Where the world's most wanted pirate hid in the 1600s

Francis Drake: favored English pirate who sailed around the world

Before becoming the global explorer that many know him as today, Sir Francis Drake was a pirate, merchant, and slave trader. This in-depth article dives into the life of Drake, who's commonly credited as the first person to circumnavigate the globe by ship successfully.

Colonial Americans used tobacco, wampum, and land-backed notes to solve a chronic coin shortage

British coins rarely circulated in the colonies due to an unfavorable trade balance, forcing colonists to improvise. They traded in Spanish dollars, Native American shells, tobacco warehouse receipts, and eventually paper money backed by land rather than gold.

The Elizabethan pirate hired to find the Northwest Passage

This resource by the Canadian Museum of Natural History explores the life and adventures of Martin Frobisher, an Elizabethan pirate hired to find the then-fabled Northwest Passage, a path across the Arctic Sea that would've allowed for quicker trade between Asia and Eastern Europe. He ventured into arctic waters at least three times, returning to England each time with either fool's gold, captive natives, or fool's gold and captive natives.

22 fascinating discoveries of massive gold coin hoards

The gallery highlights major gold coin treasures from ancient to modern times, from the Saddle Ridge hoard in California in the 1800s (now worth $10M) to finds in Baltimore, Kentucky, and more. Each discovery reveals something about the period, with some buried and others left in vaults.

Often dubbed the 'king of bank robbers,' George Leonidas Leslie stole an estimated $7M (equivalent to $200M today) and charged other criminals a $20K fee to evaluate their heist plans

Leslie studied architecture and used blueprints of safes and banks to execute meticulously planned bank heists across the Northeast between 1869 and 1878. Although Leslie was an infamous bank robber by night, he posed as a member of high society by day, providing critical intel on the institutions he'd rob and helping conceal his crimes. Months before his largest planned heist, where he planned to turn on his gang, Leslie's body mysteriously washed up along the Hudson River. His killer remains a mystery.

History finds of 2021

The year’s most exciting discoveries include a Viking “piggy bank,” a lost Native American settlement and a secret passageway hidden behind a bookshelf

Near the end of the 1700s, the United States was forced to pay Barbary pirates an annual tribute equal to 16% of its entire budget.

Benjamin Franklin advocated for the use of paper money and even engineered some key anticounterfeiting techniques used today.

At its 1850s peak, the American whaling fleet numbered more than 600 ships, an industry later replaced entirely by petroleum and coal gas.

Before the US Mint, people made currency in private mints

Around the year 1652, New England coinage was created at private mints. Historically, private mints were often located in places where governments did not meet the demand for currency. This article dives into the history of private mints, including the ones people can still visit today.

Historians estimate that only 1% of shipwrecks have been discovered.

One in five 16th century Spanish ships sank while crossing the Atlantic

Despite the incredibly high rate of catastrophic wrecks, during the Age of Exploration Spanish investors continued to fund voyages. Here, economists break down the incentives that led to increased risk, including short travel seasons and the propensity to overload ships.

Thomas and Anne Rogers were famous counterfeiters in 17th-century England

The pair used a practice called “coin clipping,” shaving the edges off silver coins to decrease their weight before sending them back into circulation. When banknotes rather than coins gained popularity, counterfeiting methods evolved—in the 1700s, an early banknote counterfeiter named Mary Butterworth created counterfeit paper money using starched cloth and a hot iron to transfer the pattern of a banknote onto paper.

A brief introduction to modern-day pirates

Modern piracy is rarely punished and costs over $35M per day. Unlike the pirates of the past who often spent their lives living at sea, today's pirates typically operate from shore.

The 2004 blockbuster National Treasure takes some liberties with history—discover what the movie gets wrong and right about the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution.

The explorer who re-discovered Machu Picchu

If there was a real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones, it may well have been Hiram Bingham, the Yale University historian who set out to find the rumored “lost city” of the Inca. This short feature from the BBC’s History magazine explains how this son of missionaries brought international renown to the site and to himself. In the process, he sparked an international feud that would last more than a century.

An archive of some of America's most significant shipwrecks

From The Portland—known as New England's "Titanic"—to the Civil War's USS Monitor, this archive from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides overviews of some of the most well-known shipwrecks in US history.

Hear the story of the largest single escape attempt by enslaved people in American history

On April 15, 1848, 77 enslaved individuals in Washington, DC, boarded a ship named the Pearl in the largest single escape attempt in US history. Their capture led to riots and intensified the conflict over fugitive slave laws.

Researchers discover a massive Lake Superior shipwreck

A 292-foot Whaleback ship, Barge 129, was found in Lake Superior 120 years after a storm sank it, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society said.

How a 19th-century aristocrat scammed the rich to buy fake Caribbean land

Nearly 200 years ago, Gregor MacGregor pulled off one of the most brazen real estate scams in history. A disgraced military leader, MacGregor sold plots of land in what is today Honduras, touting the country of Poyais as a new major region in South America. But no building was taking place, and instead of investing the proceeds of bond sales in construction, MacGregor was lining his pockets. Read the unbelievable story of MacGregor's exploits here.

A live bald eagle named Peter once lived at the Philadelphia Mint, the place responsible for producing circulating US coins.

Peggy Shippen, Benedict Arnold's wife, was the highest-paid spy of the Revolution

Few names conjure up the idea of betrayal more than Benedict Arnold, the notorious American military officer who was caught attempting to hand over West Point to the British during the Revolutionary War. This podcast episode dives into the key role his wife, wealthy spy Peggy Shippen, played in the plot.

Benjamin Franklin founded America's first lending library, the Library Company of Philadelphia, in 1731.

