New Articles

• 
  Wassaja Wassaja was a member of the Yavapai tribe and the second Native person to receive a medical degree in the United States. He was also a passionate advocate for Native rights. The name Wassaja translates to “signaling” or “beckoning.” In 1871, when Wassaja was about four or five years old, he was...
• 
  What is the NATO alphabet? You’ve probably heard characters from the NATO alphabet used in war movies or TV shows. (Think “Checkpoint Charlie” for Checkpoint C or “Oscar Mike” for “on the move.”) But do you know the code words that represent each of the 26 letters? Well, here they are, followed by a bit about the alphabet’s...
• 
  Ashley Moody Ashley Moody is a fifth-generation Floridian who learned about her Florida roots from an early age. Her family members have been prominent citizens in the small central Florida city of Plant City since the late 19th century. She embraced the Moody family legacy by becoming a federal prosecutor, a...
• 
  Today in History—November 21: Dublin’s Bloody Sunday Killings On this day in 1920, thousands of people went to a Gaelic football match in Dublin—with no idea that it would end in a massacre. It was a Sunday afternoon. Croke Park, the local sports stadium, was hosting a charity game between Dublin’s home team and Tipperary. A crowd of about 10,000 men, women,...
• 
  Today in History—November 18: The Consecration of St. Peter’s Basilica On this day in 1626—exactly 400 years ago—Pope Urban VIII consecrated the largest church in the world. The building stands on one of the holiest sites in Christianity, the sacred nature of which dates to the first Christian century: It is the reputed place of martyrdom (and the subsequent burial)...
• 
  Neutralization theory Neutralization theory, theory of criminal behavior proposed by criminologist Gresham Sykes and sociologist David Matza in the late 1950s that suggests that many young people who engage in delinquent behavior, or criminal offenses, generally subscribe to the mores of society but use justifications...
• 
  Ella Langley Ella Langley is an American country singer and songwriter whose song “Choosin’ Texas” broke a record as the longest-running single to top the Billboard Hot 100, spending more than 25 nonconsecutive weeks at number one in 2026. A traditionalist-flavored track about unrequited love, the smash hit...
• 
  The Hunger Games film franchise The Hunger Games film franchise, series of dystopian films based on the best-selling young adult novels by Suzanne Collins. The franchise originally consisted of four movies—The Hunger Games (2012), Catching Fire (2013), Mockingjay Part 1 (2014), and Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)—that star Jennifer...
• 
  Ecocide Ecocide, broadly, a term used to describe severe or large-scale destruction of the natural environment as a consequence of human activity. Although a consistent, widely agreed-on definition of what constitutes ecocide has not yet been arrived at, it may be used to describe irreversible...
• 
  Stacey Park Milbern Stacey Park Milbern was a Korean-American disability rights activist who helped add disability history education to the North Carolina school curriculum as a teen and went on to become a key figure in the disability justice movement. Milbern was born in South Korea to a white father, Joel Milbern,...
• 
  Amrita Pritam Very few 20th-century Indian writers made the private so public—or the public so intimate—as Amrita Pritam. Her genius was in approaching the concept of love without the coyness traditionally demanded of women; the partition of British India into the independent countries of India and Pakistan...
• 
  Today in History—November 16: The Accidental Discovery of the Hoxne Hoard Hunt for a hammer, find the largest collection of late Roman gold and silver ever discovered in Britain. That’s what happened to Eric Lawes on this day in 1992. Lawes, a retired utility worker, was using a metal detector he’d received as a gift to search his farmer friend’s field in Hoxne, Suffolk,...
• 
  Why is the Bible divided into Old and New Testaments? The Christian Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments, reflecting the Christian understanding of two stages in the relationship between God and humanity. The larger Old Testament comprises ancient Jewish writings from before the time of Jesus, while the much smaller New Testament consists...
• 
  Scott Colom Scott Colom is a seventh-generation Mississippian. He is the son of two lawyers, one of whom was a Republican who worked for Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. And, if history had played out a little differently, he might have been a federal judge. Instead, in one of the most stunning results from the...
• 
  The Enlightenment Key Facts The Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason, was a philosophical movement in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. At its core was a belief in the use and celebration of reason, the power by which humans understand the universe and improve their own condition. The goals of rational...
