On this day in 1961, construction began on the Berlin Wall. The barrier separated East and West Berlin for nearly three decades, preventing East Germans from fleeing to the West and earning the nickname 'the Iron Curtain.'

Explore this database to discover Lyme disease incidence in your county.

Give your memories a place to live and explore the personal stories left by strangers, tied to specific locations, in this interactive map of the world.

The Atlantic proclaimed that 'The End of Reading is Here,' which might be alarmist but is based on significant data.

The Aztec Empire ruled over 80,000 square miles of central Mexico for nearly a century—until a small band of Spanish conquistadors brought it down on Aug. 13, 1521.

Listen to audio recordings of forests from around the world, featuring birds chirping, water flowing, and wind flowing through the trees.

Located on Ross Island in Antarctica, Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano on Earth and features a lava lake—one of eight known worldwide as of 2026—that erupts regularly.

See where your state ranked in an analysis of the best public school systems in the US.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks.

Explore the full list of over 1,000 UNESCO World Heritage sites, broken down by country.

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

In 1984, Bob Dylan reimagined himself as the frontman of a punk band for a performance on David Letterman's late-night talk show.

The first Model T rolled off the line on Aug. 12, 1908. Watch someone operate the vehicle, described as 'driving a tractor with the soul of a sewing machine.'

Taxi and ambulance drivers appear to have the lowest risk of dying from Alzheimer's disease out of 443 occupations, which suggests that constant real-time navigation work strengthens the hippocampus and may help protect against the disease.

Lake Sørvágsvatn sits about 32 meters (105 feet) above sea level, but the taller surrounding cliffs create an optical illusion that makes it appear to float much higher above the ocean.