Some colonies were centuries-old before they broke from Britain

The revolution did not happen overnight, but was a culmination of centuries of settlement, policies, and war in North America. This timeline provides key, fascinating events from the 1600s through the Revolution in a smooth, easy-to-read interface.

New York was a hotbed of early revolutionary activity

In the decade before independence, New York City saw Stamp Act riots, liberty pole confrontations, the 1770 Battle of Golden Hill, and defiance of the Quartering Act, and organized efforts to block and destroy taxed British tea.

Watch what would happen if you literally had all the money in the world.

Few actual Stamp Act stamps survived, as colonists destroyed nearly all of them in protest

The elaborate stamp bore royal symbols and the word "America" and was printed in Britain and shipped to the colonies to be sold by government officials. Protests erupted in nearly every colony before it could take effect, often violently targeting stamp collectors.

The US has used a wide variety of different currencies between the 1690s and today

From colonial money to national banknotes, people have used all kinds of forms of currency throughout the history of the United States before settling on the dollar bills and quarters that we pay for things with today.

Meet the Dutch art detective who's recovered a Van Gogh, Dali, and Picasso

Known by some as the "Indiana Jones of the art world," Arthur Brand has recovered more than 150 stolen paintings and artifacts. He works independently, existing as a helpful bridge between the police and the people who might know where the stolen art is hiding. He is motivated by the thrill of the chase more than any financial payoff.

Debunking myths about the American Revolution

The history of the American Revolution and the establishment of democracy are proudly taught in the US, but a number of incorrect details continue to be circulated. This article debunks some of the myths that persist in the public consciousness, like the idea that the war was solely driven by taxes or that Paul Revere was the only rider warning the rebels about the British.

How massive cargo ships fight off modern pirates

Piracy on the high seas costs a reported $16 billion each year from either theft or damage incurred during an attempt to pirate massive cargo ships. This video breaks down several ways companies attempt to fend off would-be thieves. Pirate crews are...

Explore a database of more than 220,000 shipwrecks, the largest compilation to date.

A funeral director lied and claimed he discovered a centuries-old Roman brooch

An amateur metal detectorist knowingly deceived thousands into believing he found an 1,800-year-old horse figurine. He received payment for the artifact to be featured in a museum, but he later admitted he bought the brooch online and planted it.

The US senator who found a city in the sky

Dr. Hiram Bingham, a Yale graduate and explorer, is credited with rediscovering Machu Picchu in 1911. Financially supported by his marriage to the Tiffany jewelry heiress, Bingham ventured into the Peruvian Andes in search of the lost Inca city of Vilcabamba. Instead, guided by local farmer Melchor Arteaga, he stumbled upon the awe-inspiring ruins of Machu Picchu.

America's most misunderstood dollar

The $2 bill isn't rare; it's just hiding. First printed in 1862, stopped in 1966, and revived in 1976, there are still 1.6 billion in circulation. People just don't spend them.

Hamilton learned about global trade before he was a teenager

Before he moved to America, Hamilton worked as a clerk around age 12 at the Caribbean trading firm Beekman and Cruger, handling shipping documents, inspections, and port logistics. He eventually managed the day-to-day operations of a trading charter that immersed him early in Atlantic commerce.

The 'Where's George?' project tracked a trail of $1 bills across the US.

America's first newspaper, 'Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick,' lasted only one issue.

Many early colonists came to America to escape religious persecution in Europe

Fleeing state-sponsored religious oppression in England and Europe, many early colonists sought freedom of conscience in the New World. Many—especially in New England—established their own religiously exclusive communities: They persecuted dissenters, expelled nonconformists, and enforced orthodoxy.

The first combat-deployed submarine vessel debuted during the American Revolution.

The oldest restaurants in the US

This list features several establishments that have been around since before the Declaration of Independence, including the White Horse Tavern, in Newport, Rhode Island, and New York's Fraunces Tavern, where George Washington dismissed his troops at the end of the Revolutionary War.

Seventeen strange historical heists

High-dollar chocolate and cheese robberies to art thefts and audacious train robberies. Explore history's most peculiar stories of stealing with this list of seventeen tales of burglaries.

North Carolina's original copy of the Bill of Rights was stolen during the Civil War and recovered 138 years later

A Union soldier looted the document from the state archives in 1865 and sold it for $5. It remained in private hands for more than a century before an undercover FBI agent posing as a buyer seized it in 2003 at a Philadelphia office building.

Two men dressed as cops stole artwork from a Boston museum valued at over $500M at the time

On March 18, 1990, the thieves entered Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum pretending to be police officers responding to a disturbance. After overpowering and handcuffing the guards on duty, they stole 13 precious items, including works by Rembrandt and Manet. The theft is the largest art heist in US history. The pieces are still missing, and the museum is offering a $10M reward to anyone who provides valuable information about their location.

Advanced forensic science has helped identify killed sailors decades later

When the USS Oklahoma capsized amid the attacks, hundreds of sailors were buried within the ship's hull. Officials have used advances in forensic science to analyze DNA and dental evidence to help identify nearly 400 sailors decades after the fact.

Experts believe Peggy Shippen played a larger role than originally thought in her husband Benedict Arnold's treasonous plot.

A timeline of colonial settlement

An overview of early American settlement, beginning with the London Company's expedition to Virginia. Source includes a number of citations for further reading.

The British Royal Navy—not the US military—enforced the Monroe Doctrine for most of the 19th century

In the early to mid-1800s, the US lacked the ships and military power to prevent European nations from colonizing the Americas. Britain enforced this to protect its commercial interests by keeping rival European powers out of Latin America.

The platinum coin, explained by the creator of the idea

An obscure US Mint law permitting it to create platinum coins of any amount surfaced as a possible means of quickly paying down the national debt. Here's an explanation from the creator of the idea.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa—an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people—with evidence suggesting it may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.