• 
  Anthony Casso Anthony Casso was an American organized-crime figure who was suspected of complicity in the killing of at least three dozen people and ordering the deaths of many others. Nicknamed “Gaspipe,” he was a Lucchese crime family underboss who at one point was a government informant, though...
• 
  Noah Kahan Noah Kahan is an American singer-songwriter whose music combines elements of pop-rock and folk in sensitively written songs that address his relationship with his family and hometown and his struggles with mental health, and that resonate with a Gen Z fan base. His popularity with that generation...
• 
  Miranda July Miranda July is an American writer, film director, performer, and artist best known for the 2005 feature film Me and You and Everyone We Know, which she wrote, directed, and starred in, and her 2024 novel All Fours, a National Book Award nominee. July is also the author of short-story collections...
• 
  Tommy Robinson Tommy Robinson is one of Great Britain’s most prominent far-right activists and Internet personalities. Since he rose to prominence in the late 2000s, most of his public actions have been devoted to stoking resentment toward immigrants in general and Muslims in particular. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon,...
• 
  Sindoor Sindoor, fine red, maroon, orange, or pink powder used for several Hindu religious and ceremonial purposes in India and among Indian diaspora communities worldwide. Among many Hindu communities, sindoor is primarily applied at the hair parting by married women to signify their marital status. It...
• 
  Succession plan Who’s going to run things after you’re gone—or if something happens to you? That’s the question a succession plan is designed to answer, whether you’re a king or queen, a corporate board member, or the owner of a mom-and-pop store. Monarchies developed elaborate rules of succession because a...
• 
  Today in History—November 14: Nellie Bly Begins Her Race Around the World At 9:40 am on this day in 1889, American journalist Nellie Bly set off from New York Harbor aboard a luxury ocean liner bound for Europe. The goal was to beat a fictional character’s fictional record around the world. (I said what I said.) Upon reaching England, Bly made a brief detour. She’d been...
• 
  Longest-serving U.S. Supreme Court justices Nearly every U.S. Supreme Court justice has contributed significantly to the understanding and legal application of the Constitution of the United States. Their interpretations have varied over time, of course, but their official rulings have sustained, altered, or eliminated important federal or...
• 
  South Yemen South Yemen, former country (1967–90) along the southern coast of Arabia that emerged out of a British protectorate and was unified with the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) in 1990. Within a few years of its independence, it became the only Marxist state in the Arab world—in defiance of an...
• 
  Yemen Arab Republic Yemen Arab Republic, former country in northwestern Yemen from 1962, when the Zaydī Shiʿi Mutawakkilite imamate was overthrown, to 1990, when the republic joined with South Yemen to form a united Yemen. The government, whose capital was in Sanaa, took charge with the support of Egypt and had a...
• 
  Maillard reaction Maillard reaction, is a non-enzymatic reaction that occurs between amino acids and reducing sugars under heat. It is best known for its role in cooking, specifically the browning of cooked foods, where it contributes to flavor and aroma. The Maillard reaction is named for French chemist...
• 
  Annie Get Your Gun Annie Get Your Gun, award-winning musical with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and accompanying libretto by siblings Dorothy and Herbert Fields. The musical is a fictionalized version of sharpshooter Annie Oakley’s life and her romance with fellow marksman Frank E. Butler. It premiered at the...
• 
  Lisa Su When Lisa Su became chief executive officer of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in 2014, the semiconductor company was struggling to compete with industry leader Intel (INTC). AMD’s market share had declined, and its future was uncertain. Su, an electrical engineer who had spent much of her career...
• 
  Today in History—November 17: The Murders of H.H. Holmes On this day in 1894, authorities arrested H.H. Holmes in Boston on suspicion of fraud. Only later did they unearth the murders that would earn him notoriety as one of America’s first serial killers. Herman Webster Mudgett was born in New Hampshire. He enrolled in medical school, where he allegedly...
• 
  Organoid Organoid, cluster of cells cultivated within a three-dimensional matrix under laboratory conditions that replicates the structure and function of a specific organ in the human body. Organoids are engineered to facilitate interactions between cells and multiple cell types, as well as between cells...
