In 1914, the Financial Times asked readers to redraw Europe for cash prizes

Riveting artwork from the battlefields during World War I

During World War I, the United States government commissioned eight artists to accompany American Expeditionary Forces to Europe to sketch and document what they saw. Drawing tanks, soldiers, shattered villages, and even German prisoners of war, the artists preserved much of the war as a matter of historical record and to rally support back home.

A collection of contemporary maps from World War II

Newspapers published detailed maps of the conflict in real-time. See different portrayals of the situation, ranging from propaganda maps to speculative maps about the war's outcome. The fascinating depictions reveal how maps can show us the aspirations and intentions of different players in a global conflict.

100 ways the Great War changed the world

What was the point of WWI? What impacts did it have? How has it influenced life today? Click through this Wall Street Journal photo gallery to find out.

The bizarre 1920 proposal to form a pizza-shaped central European state

In light of the challenges of the Treaty of Versailles, which concluded the Great War, a mostly unknown author, and son of the map's printer, PA Maas suggested central Europe be integrated into a single state. With a central capital in Vienna, 24 Kantons, or regions, would radiate outward in pie-slice shapes.

How Eurovision mirrors European politics

Although Eurovision claims to be nonpolitical, historian Dean Vuletic argues that it is inherently political and, in many ways, the only election in which most of Europe participates. In this brief explainer, he unpacks how the song contest's politics extend back to its first broadcast in 1956, which featured Walter Andreas Schwarz, a Jewish West German who signaled a rebuke to Germany's Nazi past.

The Concert of Europe's collapse contributed to World War I

The 19th-century great power system gradually unraveled due to rising nationalism, imperial rivalry, and shifting alliances—leading to its collapse in 1914 and the outbreak of the deadliest war the world had yet seen.

The Sykes-Picot agreement as seen through Arab eyes

After WWI, the borders of the Middle East were redrawn by two men: Mark Sykes (UK) and Francois Picot (France). Signed in 1916, their secret agreement divided one of the most volatile regions in the world into states, cutting through ethnic and...

Hear how the world reacted to the American Civil War

European nations closely watched the Civil War for its economic and political consequences. Some European nations quietly engaged diplomatically with the Confederacy but withheld recognition. When the Union made slavery's abolition a central cause, European public opinion turned sharply against the South.

Medieval Europe was a patchwork of hundreds of competing states

In the Middle Ages, Europe was divided into hundreds of kingdoms, duchies, and territories, bearing little resemblance to modern borders. This map captures the political landscape in 1444, as the Ottoman Empire was in the midst of its rise.

See the winning photos from a major European nature photography contest

Selected from nearly 9,000 submissions by 546 photographers across 15 countries, the honored images range from clashing Alpine ibexes to a wolf feeding on flower nectar, captured by the grand prize winner, 20-year-old Luca Lorenz.

Rewrite 1930s Germany with this alternative history game of politics

You are at the head of the Social Democratic Party in Germany in 1928 and must use parliamentary politics, the media, and more to oppose the ascendant National Socialists. This text-based, narrative simulation becomes a lesson in the complexities of political history.

Churchill’s 1946 ‘Iron Curtain’ speech warned of growing Soviet domination

In a 1946 speech, Winston Churchill declared that an “Iron Curtain” had descended across Europe—dividing East from West. The address marked one of the first public acknowledgments of the emerging Cold War and coined the term that would define the conflict.

The “Phoney War” was an eight‑month build-up to war

From September 1939 to May 1940, following their war declaration on Germany, Britain and France entered a phase of military inaction—even as civil defence measures, naval blockades, and rationing intensified at home. Skirmishes were limited, but the decisive fighting didn't begin until Germany invaded Norway and France in April–May 1940, abruptly ending the uneasy stalemate.

The Pulitzer's evolving categories mirror the state of contemporary journalism

The inaugural prizes in 1917 selected four winners: two for newspaper journalism (including a look inside the German Empire amid World War I) and two for books, but the slate has evolved to include online-only outlets (2009), magazines (2015), and audio reporting (2020). The 2024 Pulitzers, in particular, marked a noticeable shift: More digital outlets were awarded than traditional newspapers, illustrating a sharp decline in local newspapers and a rise in digital outlets.

Hear how the Black Death reshaped Europe's economy

The Black Death killed tens of millions across Europe, but the labor shortages that followed shifted economic power. With fewer workers available, survivors demanded higher wages and better conditions—sparking what historians call a medieval “Golden Age of Labor.”

Explore the Council on Foreign Relations' essay collection on the future of US foreign policy

This project brings together expert essays examining the future of American strategy, regional relations, geoeconomics, great power rivalry, and war in a rapidly changing global landscape.

Hear from people who experienced Germany's unification in 1990

What was it like to see Germany's fractured halves reunite in 1990? Explore eyewitness accounts of the reunification of Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall in this collection of artist and resident interviews. The Berlin Wall sundered the city...

The Bretton Woods conference in 1944 created the foundations of the modern global economy

In July 1944, 44 nations gathered in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to create a new postwar economic order. The conference led to the creation of the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development—now known as the World Bank.

An alternate-history BBC homepage imagines a world where the British Empire endured

An image on Reddit envisions a 2021 BBC homepage from an uncollapsed Empire, featuring hypothetical crises in Zimbabwe, Northern Ireland, and Barbados, alongside upbeat coverage of tourism in “British Palestine”—a snapshot of how imperial news might look today.

How a competition honoring a king's birthday uncovered history's first chaotic system

A committee established a contest for King Oscar II's 60th birthday, featuring four unsolved problems in mathematics, including one on proving the stability of a system of more than two objects held together by gravity. Focusing on three celestial objects, Henri Poincaré won the prize for his proof, which he later learned was incorrect and, upon correcting it, instead proved these systems to be unstable.

The history of the world map

What did people used to think the world looked like? From the beginning of human history to right before the age of exploration, learn how the world maps were created.

The board game Risk was created by an Academy Award-winning screenwriter.

Play a game that reveals if investors with a crystal ball make better trades

The "crystal ball" game reveals how well you would do trading stocks and bonds if you could see the front page of the Wall Street Journal one day in advance.

Time magazine ran a cover story titled 'The End of the World as We Know it?' in January 1999

In January 1999, Time published a dramatic Y2K cover with apocalyptic imagery and dire headlines. The portrayal likely exacerbated public fear and magnified the crisis in the popular imagination, turning a technical issue into a cultural panic.

Wikipedia's puzzle globe logo was developed by a 17-year-old

In 2003, the site held a contest for its users to submit designs for a new logo. Paul Stansifer submitted the winning design, which used the incomplete puzzle as a symbol for the encyclopedia being a work in progress. Symbols and letters would later replace text within Stansifer's colorful design.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.