History
Who Was Alan Shepard? (Grades 5-8)
Who Was Alan Shepard? (Grades 5-8) 3 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) This article is for students grades 5-8. Alan Shepard was the first American in space. He was one of NASA’s first seven astronauts. Later, he walked on the moon during the Apollo program. What Was Shepard’s Early Life […]
📚 Education
NASA History News and Notes–Spring 2025
NASA History News and Notes–Spring 2025 5 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The NASA History Office brings you the new Spring 2025 issue of NASA History News & Notes reflecting on some of the transitional periods in NASA’s history, as well as the legacies of past programs. Topics include NASA’s […]
📰 News
Stone tool discovery in China shows people in East Asia were innovating during the Middle Paleolithic, like in Europe and Middle East
Stone tool discovery in China shows people in East Asia were innovating during the Middle Paleolithic, like in Europe and Middle East The artifacts found at Longtan, southwest China, were as old as 60,000 years. Qijun Ruan New technologies today often involve electronic devices that are smaller and smarter than before. During the Middle Paleolithic, […]
🔬 Science
The 50 best things Microsoft has ever made
The 50 best things Microsoft has ever made This week, on April 4th, Microsoft turns 50 years old. The company has gone through sweeping changes over that time — from two guys in New Mexico to more than a quarter-million employees worldwide, from making text-based operating systems to holographic video games — but through the decades, it’s […]
💻 Technology
Turning Vanes inside the Altitude Wind Tunnel
Turning Vanes inside the Altitude Wind Tunnel NASA Men stand in front of turning vanes inside the Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT) at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory in this February 1944 publicity photo. The photo was taken just weeks after the tunnel became operational. The AWT was the only wind […]
🔬 Science
Mae Reeves used showstopping hats to fuel voter engagement and Black entrepreneurship
Mae Reeves used showstopping hats to fuel voter engagement and Black entrepreneurship Mae Reeves and her husband, Joel, pose with her hats at Mae's Millinery in Philadelphia, circa 1953. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture/Gift from Mae Reeves and her children Donna Limerick and William Mincey Jr. Lula “Mae” […]
🏛️ Politics
From censorship to curiosity: Pope Francis’ appreciation for the power of history and books
From censorship to curiosity: Pope Francis’ appreciation for the power of history and books Pope Francis delivers the Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, on Nov. 10, 2024. AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia In January 2025, while doing research at the Vatican archives, I heard Pope Francis’ Sunday prayers in St. Peter’s Square. […]
🏛️ Politics
Tyrannical leader? Why comparisons between Trump and King George III miss the mark on 18th-century British monarchy
Tyrannical leader? Why comparisons between Trump and King George III miss the mark on 18th-century British monarchy Are there legitimate comparisons between President Donald Trump and King George III? Rebecca Noble/Getty Images; Kean Collection/Getty Images George III, king of Great Britain and its colonies at the time of the American Revolution, has been maligned unfairly. […]
🏛️ Politics
The story of the Great Migration often overlooks Black businesses that built Detroit
The story of the Great Migration often overlooks Black businesses that built Detroit The flourishing Black business district in Detroit, Mich., photographed in 1942. Arthur S. Siegel via the Library of Congress, CC BY-ND Black businesses were essential to facilitating the Great Migration of African Americans out of the South between the 1910s and 1960s. […]
📰 News
Remembering China’s Empress Dowager Ling, a Buddhist who paved the way for future female rulers
Remembering China’s Empress Dowager Ling, a Buddhist who paved the way for future female rulers In sixth-century China, a woman known to history as Empress Dowager Ling ruled over an empire called the Northern Wei. Historians do not know her birth name or in what year she was born, but they do know that she […]
🏛️ Politics