• 
  What’s the difference between couture and ready-to-wear? Although the terms couture and ready-to-wear are sometimes used loosely, they refer to two different approaches to producing clothes. A couture garment is custom-made to a client’s specific measurements and typically involves extensive handiwork and multiple fittings. A ready-to-wear piece is...
• 
  What is the 3.5% rule? The 3.5% rule refers to the assertion that if at least 3.5% of a country’s population has actively opposed the government during a “peak” (significant) event, then that government will not be able to withstand the challenge. The claim was first presented by Erica Chenoweth (they/them), a political...
• 
  Today in History—November 10: The Search for Dr. Livingstone “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” With those words, journalist Henry Morton Stanley ended years of speculation concerning the whereabouts of David Livingstone, arguably Great Britain’s most famous explorer, who’d gone off the map while charting it in Africa. Livingstone—widower, father, missionary—was...
• 
  Keisha Lance Bottoms By the time Keisha Lance Bottoms was elected governor of Georgia on November 3, 2026—becoming the first Black woman elected to govern a state in American history—she had lived through a childhood marked by fame and heartbreak, enjoyed great political success being elected mayor of Atlanta, and...
• 
  Today in History—November 13: Diversity in Doll Format As a child, American Ibtihaj Muhammad made tiny hijabs for her Barbies so they would look more like her. And on this day in 2017, things came full circle: Mattel introduced the first official hijab-wearing Barbie doll, modeled after Ibtihaj. Amid widespread Islamophobia, the doll sent a simple...
• 
  Market share Market share is the percentage of total sales in a particular market that is supplied by a single company. It’s a way to measure a company’s competitive standing by comparing its sales with those of its competitors or the overall market. In general, market share is measured in either sales revenue...
• 
  Today in History—November 15: General Sherman Begins His March to the Sea Hard war. Scorched earth. Later generations would call it “shock and awe”: On this day in 1864, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led some 62,000 Union troops on a campaign of physical and psychological destruction from Atlanta to Savannah—the modern era’s first example of “total war.” The...
• 
  Today in History—November 12: On Camera for the First Time: Nessie? On this day in 1933, Hugh Gray was walking with his dog along the shore of Scotland’s Loch Ness, near the mouth of the River Foyers, when he saw “an object of considerable dimensions.” Luckily, Gray had a Kodak box camera with him and took several photos. Only one showed something: Gray had taken...
• 
  Today in History—November 9: The Sydney Opera House’s First Show (Featuring Scaffolding) The Australian spring day was windy, and it was most certainly more so if you were sitting on scaffolding a dozen feet in the air. But on the plus side, it probably helped the song carry. Not that the legendary concert singer Paul Robeson needed any help getting his voice to carry. The Sydney Opera...
• 
  Gina Hinojosa Gina Hinojosa, who in 2026 became the first Hispanic person elected as governor of Texas and the first woman elected to that role since 1990, likes to say she never saw herself getting into politics. But the Texas native, whose résumé includes being a civil rights and labor attorney, a school board...
• 
  Why is Norway not part of the European Union? The European Union (EU) currently consists of 27 member states. Norway is not among them, which makes it one of the few Western European countries that do not belong to the international organization. How did this anomalous situation come about? The EU evolved out of the European Coal and Steel...
• 
  Gilmore Girls Gilmore Girls, American comedy-drama series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. It aired for seven seasons from 2000 to 2007. Gilmore Girls follows the relationship between single mother Lorelai Gilmore (played by Graham) and her teenage daughter, Rory...
• 
  Do jellyfish have a heart? Jellyfish do not possess a heart. Nor do they have blood, a circulatory system, or lungs. Rather, they absorb oxygen from water directly through their epidermis (outer skin layer) in a process known as diffusion. Jellyfish are marine invertebrates with radial symmetry, in which their body parts are...
• 
  Today in History—November 11: The Armistice That Ended World War I At 11 am on this day in 1918, more than four years of fighting in World War I came to an end. But the official end had come six hours earlier, when an armistice was signed at 5 am local time in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne near Paris. With instant messaging yet to be invented, 11...
• 
  Today in History—November 7: The Mary Celeste Sets Sail On this day in 1872, a cargo ship named the Mary Celeste set sail from New York City. On board was 37-year-old Capt. Benjamin Spooner Briggs, his wife, their two-year-old daughter, and a crew of seven. Their destination: Italy, with 1,700 barrels of crude (read: not for drinking) alcohol. The Mary...
