History

Aspen Ideas Festival: 'Correcting America's Historical Memory'
Pulitzer Prize-winning historians David Blight and Annette Gordon-Reed speak at the 2019 Aspen Ideas Festival about myth, memory and historical reality.
In Duluth, a quest for a home for a historic replica Viking ship
The ship from the 1920s was placed on public display at the Festival of Sail in Duluth this week. For more than 30 years, a group of volunteers has been working to restore the ship, and to build it a permanent home to honor a feat of sailing.
How the mosquito created Great Britian, toppled the Roman Empire and continues to threaten humankind
Here’s a startling statistic: an estimated half of the roughly 100 billion people who have ever lived have been killed by the mosquito. Or, rather, the diseases they transmit. In causing such wide-spread destruction, the mosquito has been a main character on the world stage throughout history. In his new book, The Mosquito: A human history of our deadliest predator, Tim Winegard shows just how important the mosquitoes were and will be to human civilization. He spoke with MPR’s Cathy Wurzer.
A long legal battle over Hitler's birth home in Austria ends
Austria's top court says Gerlinde Pommer should receive $908,000 from the government in exchange for the property. "Part of the house should be used for educational purposes," a local historian says.
David Treuer on ‘The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee’
Native history didn’t end after Wounded Knee, even if many historical accounts stopped there. Ojibwe author and anthropologist David Treuer’s new book aims to document how Native life persisted after the 1890 massacre.
'A Fiery Unrest: Why Plymouth Avenue Burned'
A new documentary explores the causes and consequences of violence that broke out in north Minneapolis in July of 1967.
Family legend becomes reality with discovery at Duluth's Glensheen Mansion
For years, it lurked beneath dark water and debris in the boathouse at Duluth's historic Glensheen Mansion. On Thursday, it finally was lifted into the open — and confirmed a long-standing family legend.
A history of the Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance has become an ingrained part of American culture, but how did it come to be? Here's a look at the history of the pledge.
Aspen Ideas Festival: John Judis on 'The Nationalist Revival'
Journalist and author John Judis says nationalism doesn't start with political ideology, it starts with psychology and sentiment. And he says a sense of national identity is important to sustain a democracy.
WWII veteran helped airplanes reach the sky, now one B-17 returns the favor
Andy Anderson served in Okinawa, Japan, building runways to help get aircraft in the sky for World War II. This Fourth of July, Anderson had his first chance to fly in a 1940s era B-17 Flying Fortress.