History

Fifty years ago this week, Apollo 15 lifted off on the first true lunar exploration mission. Using an improved Lunar Module, the ninth crewed Apollo mission featured the first vehicle to drive on the Moon, allowing astronauts to roam farther than ever before.

Sixty years ago this week, America sent its second man into space. The mission had gone flawlessly, but nearly ended in tragedy when the Liberty Bell 7 Mercury space capsule sank into the sea, almost taking astronaut Virgil Grissom with it.

A study is presenting evidence a major coronavirus outbreak struck humans in East Asia around 20,000 years ago. The scientists found genomic marks indicating local populations faced a long viral epidemic that only dissipated a few thousand years ago.

Over the years, archeologists have unearthed the remains of members of the infamous Franklin expedition, although it hasn't been possible to confirm their identities. Thanks to DNA analysis, however, scientists have now done so for the first time.

A new method of handwriting analysis is offering fresh clues as to who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. Testing the machine learning tool on one of the most famous ancient scrolls has revealed not one but two scribes were responsible for the ancient text.

For many years now, scientists have learned about the past by analyzing core samples taken from ice caps or soil. They have now applied that same technique to a millennia-old pile of bat poop, with interesting results.

Two new studies have shed light on just how often our ancestors got frisky with Neanderthals. Scientists analyzed the genomes of 45,000-year-old human remains found in Czechia and Bulgaria, including the oldest known genome of a modern human.

Sixty years ago on Monday, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a variation of a rocket originally designed to launch nuclear weapons to become the first person to orbit the Earth.

One of the great game-changing automobiles, the quirky little Volkswagen Beetle emerged from a dramatic birth to become the best-selling car in history, forever altering how small cars are seen, and sparking a remarkable automotive cult in the process.

Geologists have pieced together an uncertain part of Earth’s ancient history. A team in Australia has found new evidence that suggests the cycle of supercontinents forming and breaking up only started about two billion years ago.

A team of scientists at the University College London has used 3D tomography to shed new light on the Antikythera Mechanism – the world's first computer, which was an accurate model of the Cosmos as it was known to the ancient Greeks.

In case there was ever any doubt … atrocities are nothing new. Scientists have recently determined that piled human remains unearthed in what is now Potočani, Croatia, represent the earliest-known indiscriminate mass killing.