• 
  Andrzej Duda Andrzej Duda is a politician who served as president of Poland from 2015 to 2025. He first gained the position in 2015, when he defeated the incumbent, Bronisław Komorowski. Duda represented the Law and Justice Party, a socially conservative group that is skeptical of the European Union (EU) and...
• 
  Do sunflowers really follow the Sun? Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are so named not just for their sunny flower heads. Young sunflowers exhibit heliotropism, meaning that they track the Sun’s movement across the sky. At dawn the plants face east. During the day their stems gradually bend so that their leaves and developing flower...
• 
  Today in History—November 4: The Discovery of Tutankhamun’s Tomb On this day in 1922, according to the popular account, a boy tripped on a stone and kicked off one of the greatest archaeological finds in history. That boy—and many other workers—were employed by British archaeologist Howard Carter, doing backbreaking work in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Carter’s...
• 
  What’s the difference between Trumpism and MAGA? Trumpism, named for U.S. Pres. Donald Trump (2017–21 and 2025– ), is widely understood as an American political ideology characterized by nationalism, populism, isolationism, and militarism. As reflected in Trump’s leadership as president, Trumpism entails putting “America first” by ending the...
• 
  Calendar of Catholic saint feast days Throughout history the Roman Catholic Church has declared feast days to commemorate its canonized saints—holy persons who are believed to have had a special relationship to the sacred as well as moral perfection or exceptional teaching abilities. A feast day usually involves venerating a saint...
• 
  Satanic panic In the 1980s Americans became gripped with satanic panic, the fear that Satan worshippers were committing heinous crimes against children. The alleged crimes included sexual abuse, murder, and animal sacrifice, and the huge number of claims suggested the widespread existence of secret organizations...
• 
  Civil Disobedience In July 1846 Transcendentalist author Henry David Thoreau was arrested in Concord, Massachusetts, for refusing to pay his poll tax in protest of the U.S. government’s support of slavery and of the Mexican-American War. As an abolitionist, Thoreau saw the war with Mexico as an attempt by the slave...
• 
  Codex Gigas Codex Gigas, medieval illuminated manuscript known for its full-page illustration of the Devil opposite a full-page illustration of heavenly Jerusalem. It is thought to be the largest surviving medieval codex. The manuscript comprises the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and an assortment of other...
• 
  Lakshmana Lakshmana, one of the central figures in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, which is traditionally attributed to the sage Valmiki. A prince of Ayodhya, Lakshmana is best known as the Hindu deity Rama’s younger half brother, companion, and protector. He accompanies Rama and his wife, Sita, during their...
• 
  Today in History—November 8: X-Rays Seen for the First Time On this day in 1895, the invisible became visible. German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered the X-ray—by accident. Röntgen’s original experiment focused on something else: whether cathode rays could pass through glass. Cathode rays (these are hard to explain, so stick with us) are...
• 
  Today in History—November 6: Lincoln’s Unlikely Presidential Victory On this day in 1860, Americans voted in arguably the most consequential presidential election in U.S. history. The winner was Abraham Lincoln. And the country would never be the same. He saved the Union, helped end slavery, and is regarded as one of the country’s greatest. But it almost didn’t...
• 
  Waymo Waymo is an American company and subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL) that develops and operates autonomous ride-hailing (“robotaxi”) services in multiple United States cities. A pioneer in self-driving technology, Waymo has expanded from an experimental Google research project into a...
• 
  Today in History—November 5: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot On this day in 1605, English authorities caught a man in the cellar underneath the House of Lords in London, surrounded by (badly hidden) barrels of gunpowder. Who was he, and how did he get there? The infamous plot to blow up the English government started with the anti-Roman Catholic Penal Laws...
• 
  Today in History—November 3: A Dog Is Launched into Space On this day in 1957, the first earthling launched into orbit around our planet. (We don’t count the fruit flies launched a decade earlier, as their flight only crossed into the official boundaries of space by 1 mile and didn’t complete an orbit.) It was the Cold War, the Space Race was on, and the...
