All Stories

The First World War was a profound turning point in history. The world of 1914 was a very different place from the one that emerged after four years of relentless global war involving millions of combatants and imposing hardship on countless civilians, from those whose towns and villages were on the front lines, to those distant from the battlefield.

The latest film in our Hollywood Goes to War: World War I on the Big Screen film series the story of the American Expeditionary Force’s arrival in France in World War I. Based on the real-life exploits of New York City’s 69^th Infantry Regiment, The Fighting 69^th features several real-life characters.

Today marks an important day in sports—the official first day of baseball season and the NCAA men’s basketball national championship game.

The National Air and Space Museum has uncovered a new Roswell artifact that is sure to shed light on the events of 1947 and the age-old question, “Are we alone in the universe?”

The U.S. Navy’s WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) were a notable legacy of World War II’s influence on the evolving gender norms of the later 20th century.

You may know of the first woman in space (Valentina Tereshkova) or the second (Svetlana Savitskaya). But do you know the name and the story of the third female cosmonaut? Elena Kondakova may have not been the first woman in space, but she was the first woman to enter the cosmonaut team-in-training program with male classmates. She set the precedent of mixed-gendered selections that exists in Russia today. 

Before humans flew into space, dogs, chimpanzees, and flight-test dummies led the way. Ivan Ivanovich, who flew in the Soviet Korabl-Sputnik program in the early 1960s, was one such dummy. In a heady atmosphere of Cold War tension, Soviet secrecy, and uncertainty about the dawning space age, garbled retellings of Ivan's extraordinary story helped foster one of the most tenacious Space Age conspiracy theories: The Lost Cosmonaut Theory.

The Cassini spacecraft has spent almost 13 years exploring the beautiful giant planet Saturn and its amazingly diverse moons. Cassini’s mission will end in September when it plunges into Saturn’s atmosphere, but it will leave behind a wealth of knowledge and wonder.

Dr. Tom Barclay is a senior research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. He spends his days studying stars and planets and how they formed. But before he became a scientist, he had all kinds of jobs from cleaning toilets to washing pots. He’s got some great advice about finding your own path.

Howard Hawks directed a film in 1930 whose influence can be seen in virtually every military aviation movie made since it premiered. The Dawn Patrol, with its dramatic aerial combat scenes and heroic and tragic pilot figures, is the father of all military aviation films. We will be screening The Dawn Patrol and providing commentary on March 17 as part of our Hollywood Goes to War: World War I on the Big Screen, film series.