History

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.

Post racist attack in 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. American National Red Cross Photograph Collection.

Education

Why does Black History Month matter?

1:29pm February 26, 2022

by Sandhya Dirks

There is an ongoing debate as to whether U.S. history segregates Black history in February or whether Black History Month brings forward necessary untold stories.

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Actor Zero Mostel, center, who portrays Tevye in the musical "Fiddler on the Roof," poses backstage with cast members after the play's opening performance at the Imperial Theatre in New York on Sept. 22, 1964. Maria Karnilova, who plays Tevye's wife, Gold

If Russia's invasion of Ukraine feels familiar, look to Broadway in the 60s

7:46pm February 25, 2022

by Bob Mondello

Why should Americans care about Ukraine? An answer from 1960s Broadway.

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Books
Arts

Frederick Douglass biographer traces the rise of a legendary abolitionist and orator

1:33pm February 25, 2022

by Dave Davies

David Blight's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography traced Douglass' path from slavery to abolitionist and inspired HBO's documentary, Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches. Originally broadcast in 2018.

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