History

Scientists determine age of some of the oldest human bones

5:22pm January 13, 2022

Some of the oldest human remains ever unearthed are the Omo One bones found in Ethiopia. For decades, their precise age has been debated, but a new study argues they're around 233,000 years old.

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The Maya Angelou quarter is the first in the American Women Quarters Program, which will feature other prominent women in U.S. history. The other quarters in the series will begin rolling out later this year and through 2025, according to the U.S. Mint.

The poet Maya Angelou is the first Black woman to be featured on a U.S. quarter

9:35pm January 10, 2022

by Jonathan Franklin

The Maya Angelou design is the first quarter in the "American Women Quarters Program" — a four-year program that will feature prominent women in U.S. history.

Nelson Mandela and former U.S. President Bill Clinton look to the outside from Mandela's Robben Island prison cell in Cape Town, South Africa, in this photo from March 27, 1998.

The key to Nelson Mandela's Robben Island prison cell is returning to South Africa

3:41pm January 07, 2022

by Jaclyn Diaz

New York auction house Guernsey's has postponed the sale of some of the South African leader's belongings, including the key to his cell and the shirt he wore when he was released from Robben Island.

In the year since the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, federal prosecutors have charged more than 700 people related to the attack.

5 takeaways from the Capitol riot criminal cases, one year later

8:44pm January 05, 2022

NPR has been tracking every criminal case related to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. One year after the riot, here are some of the key patterns that have emerged from the cases.

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Teachers tell NPR that exploring previous precedents can help students make sense of what happened on Jan. 6. For example: when invading British troops attacked Washington and set fire to the U.S. Capitol in 1814.

Education

8 ways teachers are talking about Jan. 6 in their classrooms

7:15pm January 05, 2022

by Cory Turner

A year after a pro-Trump mob invaded the U.S. Capitol, teachers say they want students to grapple with the uncomfortable facts of the day.

National

Homer Plessy has been pardoned for arrest that led to 'separate but equal' ruling

4:53pm January 05, 2022

by Bobbi-Jeanne Misick

The state of Louisiana has granted a posthumous pardon to Homer Plessy, the Creole man who refused to leave a "whites only" train car in 1892. The case made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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National

All audio recorded before 1923 — like possibly the 1st soda ad — enters public domain

5:24pm January 03, 2022

On Jan. 1, all sound recordings before 1923 entered the public domain, due to the Music Modernization Act. The release is a treasure trove of opera, vaudeville, marching bands and spoken word.

Fireworks explode in Times Square on New Year's Eve on January 1, 2018 in New York City.

National

Why we count down on New Year's Eve (and why it wasn't always the case)

1:28pm December 31, 2021

These days, a New Year's Eve celebration doesn't feel complete without one thing: a countdown. But that ritual to ring in the new year isn't as old as you might think.

Virginia conservators unpack a box left in the pedestal at the former site of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, in Richmond, Va., on Tuesday.

National

Conservators find books, coins and bullets in Virginia time capsule

7:42pm December 28, 2021

by James Doubek

Conservators in Richmond found numerous items inside a box that had been buried underneath a statue of Robert E. Lee for 134 years. It was the time capsule historians had long hoped to find.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tweeted this photo of what authorities believe is a time capsule discovered in Richmond.

National

Virginia workers unearthed a second time capsule at the Robert E. Lee statue site

3:49pm December 27, 2021

by Joe Hernandez

Last week, experts opened a box they believed to be a chest left in the plot in 1887, but the contents weren't what they were expecting. Now they may have finally found what they were seeking.