• 
  Ed and Lorraine Warren Ed and Lorraine Warren were American paranormal investigators who became widely known for their involvement in a series of highly publicized alleged hauntings, most prominently the 1975–76 Amityville haunting. Ed, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, described himself as a demonologist, while...
• 
  Today in History—November 2: The Spruce Goose Is Loose On this day in 1947, aviation pioneer Howard Hughes took the controls of the enormous Spruce Goose seaplane docked in Long Beach, California. The gathered spectators and journalists expected Hughes to keep the wooden craft on the water’s surface and merely take a few spins around the harbor....
• 
  What are Flock Safety cameras and why are they controversial? Flock Safety is a controversial American surveillance company best known for its network of more than 120,000 cameras that use artificial intelligence to identify license plates. The cameras are in use across the United States, and, while Flock has become synonymous with the technology, there are...
• 
  Today in History—November 1: Ebony Magazine Is Published What if there were a magazine like Life or Look with beautiful, immersive photography, comprehensive coverage of culture, business, celebrity, and the arts—but focused expressly on the lives of Black Americans? That was the question that animated John H. Johnson and his wife, Eunice Walker Johnson,...
• 
  Women with an opinion on reproduction One woman cleverly evaded an arranged marriage at age 10 by discoloring her teeth. A dozen endured horrific violence at the foundation of modern gynecology. Others gifted each other with durable underwear to protect their bodily autonomy postmortem. In a nutshell (or an eggshell): Reproduction has...
• 
  Yum! Brands, Inc. Yum! Brands, Inc. is an American restaurant company that owns the KFC and Taco Bell fast-food chains, as well as Habit Burger & Grill. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, the company was established in 1997, when PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP) spun off its restaurant businesses into a separate publicly...
• 
  KFC In the mid-1950s, plans for a new interstate highway threatened to divert traffic away from Harland Sanders’s successful roadside restaurant in the Appalachian town of Corbin, Kentucky. Faced with the prospect of losing his business, Sanders, then in his mid-60s, sold it in 1956. He then turned his...
• 
  Structuralism Structuralism is a school of economic thought originating in Latin America in the 1950s that sought to understand economic development and international trade as interconnected processes. Structural economic thought was based on the assumptions that institutions and factors outside the market...
• 
  Territories of the United States The United States is not just the 50 states. In addition to Washington, D.C. (a federal district where the push for statehood is ongoing), there are 14 territories administered by the United States as insular areas—lands subject to U.S. jurisdiction, but expressly not part of any state. The first...
• 
  What are the five ways infectious diseases can be spread? There are five primary ways in which infectious diseases can be spread: direct contact, contact with fomites (inanimate objects and surfaces), airborne transmission, droplet transmission, and vector-borne transmission. Less common modes include vertical transmission (from mother to child) and...
• 
  Disappearance of Madeleine McCann On the night of May 3, 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family’s vacation apartment at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal. The disappearance sparked a media frenzy, and the investigation eventually involved authorities from three countries: Portugal, the...
• 
  No Country for Old Men No Country for Old Men, 2007 neo-western directed and written by Ethan and Joel Coen, based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. The film follows the tense pursuit of a man who finds and takes millions of dollars from the scene of a drug deal gone wrong. He is hunted by a hired...
• 
  Today in History—October 30: The Day New York Did Not Fall to Martian Forces 8 pm Eastern Time, October 30, 1938: In CBS’s New York studios, the young sensation of stage and radio Orson Welles is beginning a new episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. Like many other Mercury Theatre episodes, it’s an adaptation of a literary classic. This week it’s H.G. Wells’s story of...
• 
  Oyamel fir Oyamel fir, (Abies religiosa), tall, elegant conifer native to the high-elevation forests of central and southern Mexico and parts of Guatemala. Millions of migratory monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus plexippus) overwinter in oyamel fir forests each year, having traveled from Canada and the...
• 
  Compulsory sterilization Compulsory sterilization, practice of permanently removing an individual’s ability to reproduce without the person’s free, full, and informed consent. The practice is typically done to women through tubal ligation, hysterectomy, or endometrial ablation, but vasectomy has also been used as a method...
• 
  What’s the difference between jeans and denim? The terms jeans and denim are often used interchangeably, but, strictly speaking, jeans refers to the garment and denim to the fabric used to make the garment. Denim is a sturdy cotton textile that is woven in a twill pattern, creating a distinctive diagonal rib on the fabric’s surface. Modern...
