Nine Things You Didn’t Know About the Semicolon

People have passionate feelings about the oddball punctuation. Here are some things you probably didn't know about it.

The Breaks of History

We might say that these books are recording a life with music, and that they are worth listening to.

What P.T. Barnum Understood About America

Barnum called himself the “Prince of Humbugs,” which left open the possibility that one day there would arise a king.

Candy Land Was Invented for Polio Wards

A schoolteacher created the popular board game, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, for quarantined children.

Was the Automotive Era a Terrible Mistake?

For a century, we’ve loved our cars. They haven’t loved us back.

Herman Melville at Home

The novelist drew on far-flung voyages to create his masterpiece. But he could finish it only at his beloved Berkshire farm.

The Forgotten All-Star Game That Helped Integrate Baseball

The battle for the integration of Major League Baseball started long before Jackie Robinson.

The Spectacular P. T. Barnum

The great showman taught us to love hyperbole, fake news, and a good hoax. A century and a half later, the show has escaped the tent.
Steve Dahl beside the dumpster full of records collected for Disco Demolition Night

Disco Demolition: The Night They Tried to Crush Black Music

When a DJ called on listeners to destroy disco records in a Chicago stadium, things turned nasty.
Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface with flag during Apollo 11.

How Stanley Kubrick Staged the Moon Landing

To understand America, you can start with Apollo 11 and all that is counterfactual that’s grown around it.

Blinded by The White: Race And The Exceptionalizing of Ted Bundy

Why America's obsession with Ted Bundy needs to stop.
The secret message in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold Bug"

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Gold-Bug” (1843)

Poe’s story of a treasure hunt, revealing the fantastical writer’s hyper-rational penchant for cracking codes.

Wimbledon’s First Fashion Scandal

100 years ago, a tennis player shocked spectators with her “indecent” dress—not for the last time.

The Forgotten History of Segregated Swimming Pools and Amusement Parks

Beyond public accommodations and schools, resistance to integration included keeping pools and amusement parks segregated.
Sign for the Silicon Valley Financial Center.

The Hidden History of How the Government Kick-Started Silicon Valley

It’s time to move past the tech sector’s creator myths.

A Universe of One’s Own

Only in the science fiction genre can one compare an alien to a woman.

‘An Essential Force in American History,’ Chicago Defender to Stop Print Publication

The storied African American newspaper will switch to a digital-only platform starting July 11.

An Ives Fourth

Nostalgia or nightmare?

Triumph and Disaster: The Tragic Hubris of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If—’

The long and complicated life of Kipling's famous poem.

How the American Flag Became Sacred—and the Hottest Brand in the Nation

It took decades for the "flag cult" as we know it to get rolling.
Liberty bell.

The Sounds of Independence

How was the Fourth of July celebrated during the Revolutionary War?

The “Star-Spangled Banner” Hysteria of 1917

The Boston Symphony’s refusal to play the national anthem in its one concerts triggered a xenophobic panic that led an arrest.
Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling in America

What happened to the great defender of Empire when he settled in the States?

Gump Talk

25 years later, what does Gump mean?

For 40 Years, Crashing Trains Was One of America’s Favorite Pastimes

From 1896 until the 1930s, showmen would travel the country staging wrecks at state fairs.

Ronald Reagan’s Reel Life

Did the movies ever matter? They did to Ronald Reagan.

A Brief History of the S'more, America’s Favorite Campfire Snack

So gooey, so good.

“Swinging While I’m Singing”: Spike Lee, Public Enemy, and the Message in the Music

Public Enemy's "Fight the Power," featured in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing," embodied many sentiments of a black generation.
McDonald's parking lot.

A Crispy, Salty, American History of Fast Food

Adam Chandler’s new book explores the intersection between fast food and U.S. history.
This photo, taken on the Minnesota frontier, depicts Regina Sorenson and three others "dressed in men's suits." MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The Forgotten Trans History of the Wild West

Despite a seeming absence from the historical record, people who did not conform to traditional gender norms were a part of daily life in the Old West.