A group of 88 kindergarteners creates heartfelt centerpieces defining what love is for their teacher's wedding

Toddler delivers tear-jerking speech at her mom and dad's wedding

Three-year-old Evie brought her father to tears while sharing loving words before her mother walked down the aisle.

A quote by Whitney Houston

"I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside."

Farmer secretly plants sunflower field for 50th anniversary with wife

Kansas farmer Lee Wilson wanted to give something special to his wife of 50 years, Renee, on their golden anniversary, so he secretly planted 80 acres of sunflowers in May for an August bloom. The gift consists of roughly 1.2 million sunflowers,...

'Love planted a rose, and the world turned sweet.'

-Author and poet Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929)

Check out Valentine's Day traditions from around the world

Valentine's Day is a holiday all about romance, but the way that's expressed differs depending on where the celebration takes place. This list breaks down some interesting takes on the holiday from across the globe, including mass weddings in the Philippines and Japan's gender-specific chocolate exchanges.

Here's why weddings are so expensive

Anyone who has planned a wedding knows firsthand how shockingly expensive things like flowers or a live band can be. This article from the wedding experts at The Knot breaks down why, exactly, weddings cost so much. Plus, it explains the truth behind the so-called “wedding tax.” Read the article to learn more.

Photobombing bird nabs best wedding photo of the year

Just as groom-to-be started in on his vows in the beautiful setting of wild Whistler, Canada, a curious bird alighted upon his dear love's head, and photographer Tara Lilly captured what would become the year's best wedding photograph. See the shot and read the story here.

Love is a more recent part of marriage

Love matches are incredibly late to the marriage game. For most of our history, marriage has been about alliance, wealth, property, power, and, as an occasional afterthought, the couple liking each other. All that changed when Enlightenment thinkers were inspired in their pursuit of personal happiness, including in their choice of mate.

In Ghana, newly married couples jump over a broom to ward off evil and welcome new beginnings

Weddings are surrounded by rituals, no matter how simple. These include slathering the couple with food, feathers, and soot and parading them around town in Scotland; Chinese tea ceremonies filled with gratitude; and breaking fine porcelain in Germany. Every family has their own rituals, and wealthy couples are more likely to engage in more lavish ceremonies.

What we can learn from how penguins express affection

Pebbling, a term used to describe small acts of love within a relationship, comes from penguins. Male gentoo penguins, a species of penguin that lives on sub-Antarctic islands, present pebbles to their potential mates later used to build nests. This small but helpful act is something we humans can learn from. Think of the “pebbles” you can share with loved ones on a daily basis.

A list of the best toasts

Toasting is an art form, with the best toasts getting passed down through generations. This list was culled from hundreds of submissions and is organized by theme, tone, and objective. If you're looking to find a good line to use as the conclusion for your next speech, this might be your best bet.

Read what actions helped support grieving individuals during times of anguish

Concrete acts of kindness that buoyed New York Times readers after the deaths of loved ones varied widely. Examples include: friends sending emojis requiring no reply, coming over without asking to clean a grieving individual's bathroom, feeding them, taking them for periodic outdoor walks, and simply sitting with them so they weren't alone. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Mini-portraits were shared as love tokens in Elizabethan England

Art historians are identifying previously unknown works by Nicholas Hilliard, Elizabeth I's court painter, whose thumb-sized watercolors on vellum served as love tokens, diplomatic currency, and status symbols. They were believed to be passed secretly between courtiers and monarchs.

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

A 21-year-old college student designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

In 1981, a 21-year-old Yale architecture student, Maya Lin, won the national design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The design was controversial for rejecting heroic statues, using a black wall, and avoiding overt patriotic symbolism.

Learn about the life of Coretta Scott King in her own words

Coretta Scott King, married to Martin Luther King Jr. in 1953, was a civil rights leader, author, and organizer who advanced the principles of nonviolence, racial equality, and women’s rights—founding The King Center to promote education and social justice worldwide.

Explore an interactive map showing what makes people happy

Using 10,000 responses collected from people around the world about what makes them happy, this map offers insights into how relationships, finances, purpose, and small treats all contribute to a person's contentment. Recent data suggests that young people today are less happy than those in previous generations, indicating a need to reflect on what really matters in life.

The Teacher in Space program was launched in 1984 to highlight spaceflight in US classrooms

Announced by President Ronald Reagan, the program drew more than 11,000 teacher applicants nationwide. Christa McAuliffe was selected to fly on STS-51L, with plans to teach live lessons from orbit before the Challenger disaster ended the mission.

An Alzheimer's patient discusses her condition with children

Alzheimer's is a deadly disease that profoundly changes a person's abilities and personality, which makes it difficult to explain to kids. Responding to potentially uncomfortable questions with honesty (and relatable imagery) about the costs and nature of the disease goes a long way in fostering understanding.

The story behind one iconic meme

The 2012 post titled "Just a book owners smile" shows 11-year-old Maggie Goldenberger—resplendent in her braces, pigtails, and treasure map-like vest—holding a trio of Goosebumps books and grinning wildly at the camera. Another user quickly captioned it, "GERSBERMS. MAH FRAVRIT BERKS."

One teacher's lesson on existentialism and social media use

During a unit on existentialist literature and philosophy, one teacher at Massachusetts’ Phillips Academy asked students to surrender their cell phones to test Kierkegaard’s thoughts on the danger of conformity and Sartre’s belief that humans are “condemned to be free.” Many of them were surprised to find how liberated they felt once they left behind social media.

The collaborative educational theory behind the Bauhaus school

The Bauhaus was an experimental school that prized interdisciplinary collaboration, blurring the lines between architecture, industrial design, theater, and other creative fields. Walter Gropius, the school's founder, lays out the ideas behind the school's unique curriculum in "The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus," a 1923 manifesto.

Read Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg's $45B letter to their daughter

After giving birth to their daughter, the Zuckerbergs launched the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative in 2015. The pair announced the charitable organization's creation in a letter addressed to their daughter. The Zuckerbergs pledged 99% of their earnings from Facebook over the course of their lives to advance education, cure disease, and transform public policy, something the letter says is a commitment to their daughter's future. The organization has since shifted its focus to artificial intelligence and science.

The Advent wreath marks each week before Christmas with the lighting of candles

An Advent wreath is a circle of evergreens holding four candles—one for each Sunday of Advent. Christians light a new candle each week, often tied to themes like hope or joy, creating a visible countdown to Christmas.

Turning trash into music

In a town built on a landfill, a music teacher and young musicians created an orchestra using instruments made entirely from trash. From oil cans to bottle caps, they turned waste into music.

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

Follow 5 attendees at Comic-Con 2010

This heartfelt documentary tracks five underdogs—from an Air Force artist and a cosplay designer, to a marriage‑proposal hopeful—revealing how Comic‑Con’s chaos, camaraderie, and celebrity encounters become transformative milestones on their quests for creative, personal, and emotional breakthroughs.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

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.

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

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Meet the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence—most of whom didn't put pen to paper until August 2, 1776—and see their original signatures.

Artificial coral reefs have been 3D printed from nontoxic, biodegradable terracotta clay, which coral polyps have used as a foundation for rebuilding marine ecosystems.

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day