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30 years of democracy in South Africa

5:26pm April 28, 2024

This weekend marks 30 years since Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa, officially ending the country's era of apartheid. NPR's Scott Detrow talks with journalist Redi Thlabi.

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A visit to the traditional Mexican rodeo in San Antonio

5:19pm April 26, 2024

by Jack Morgan

San Antonio's charreada or traditional Mexican rodeo originated among the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. The unique rodeo tradition has taken deep roots in the American Southwest.

Pro-Palestinian protesters gather at an encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York City on April 25, 2024.

In Columbia University's protests of 1968 and 2024, what's similar — and different

5:05pm April 26, 2024

by Bill Chappell

There are parallels between the two high-profile events, most starkly the proliferation of similar protests around the country. But key differences set them apart.

World News

The fight for Congo's cobalt

4:49pm April 26, 2024

NPR's Throughline hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei speak with professor Siddharth Kara on the fight for Congo's resources.

Archaeologist uncovers George Washington's 250-year-old stash of cherries

6:18pm April 25, 2024

While excavating the cellar of President Washington's home at Mount Vernon, Va., an archaeologist found two glass jars poking out of the dirt. They hold 250-year-old preserved cherries.

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An illustration of William Lewis Moore staring down U.S. 11, the highway he was murdered on. Moore's portrait is framed in the silhouette of a common historical marker template: a rectangular sign, with a rounded top edge for a state seal.

National

COMIC: The roadside marker unlocking a forgotten civil rights murder

10:19am April 24, 2024

by Connie Hanzhang Jin

In 1963, William Lewis Moore was murdered in Alabama while on a civil rights protest walk. Silence around the murder bothered one man for years, until he campaigned to put up a marker about it.

British explorer George Mallory and fellow climber Edward Felix Norton scale the north-east ridge of Mount Everest in 1922, left, while Mallory is seen in an undated file photo, right.

World News

Read the last letters of George Mallory, who died climbing Mount Everest in 1924

2:17pm April 23, 2024

by Joe Hernandez

The British explorer died in 1924 during his third trip to Everest, the world's highest point. In one letter to his wife Ruth, he described the expedition's chance of success as "50 to 1 against us."

The debate to fix an outdated and incorrect Harriet Tubman historic marker

1:49pm April 23, 2024

by John Lee

A historical marker on Maryland's Eastern Shore contains errors about the story of Harriet Tubman, who grew up nearby. Some locals want to fix it, but others think it's fine how it is.

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The historical marker that omits parts of the Young-Dent family's past is on the grounds of Fendall Hall in Eufaula. The back side of the marker says Edward Brown Young was a "banker, merchant and entrepreneur." The back side also says that he "organized the company which built the first bridge" in Eufaula and that his daughter married a Confederate captain in the "War Between the States."

National

Historical markers are everywhere in America. Some get history wrong

10:48am April 23, 2024

The nation's historical markers delight, distort and, sometimes, just get the story wrong.

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National

A century-long effort to recast the Civil War

4:12pm April 22, 2024

by Laura Sullivan

Most corners of the country harbor old or erroneous markers of some kind. An NPR investigation examines the proliferation of Confederate markers and a century-long effort to recast the Civil War.

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