• 
  Today in History—October 31: A Reformation Ignites In 1517 a Roman Catholic monk and theologian named Martin Luther did something that would eventually split Western Christianity. According to tradition, Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, on this day. Whether that dramatic moment actually...
• 
  Today in History—October 26: The Shoot-out at the O.K. Corral On one side stood celebrated lawman Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil (the town marshal) and Morgan (a deputized policeman), and their pal John “Doc” Holliday. On the other was the outlaw gang known as the Cowboys, led by Ike and Billy Clanton. Their confrontation on this day in 1881 became the most...
• 
  Today in History—October 27: A Newspaper Brings Down Boss Tweed The arrest of Tammany Hall leader William Magear “Boss” Tweed on this day in 1871 marked a turning point in one of the biggest, boldest, and most egregious political scandals in U.S. history. Even by 21st-century standards, the power wielded by New York City kingmaker Tweed, the scale of his...
• 
  Today in History—October 29: The Ballpoint Pen Arrives It wasn’t for everyone—or maybe it was. With some 5,000 people showing up at Gimbels department store in New York City on October 29, 1945, it seemed that the Reynolds Rocket, the first ballpoint pen to be sold commercially in the United States, was exactly what everyone needed. At $12.50, the pen...
• 
  Agentic commerce: When AI goes shopping for you Shopping online often means searching for products, comparing prices, and deciding what to buy. Artificial intelligence can help with those tasks, and it can even make purchases for you. For example, you can ask an AI assistant to find a carry-on suitcase that meets airline size requirements and...
• 
  Agentic AI Many people use artificial intelligence to answer questions, generate text or images, and get recommendations. You can ask AI to write an email, summarize a document, or suggest which laptop fits your budget. Agentic AI takes the next step. Instead of telling you what to do, it can take actions on...
• 
  Today in History—October 23: The War of Jenkins’ Ear Begins On this day in 1739, the story of an ear in a jar started a war. (Sometimes these intros just write themselves.) The ear had been in the jar for nearly a decade (ew), but the conflict between Spain and Britain had been brewing much longer. Spain heavily restricted trade in its Caribbean American...
• 
  Today in History—October 28: Castro and Chávez Play Ball On this day in 2000, Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan Pres. Hugo Chávez brought their shared love of baseball to the field in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. (No umpires were harmed.) This was not their first game together, but it gave us one of history’s most delightful diplomatic incidents. The...
• 
  Today in History—October 25: John and Abigail Adams Exchange Vows During her wedding on this day in 1764, 19-year-old Abigail Smith had no way of knowing that marrying a Boston lawyer nine years older than her would lead to her becoming a new country’s first second lady, its second first lady, and the mother of its sixth president. Little is known about the...
• 
  Today in History—October 24: The First Person to Survive Niagara in a Barrel Let’s say you’re looking to get rich quick. Would you play the lottery? Rob a bank? Hit the blackjack tables? Would you jump off Niagara Falls? On this day in 1901, Annie Edson Taylor, at some 63 years old, did just that. Once a popular dance tutor in high society, Taylor found herself strapped for...
• 
  Today in History—October 22: The George Washington of Texas Sam Houston became the first democratically elected president of Texas on this day in 1836, but his relationship with that provisional government slash republic slash state slash whatever Texas was that week would turn out to be something of a series of “I told ya so’s.” When Houston arrived in the...
• 
  Capital asset pricing model The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is a financial model that calculates the expected return on a stock or other asset based on its sensitivity to the overall market. Developed by American economist William F. Sharpe in 1964, the model assumes that investors require higher returns for taking...
• 
  U.S.-Canada relations: A timeline This history of the relationship between the United States and Canada is perhaps best told in the story of the border. The United States dates to 1776 and Canada (as a self-governing country) to 1867, but the two countries didn’t get around to officially demarcating the border between them until...
• 
  Houthi-Saudi conflict Houthi-Saudi conflict, conflict between the Houthi movement in Yemen and the armed forces of Saudi Arabia that began with the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemeni Civil War (2014– ) in 2015. The intervention was intended to be swift and decisive, but the Houthi rebels managed to gain the upper...
