History

The Smithsonian Institution has millions of fossils, sculptures and other historic artifacts in its vast collections. Twenty of them are now available for 3-D printing — and viewing from every conceivable angle — online.

The 1,400-work exhibition gave many Americans their first look at what avant-garde artists in Europe were up to. It was the biggest art show New York had ever seen and challenged ideas about artistic "progress."

On Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis burned down synagogues, destroyed Jewish businesses and arrested more than 26,000 Jews. Germans and Jews alike are still grappling with the legacy, 75 years later. Margot Friedlander is one survivor, who has returned to Berlin after decades of exile.

In 2003, U.S. forces discovered a trove of Jewish documents in a flooded Baghdad basement. They tell the tale of a once-thriving Jewish community. The painstakingly restored documents will be exhibited in the U.S. before they are returned to Iraq. But some Jewish groups are trying to prevent that.

A cast of lawyers and a federal judge in New York City perform dramatic re-enactments of historic trials involving Asian-Americans. Their latest production, 22 Lewd Chinese Women, focuses on a 19th-century Supreme Court case with parallels to present-day immigration debates.

The Secret Service made some immediate changes after the president's death 50 years ago this month: Open limousines were out. And it began taking a more aggressive approach to its advance work. Over the years, the service has established counter-sniper units, assault teams and surveillance units.

Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Fla., was named decades ago for a Confederate hero — who was also the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. More than 160,000 people have signed a petition urging a name change, but the current name has also drawn passionate support.

The Fisk Jubilee Singers are known for their near-perfect voices and performances of African-American spiritual songs. Now the choir's musical director is on the road, mentoring to young groups across the South. He's also hoping to preserve the songs too.

A hundred years after his birth, French writer Albert Camus is perhaps best known for novels like The Stranger and his philosophy of absurdism. But it's his views on Algeria's fight for independence that continues\ to get scrutiny.

Huge stone slabs weighing up to 300 tons that now reside in Beijing's Forbidden City were slid more than 40 miles in 15th- and 16th-century China over water-lubricated ice roads in the dead of winter. Though spoked wheels had been around for almost 3,000 years, the ice roads were smoother and required less manpower.