When German submarines lurked in US coastal waters

Explore an interactive map of WW2 shipwrecks

Historians estimate roughly 20,000 ships were sunk during World War II as a direct cause of fighting, primarily in the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters. This mapping project lists about 75% of them, while the remainder lacked specific location data.

Deadliest maritime disaster

In the final months of World War II, 75 years ago, German citizens and soldiers fleeing the Soviet army died when the “Wilhelm Gustloff” sank

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

World War II's Battle of Savo Island was the worst wartime naval defeat in US history

On Aug. 9, 1942, a larger, radar-equipped Allied fleet lost four heavy cruisers off Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater without sinking a single Japanese ship. The Navy kept the humiliating rout secret from the public for years. Experts argued failure resulted from fractured command, not inferior arms or ships.

The Foolkiller: The mysterious submarine at the bottom of the Chicago River

In November 1915, a submarine was found at the bottom of the Chicago River. It had been there for at least 10 years, was 40 feet long, and contained the remains of a man and his dog. To this day, no one knows who built it.

The 1915 sinking of the Lusitania precipitated World War I

In 1915, the British RMS Lusitania sank after being torpedoed by a German submarine. The Germans claimed the ocean liner was transporting munitions. Almost 1,200 civilians were killed in the disaster, which became a symbol of German aggression in the lead-up to World War I.

See images of shipwrecks from WWII's Battle of Midway

Deep-sea explorers have captured detailed images of three iconic shipwrecks from World War II's Battle of Midway, including the first up-close photos of the Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi since its sinking in 1942.

The US Pacific strategy sought control of key islands to close in on Japan

The US adopted a two-pronged "island hopping" campaign across the Central and Southwest Pacific from 1943–44, deliberately targeting strategically crucial but less-defended islands. This allowed forces to bypass heavily fortified Japanese strongholds and build airfields for bombers aimed at Japan, drastically accelerating the path toward Tokyo while conserving manpower and resources.

The perplexing Battle of Los Angeles in 1942 generated swaths of UFO conspiracies

On Feb. 24-25, 1942, weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, a US military radar warned of enemy aircraft. A citywide blackout went into effect, powerful searchlights were lit up, and US forces fired artillery at what they believed to be the enemy. However, no confirmed enemy planes were ever identified. Eyewitnesses reported seeing large objects flying overhead, and much of the public speculated about UFOs and extraterrestrial attacks.

See what it was like to live in the United States during World War II

In America, life was transformed by total war: sixteen million service members left civilian life, while massive industrial production demanded labor. Women, minorities, and teens filled factories, fueling boomtown growth and breaking social barriers. Simultaneously, rationing, recycling drives, Victory Gardens, ration stamps, blackout drills, and war bond campaigns permeated daily routines.

How slugs helped soldiers during WWI

Slimy, squishy, slow-moving, and heroic? Slugs are land-dwelling mollusks known mostly for causing havoc in our gardens. But during World War I, slugs saved numerous soldier's lives as poison gas detectors. Learn how the unpleasant creatures earned their stripes in the battle to protect soldiers from chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas as organic detectors.

The USS Nevada was refloated within three months—and later fought at Normandy

Badly damaged at Pearl Harbor, the USS Nevada was raised by February 1942 after extensive salvage work. Repaired and modernized, it returned to action and bombarded German defenses during the D-Day landings.

Stalingrad was the turning point of WWII in Eastern Europe

The six-month siege (July 1942–February 1943) ended when the Soviet Union’s counteroffensive, Operation Uranus, encircled and destroyed Germany’s 6th Army. This decisive victory shifted momentum permanently to the Soviets on the Eastern Front, marking a major strategic reversal in Europe and undermining Nazi Germany’s war capacity.

Civilian 'little ships' saved Dunkirk: over 700 civilian boats joined the evacuation

Between May  26 and June 4, 1940, Operation Dynamo evacuated roughly 338,000 Allied soldiers from Dunkirk, France. Crucially, over 700 civilian “little ships”—yachts, fishing boats, pleasure craft—ferried troops from the shallow beaches to larger vessels, embodying a national rescue effort and preserving the core of Britain’s army for the war ahead.

How the US entered WWI in 1917

Originally taking a position of neutrality during the course of World War I, the United States of America eventually relented. Entering the war in 1917, support for the British and French had risen and Americans were incensed by Germany's overtures to Mexico and U-boat attacks that sank ships and ended American lives. See how and why the US entered WWI in this article.

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.

Disney chipped away at its debt by creating propaganda during World War II

Disney began producing training videos for the Navy and propaganda films for US involvement in World War II, including the shorts "Der Fuehrer's Face," "The Spirit of '43," and "Donald Gets Drafted." The effort provided a much-needed cash injection, allowing Disney to continue producing films.

Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 launched World War II

On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany launched a surprise invasion of Poland using blitzkrieg—coordinated air bombardments and armored assaults—to overwhelm Polish defenses within weeks. This lightning-strike strategy shocked the world and signaled both the start of World War II and a revolutionary shift in modern military tactics.

Small wooden tail fins modified torpedoes to operate in the harbor's shallow water

Japan's existing Type 91 torpedoes weighed two tons and slammed into the water at 200 mph, diving 150 feet before rising again. Pearl Harbor was only 40 feet deep, requiring engineers to modify the existing torpedoes for the attack.

There were dozens of attempts to assassinate Hitler—most famously Operation Valkyrie in July 1944

Across his reign, Hitler survived at least 40 plotted and actual assassination attempts, ranging from lone actors in beer halls to organized military conspiracies. The most notable, Operation Valkyrie on July 20, 1944, led by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, planted a bomb at the Wolf’s Lair in an effort to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi regime. Though the explosion injured several, Hitler escaped with minor wounds, prompting a brutal purge of conspirators.

Santa Barbara divers helped innovate deepwater diving technology

Divers in the Santa Barbara channel innovated a more efficient type of diving helmet in the 1960s that used helium to allow for longer, deeper excursions for oil surveying, abalone collecting, and more. These innovators have since set the standard worldwide for military and industrial diving.

The history and operation of SIGABA, the US counterpart of the Nazi Enigma machine

Developed by the US Army and US Navy, over 10,000 of these machines were deployed by the end of World War II to encrypt messages for the armed forces using three series of rotors. The device would continue to be used until the 1950s, while personal computers were shown to possess enough computing power to crack it by 2021.

All‑female Soviet 'Night Witches' terrorized German lines with stealth bombing raids

Flying obsolete Polikarpov Po‑2 biplanes, the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment—dubbed “Night Witches” by terrified German troops—flew over 30,000 night missions, dropping 3,000 tons of bombs under near silence.

Spies working on the Manhattan Project propelled the Soviet bomb program

Soviet infiltration—most notably by Klaus Fuchs—smuggled detailed implosion-design and hydrogen‑bomb data from Los Alamos to Moscow, cutting the USSR’s development time by at least a year and enabling their first atomic test in August 1949.

Once whale songs were discovered, conservation efforts boomed

Until the 1950s, humans believed whales were mute. Once American underwater surveillance systems caught their sounds during the Cold War, the perception of the creatures changed, leading humans to campaign for whaling bans and long-term conservation efforts. These captivating whale songs can be heard throughout the ocean.

The final shots of the Civil War were fired in the Arctic over 2 months after the South's surrender

In June 1865—two months after Lee's surrender—the Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah unknowingly attacked Union whaling ships in the Arctic. When the crew learned the war was over, they sailed 9,000 miles to surrender in Liverpool, England.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

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

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

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

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

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.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

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.

Experimental hantavirus vaccines and therapies, still under development, have long been funded by the US military.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.