• 
  AI trading agents are here. Should you let one trade for you? By now, you probably know that artificial intelligence tools can help you analyze a chart, summarize an earnings call, test a trading theory, or handle any number of other, sometimes menial trading tasks. In other words, AI can make a great trading assistant. But ultimately, when it’s time to make...
• 
  Need a trading assistant? How about AI? With every new type of technology comes both the promise and the reality. Artificial intelligence is no exception to the rule. Not a day goes by when we don’t hear about the amazing things it can do, often followed by a list of its drawbacks and limitations. If you’re a trader, you’ve likely seen...
• 
  Brothers of Italy Brothers of Italy, conservative-populist political party that has overseen a coalition government in the Italian parliament since 2022. Its leader is Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s current prime minister. The party’s name derives from the opening lines of the Italian national anthem. Brothers of Italy was...
• 
  Today in History—October 19: Alain Bombard’s Shipwreck Survival Experiment Launches On this day in 1952, a French doctor began a dangerous experiment. On himself. In an inflatable raft. In the Atlantic Ocean. Stories of sailors’ deaths during World War II sparked the idea. Or possibly it was a 1951 French trawler accident: The dead were brought to the hospital where junior doctor...
• 
  Today in History—October 20: The Monterey Bay Aquarium Opens On this day in 1984, a former sardine factory on California’s historic Cannery Row began a remarkable new chapter: The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened its doors, transforming a site once devoted to processing fish into a place dedicated to understanding and protecting marine life. For the first four...
• 
  Who was the first cat in space? On October 18, 1963, Félicette—a black-and-white tuxedo cat who hailed from France—was the first cat to be sent into space. She is still the only cat known to have completed, and survived, a trip into space. By 1963 the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union was underway, with...
• 
  The Wolf Among Us The Wolf Among Us, five-part episodic adventure video game developed and published by American studio Telltale Games. The Wolf Among Us was released episodically between 2013 and 2014 for Windows, macOS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and later other platforms. Based on Bill Willingham’s Fables comic...
• 
  Chronic kidney disease Chronic kidney disease, condition characterized by the progressive loss of the ability of the kidneys to filter waste and fluid from the blood, typically with damage lasting three months or longer before diagnosis. Chronic kidney disease drastically impairs the nephrons, which are the structural...
• 
  Judith Jarvis Thomson Judith Jarvis Thomson was an American philosopher specializing in ethics and metaphysics and known for her exploration of the doctrine of double effect—the idea that a human action with negative means or ends may be morally permissible or impermissible depending on whether the negative factors are...
• 
  Social entrepreneurship The goal of most businesses is to make money, but social entrepreneurs have another goal as well: to address a social or environmental problem. They pursue that goal by developing products or services that meet a need while finding ways to keep their enterprises financially viable. This approach,...
• 
  Katie Zacharia Katie Zacharia was named White House press secretary on October 9, 2026, during the second administration of U.S. Pres. Donald Trump. She was out just a week later after a tenure that was marked by a shaky debut fielding questions in the press briefing room and ultimately doomed by a scandal over...
• 
  Today in History—October 18: News Breaks of Al Capone’s Guilt On this day in 1931, news broke that Al Capone, Chicago’s untouchable crime boss, had been found guilty. After years of bootlegging, gambling, prostitution, and racketeering, Capone went down not for murder or mayhem but for failing to pay taxes. Capone had taken over Chicago’s bootlegging empire...
• 
  How can you tell if a poem is a ballad? In its simplest definition, a ballad is a poem or song that tells a story. Many ballads were passed down through oral tradition and recount a dramatic event, such as a famous battle, the wreck of a ship, or the tragic death of a child or lover. In the English language, many ballads follow a...
• 
  Kimi Antonelli Kimi Antonelli is an Italian automobile racing driver who made his Formula One (F1) debut with the Mercedes racing team in 2025. In 2026, at age 20, he became the youngest person to win the F1 world drivers’ championship. He won multiple accolades in karting before enrolling in Mercedes’s junior...
• 
  U.S. military bases around the world There are approximately 1.3 million active-duty members of the U.S. armed services. Of these, more than 1.1 million troops are stationed within the United States, and almost 175,000 are deployed around the world. The largest enduring bases date to the post-World War II occupation of Germany and...