor Timothy Snyder, about the difference between the history of Ukraine and the version of it told by Russian President Vladimir Putin.