Half a century after "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," the director returns to the subject of UFOs with "Disclosure Day." His science fiction films are informed by his fascination with alien encounters in American suburbia

Lincoln Steffens was a reporter so dogged that political party bosses called him a “born crook that’s gone straight.” He and his fellow muckrakers redefined modern journalism

“Force may subdue, but love gains”: The Quaker practice of conscientious objection evolved through Thoreau, Tolstoy and Gandhi before becoming the hallmark of the Civil Rights movement

Baker's work was instrumental in the success of the NAACP and other organizations, but she did it in a way that didn’t put herself in the spotlight. That was by design

He won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in ending WWI and strove to improve the plight of American workers. Today, his blind spots shroud most of his accomplishments

One president invented campaign buttons so he could just stay home during election season. Another one rallied Americans to go to the moon. And one—only one—holds a patent.

Lewis Hine didn’t consider his job as taking pictures; it was “detective work.” Sometimes gaining access with ruse and subterfuge, he captured stark images that touched hearts and changed minds

"I am very much uninterested in whether I am shot or not," he told an audience in Milwaukee. Newly discovered documents shed light on how the 26th president wanted the incident to shape his legacy

In “The Mission of the War,” America’s incomparable orator helped turn public sentiment in favor of the Union and Abraham Lincoln, beginning the process of “national regeneration”

To fight against slavery, the author collected true stories then picked up a pen and distilled them into “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”

Silence Dogood. Richard Saunders. Benevolus. Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim. All were pen names that allowed Franklin to say things he couldn’t have otherwise said

While history recorded his refusal to seek a third term as a legendary act of statesmanship, the opinions of the day were actually quite mixed on the issue

In a poignant pattern, many of the most important contributions to suffrage were enacted—or inspired—by mothers

Now on view at the New York Historical, "Revolutionary Women" spotlights figures with connections to the state, including a Jewish chocolatier, a Mohawk leader and a woman who disguised herself as a man to enlist in the Continental Army

Her writing posed the novel premise: What does it mean to be a woman? Her early death meant she never saw the movement she inspired

The manifesto leaned heavily on Isaac Newton’s theories in making a case for independence, and fellow founders drew on the notion to build a new system of government

Celebrating the visionary insights & darling innovators that forged a nation.

A new movie starring Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser dramatizes the tense 72 hours before the Allied invasion of Normandy, revealing how meteorology helped determine Operation Overlord's success

Apple TV's "Star City" takes place in a world where the space race never came to an end. A spinoff of "For All Mankind," the show is told from the Soviet perspective

A new exhibition at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, in Philadelphia, spotlights the little-known wartime contributions of the Jews of St. Eustatius