Eric Niiler Archives ‑ History.com

Why Civil Rights Activists Protested the Moon Landing

More than a million people gathered along Florida’s Space Coast to watch the Apollo 11 lift off from Launchpad 39A on the sunny afternoon of July 16, 1969. The event was the culmination of a technological race started by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 with the goal of beating the Soviet Union to the […]

When the Pentagon Dug Secret Cold War Ice Tunnels to Hide Nukes

On a clear, cold day in May 1959, two U.S. Army officers clad in polar gear gazed through their aviator sunglasses at the endless white horizon before them. Standing heroically in front of Arctic personnel carriers, Col. John Kerkering and Capt. Thomas Evans took measurements for a new military installation to be buried beneath Greenland’s […]

How Did King Tut Die?

When British archaeologist Howard Carter opened a sarcophagus in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings for the first time on February 16, 1923, he stoked intrigue and mystery over an ancient Egyptian boy king. Who was King Tutankhamun, the occupant of the burial chamber who ruled 3,300 years ago, and how did he die at the […]

How the Second Industrial Revolution Changed Americans’ Lives

Technology has changed the world in many ways, but perhaps no period introduced more changes than the Second Industrial Revolution. From the late 19th to early 20th centuries, cities grew, factories sprawled and people’s lives became regulated by the clock rather than the sun. “It was a tremendous transformation of people’s lives,” says Joshua B. […]

The Only Major U.S. Warship Lost During WWI Sank in NY Waters—Now We Know Why

In July 1918, the 15,000‑ton armored cruiser USS San Diego sank off Long Island, New York, losing six sailors from a crew of 1,200 after a mysterious explosion struck the vessel. The ship was returning home after escorting U.S. troop and cargo ships across the perilous North Atlantic passage to Europe, defending convoys against marauding […]

How Landing the First Man on the Moon Cost Dozens of Lives

A half‑century ago, NASA was preparing feverishly for a moon landing in a race against the former Soviet Union. The non‑stop campaign of testing and launches was also a race against time—specifically to honor slain president John F. Kennedy’s 1961 pledge for the country to land a spacecraft on the moon (and return safely) before […]

The Apollo Mission That Nearly Ended With a Mutiny in Space

By 1968, America’s space program was on the brink. A launchpad fire at Cape Canaveral killed three astronauts as they were conducting tests in their space capsule in January 1967. After 20 months of congressional hearings, political fallout and a spacecraft redesign, three new astronauts prepared for a mission dubbed Apollo 7: Wally Schirra, Donn […]

Hitler Sent a Secret Expedition to Antarctica in a Hunt for Margarine Fat

Adolf Hitler used the concept of Lebensraum (“living space”) to justify the invasion of Poland, Russia and other eastern European nations to his people. But one small chapter in Hitler’s drive for new land is often overlooked: how the Third Reich’s hunger for margarine led to a secret expedition to Antarctica 80 years ago. The […]

World Cup 1938: When Nazi Germany Forced Austrians to Play For Them—And Lost

Global tournaments like the World Cup are never free of politics and that was especially true in 1938 during the run‑up to World War II when the fascist leaders of Germany and Italy were eager to put their stamp on the final outcome. But the Germans may have made a miscalculation in forcing five Austrian […]

Life on Mars? The Search for Signs Goes Back Centuries

In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli turned his telescope to Mars and saw signs of a potentially lush world. He would publish his observations of what he believed to be “seas” and “continents” on the Martian surface. He also described channels (later found to be an optical illusion) or canali in Italian. Schiaparelli’s canali was […]

Sonic Weapons’ Long, Noisy History

Bullets, missiles and swords may be what most people think of when it comes to weapons, but sound has also been deployed over the millennia to disrupt, confuse or even injure opponents on the global battlefield. From the Israelite army of trumpet‑blaring priests who shook the walls of Jericho 3,500 years ago to the U.S. […]